April, 2009

• 3 April

  Macedonia’s “Baby Boom” Program Falls In Court

  The government’s policy aimed at boosting the country’s population growth by giving cash bonuses to mothers with more than one child has crumbled before the Constitutional Court, on the grounds that it is discriminatory. The court ruled on Wednesday that the government’s provisions in the child protection law, envisaging state …

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• 3 April

  Kosovo MPs Smoke in Parliament

  Kosovo’s deputies have not stopped smoking in Kosovo’s Parliament, setting an example of how to breach the law. Although smoking in offices and institutions, including Kosovo’s Parliament, has been banned for three years, three deputies of the Parliamentary Commission for Budget and Finance have been spotted smoking in one of …

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• 3 April

  Serbia 171st out of 181 for Construction Permits

  Serbia ranks as the 11th worst country in the world at dealing with construction permits for business, according to a recent World Bank report. The country’s protracted legal procedures for constructing industrial sites have become even lengthier, according to the World Bank’s 2009 ‘Doing Business’ report. The annual comparative study …

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• 1 April

  Blast Damages Lenin Monument in St Petersburg

  It was not immediately clear why the giant bronze monument at the Finland railway station was targeted. A powerful blast ripped a metre-wide hole in one of Russia’s best-known statues of Vladimir Lenin on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear why the giant bronze monument at the Finland railway station …

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• 1 April

  Greek Strike to Halt Flights, Services

  The walkout will be the second nationwide protest against the conservative government since the police shooting of a teenager in December. Flights to and from Greece will be grounded for several hours on Thursday and banks, schools and transport will shut down during a one-day nationwide strike in protest against …

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• 1 April

  Slovene President: Dispute Solvable in Few Months

  Tuerk said for Al Jazeera that the European Commission mediation is a good offer, if Croatia accepts it seriously. With the help of the European Commission and its mediation in the Slovenian-Croatian border dispute, that issue “could technically be solved in a few months”, evaluated on Tuesday the Slovenian president …

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• 1 April

  Macedonia Barbershop Bans Politics

  Krusevo barber, Slavko Kalevski, says he has had much happier times working in his salon in this remote Macedonian mountain town since he banned discussions about politics in the shop. A large sign saying “no talking politics inside” hanging on the door greets his customers, warning them to leave their …

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• 1 April

  Radicals Obstruct Work of Serb Parliament

  MPs are set to reconvene on Wednesday after the Serbian Parliament was forced to adjourn its sitting on Tuesday by opposition Serbian Radical Party deputies who refused to sit in the seats assigned to them by the Administrative Board two months ago. Parliamentary speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic issued a number of …

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• 1 April

  Rehn Meets Slovene, Croat Ministers

  The EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn met the Slovenian and Croatian foreign ministers on Wednesday in an another attempt to end Ljubljana’s blockade of Croatia’s EU accession talks. In Brussels, Rehn was to meet Slovenia’s Samuel Zbogar and Croatia’s Gordan Jandrokovic to discuss the latest proposal to resolve the border …

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• 1 April

  Kosovo NGO to Monitor Govt. Decisions

  Government ministries have been taking decisions on a range of different issues unnoticed by the public gaze, a report published by Kosovo’s Institute for Advanced Studies, GAP, claims. This, the NGO states, has been primarily caused by lack of suitable mechanisms for monitoring government activities within the NGO community, little …

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