TEHRAN (FNA)- Russia delivered two of five Mi-171 helicopters sold to Iran after signing a $45 million contract to upgrade the country’s rescue fleet. Under the contract, Russia was expected to deliver five Mi-171 transport helicopters to Iran before the end of March. Another three helicopters will be reportedly on …

Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic visits the United Nations on Thursday for meetings with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other top diplomats to discuss the implementation of the six-point plan in Kosovo and the formation of the Kosovo Security Forces. Jeremic has also sent letters to 80 countries around …

Croatia said it had moved closer to resolving an 18-year-old border dispute with Slovenia which has been threatening to freeze its European Union membership bid. Diplomats say the dispute, which the two countries have not been able to settle since the dissolution of federal Yugoslavia in 1991, must be resolved …

Czech power company CEZ said it will pull out from a joint venture project with the power company of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, Elektroprivreda Republike Srpske, effectively putting the kiss of death on a 1.4 billion euro project to overhaul the existing power plant and build a …

Croatia is the most globalised country in the Balkans, and Serbia the least, according to the Index of Globalization 2009, that each year measures the economic, social and political scope of globalization in 208 countries and territories. The report is compiled by the Zurich-based KOF Economic Institute. The economic dimension …

A group of 42 Sudanese refugees has arrived in Timisoara, western Romania, after being evacuated from a makeshift camp in the desert in Iraq, according to UNHCR sources. The refugees, who have been provided with winter clothing, are staying in the new Emergency Transit Centre set up by the Romanian …

Kosovo is pushing ahead with decentralisation as envisaged by the Ahtisaari plan, but without the support of citizens across the ethnic spectrum the integration of all communities will remain a challenge, said Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. Decentralization, a byword for allowing Kosovo’s minority Serbs to run their affairs separately …

Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha on Tuesday fired the country’s highest tax official who is currently on trial on charges of torture and murder. Arben Sefgjini, head of the General Directorate of Taxes, previously served as the head of Tirana’s Secret Service Office, SHIK. Three of his former colleagues, Budion …

Macedonia’s two ethnic Albanian parties, the ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, and the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, picked their own presidential candidates for the March 22 elections, pushing the total number of presidential hopefulls to ten. DUI picked its vice president Agron Buxhaku as the party’s sole …

Albanian think-tanks that monitor the EU accession process disagree on whether the country’s application for EU candidate status should come during the Czech presidency or later. Greece’s ratification of Albania’s Stabilization and Association Agreement, SAA, with the European Union last week was the final step in the formal approval process …