January, 2009

• 27 January

  Serbia Dinar Hits Record Low

  Serbia’s dinar currency hit a record low on Monday, with its official middle exchange rate at 95.4564 dinars to the euro, a drop of some seven percent this year. Other emerging market currencies such as Hungary’s forint, Romania’s leu and Poland’s lek have suffered since the onset of the global …

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• 27 January

  Macedonia Opposition Makes Presidential Pick

  Macedonia’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats, on Monday proposed university professor and former Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frckoski as the party’s candidate for the March 22 presidential election. The party will formalize Frckoski’s candidacy on a convention later during the day, Social Democrats acting President Zoran Zaev told reporters at …

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• 27 January

  Serbia Must Accept Kosovo To Join EU – Thaci

  Serbia will never make it into the European Union if it keeps trying to sabotage Kosovo’s newly-declared independence and territorial integrity, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said in an interview. In an interview with Austrian daily Der Standard, Thaci said Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia last February, wanted “good …

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• 27 January

  Kosovo To Hike Pensions, Civil Servant Pay

  Kosovo’s public servants and pensioners will get a pay rise next month, with civil servants receiving a 10 percent increase, while pensioners, people on social assistance and war veterans and their families will get a 12 percent increase. Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said the hike is in accordance with …

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• 27 January

  Serbia’s Jeremic To Push Dutch On EU Ties

  Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic will meet Dutch officials in Brussels on Monday in a bid to “unblock Serbia’s European path”, with the goal of starting EU membership talks in early 2010. The Netherlands refuse to allow an interim trade deal – part of the suspended Stabilisation and Association Agreement …

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• 27 January

  Presevo Albanians Seek Ex-Guerrilla Release

  Albanian officials from the Presevo region in southern Serbia have sent a letter of protest to Belgrade demanding the immediate release of a group of ethnic Albanians accused of war crimes against Serbs, as well as the pullout of Serbian special security forces from the area. The 10 men were …

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• 27 January

  Blasts Cause Damage In Kosovo’s Mitrovica

  Two explosions caused material damage in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica in north Kosovo on Saturday night, police said. Mitrovica — divided between Serbs in the north and Albanians in the south — has been the scene of protests, occasional clashes and bomb attacks since Kosovo’s Albanian majority declared …

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• 27 January

  Obama says time ripe to resume Mideast peacemaking

  DUBAI (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said the time was ripe for Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace negotiations and that America was prepared to extend a hand of peace to Iran if it “unclenched its fist.” In his first interview with Arab television since taking office, Obama …

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• 27 January

  Egypt proposes Feb 22 for Palestinian talks

  CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt has proposed February 22 as the date for the start of a dialogue between Palestinian groups, several of the groups said in reports published Tuesday. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abou Gheit of Egypt, which has been mediating between the groups, told reporters: “We will invite the Palestinian …

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• 27 January

  Religion or vote? Iraq Shi’ites wrestle with choice

  BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Thousands of Shi’ite Muslims in southern Iraq are wrestling with a choice of religion or democracy before a pilgrimage which may prevent them from voting in an upcoming election. Pilgrims from the southern city of Basra are setting out on an arduous walk hundreds of km …

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