February, 2009

• 28 February

  Half Of Serbs Depressed, Many Suicidal

  Serbia, and especially its northern province of Vojvodina, has the highest rate of suicides in Europe, with 19 out of 100,000 people opting to kill themselves compared to a European average of 13 per 100,000. In Vojvodina the rate is the highest – 28.5 per 100,000. Between 1,300 and 1,400 …

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• 28 February

  ICTY Verdict In Krajisnik Case On March 17

  The Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal is due to pronounce a second-instance verdict in the case of Momcilo Krajisnik, a former Republika Srpska senior official, in mid March. In September 2006 Krajisnik, former President of the Republika Srpska Assembly, was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity, …

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• 28 February

  Five Guilty Of Kosovo Crimes, Milutinovic Walks

  The United Nations war crimes court in The Hague found five senior Serb officials guilty on Thursday of orchestrating the murder, torture and deportation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, acquitting former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic. This is the first verdict on atrocities committed by Serb forces in the 1998-99 crackdown …

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• 28 February

  Albania High Court Reviews Kosovo Highway

  Albania’s Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha appeared in front of the Supreme Court in Tirana on Friday on charges of abuse of power related to a mammoth highway project linking Albania’s Adriatic coast with Kosovo. The charges relate to the time when Basha served as Albania’s Minister of Transportation and Public …

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• 28 February

  World Bank Probe “Damaged” Albania Relations

  Albania’s Minister of Finance accused the World Bank on Friday of damaging their excellent relations with a probe by an independent investigative panel on a coastal management project that has embarrassed the conservative government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha. “We regret to note that Bank’s internal issues are being transposed …

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• 28 February

  Rights Group Slams Harrassment Of Kosovo NGO

  International human rights group Front Line accused Kosovo’s public telecoms company of harrassing civil society group COHU!, and called for a prompt investigation into the matter. The managing director of Kosovo’s Post and Telecommunications Kosovo, PTK, Shyqyri Haxhaj, accused the wife of COHU! director Avni Zogjani, a PTK employee, of …

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• 28 February

  World Bank Sees Crisis Spreading To Bosnia

  Macroeconomic indicators over the past three months confirm that the global financial and economic crisis is spreading to the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the World Bank said, suggesting a list of immediate and medium-term countermeasures. This World Bank statement, carried out by local media on Friday, came only a …

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• 28 February

  Inefficient Macedonia Tenders Backfire – Report

  Macedonia has problems organizing transparent public procurements tenders and is ending up with many of them getting scrapped , shows the latest research by the local Centre for Civil Communications. Having monitored public procurements and tenders in the last year , the Centre noted that only 60 percent of the …

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• 28 February

  Macedonia Industrial Output Drops In January

  Macedonia’s industrial output dropped a staggering 16.7 percent in January 2009 compared with the same month last year, the State Statistical Office said. The industry has been marking a steady decline over the past few months due to the global financial downturn. The latest figures show that the situation in …

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• 27 February

  Afghanistan’s defense minister warns against U.S. pullback

  Afghanistan’s defense minister warned Thursday that the Obama administration’s proposed changes in U.S. war strategy risk undermining Kabul’s civilian government because they appear to scale back U.S. goals in the country.Abdul Rahim Wardak said he was troubled by recent comments from senior U.S. officials that they were “lowering expectations” in …

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