Eurasia

13 November 2008 Tirana – Ten lawmakers from Albania’s smaller parliamentary parties are continuing the hunger strike they began on Monday in the parliament building to protest against proposed changes to the electoral code.

13 November 2008 Zagreb – Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader called for what media have dubbed “a Croatian New Deal”, a national strategy to battle the country’s economic crisis.

13 November 2008 Pristina – Veton Surroi, leader of the Reformist Party, ORA, has described Pristina’s rejection of the United Nation’s six-point plan as very late and incomplete.

13 November 2008 Skopje – The Macedonian capital Skopje on Thursday marks the 64th anniversary of its liberation from Nazi occupation during World War Two.

13 November 2008 Sarajevo – The government of the Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska has cut minister’s salaries and introduced savings in the rest of the administration as part of a plan to re-allocate resources for increased social support.

13 November 2008 Skopje – There was no political motive for the killing of Redza Zulkani, the brother-in-law of Menduh Thaci, the leader of the main opposition ethnic Albanian party in Macedonia, police say.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration still hopes to send an official to Moscow this year to discuss missile defense despite reports that the Kremlin has rejected the latest U.S. plan, the State Department said on Thursday.

PARIS (Reuters) – Russia could cancel its deployment of missiles near the Polish border if U.S. President-elect Barack Obama scraps plans for a missile defense system in central Europe, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.

The Egyptian government says it has placed a ban on Egyptian doctors going to work in Saudi Arabia in the wake of two medics being sentenced to jail.

A  Russian sailor is facing charges over a submarine accident that claimed the lives of 20 people.