February, 2009

• 5 February

  FT: Croatia, Iceland In EU By ’11, Other Balkans Lag

  Croatia and Iceland have a chance of joining the European Union in 2011, while Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia may enter all together as a bloc sometime between 2015 and 2020, the Financial Times says in an editorial this week. With the global economy in crisis, the bloc’s leaders …

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• 5 February

  Barroso: Slovenia-Croatia dispute is bilateral issue

  The European Commission wants Croatia and Slovenia to find a negotiated solution to their border dispute so that Croatia could join the European Union, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Brussels on Tuesday evening. “There is a Croatian-Slovene bilateral issue and we would like the two countries to …

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• 5 February

  Israel admits its troops killed Gaza girls

  JERUSALEM  – Israel admitted Wednesday that one of its tanks killed three girls whose father’s cries on live television shocked viewers in the final days of the Gaza offensive, but said the action was “reasonable.” An Israeli army (IDF) investigation found that two tank shells were fired at a building …

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• 5 February

  Iran Summons EU Ambassadors

  TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian foreign ministry summoned EU countries’ ambassadors to Tehran on Wednesday to condemn the block’s double-standards and political approach towards terrorism. At the meeting, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Mehdi Safari, expressed Iran’s deep concern regarding EU action on delisting the anti-Iran terrorist group, the …

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• 5 February

  Iran Not to Hold Talks with US in Munich

  TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and the US are not scheduled to attend bilateral talks on the sidelines of a security conference due to be held in Munich, Germany on Feb. 6-8, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday. “As some sources in the Iranian parliament have noted, no Iran-US negotiations have …

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• 5 February

  Iranian FM: Ending Financial Crisis Needs All States’ Partnership

  TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran dismissed formation of the Group of 20 to end the global financial crisis as an “inefficient policy”. “Nobody has authorized these 20 countries to make decisions for 190 countries. This rationale which is based on a number of countries’ decision-making for the world according to their own …

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• 4 February

  Kosovo MP Team Backs Serbia, Bosnia Embargo

  A Kosovo parliamentary commission has recommended that the government implements an embargo on Serbian and Bosnian goods as a tit-for-tat response to Serbia and Bosnia blocking and taxing Kosovo’s exports. Serbia rejects the secession by Kosovo’s Albanian majority last February and has vowed never to accept it as an independent …

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• 4 February

  Headscarved Pupil Pushes Limits In Macedonia

  The case of a teenage girl who wants to wear her headscarf to school is creating waves in Macedonia, with educational authorities, local officials and teachers locked in a tug-of-war over religous freedom and the right to education. The girl, who attends a high school in the western Macedonian town …

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• 4 February

  UNMIK To Broker Kosovo – Serbia ‘Talks’

  The head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, Lamberto Zannier, is negotiating with both Belgrade and Pristina to start talks on ‘technical issues’, but it is still unclear whether top state officials or experts will take part, UNMIK spokesman Alexander Ivanko told Serbia’s B92 radio. “Ambassador Zannier met Serbian …

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• 4 February

  Serbia To Talk About Kosovo, Not With Kosovo

  Serbia is ready to talk about practical issues regarding life in Kosovo as long as discussions do not touch on Kosovo’s declaration of independence, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Tuesday, indicating Belgrade would only accept the United Nations mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, not the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina, …

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