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World News
Sunday - April 6, 2008
President vote is test for Montenegro government
PODGORICA (Reuters) - Montenegrins voted for a president on Sunday in
an election that amounts to a popularity test for the ruling Democratic
Party of Socialists, which has held every position of power for almost
two decades. Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and close
at 9 p.m., and the first indications of the result are likely within
an hour. About 490,000 people in the small Adriatic state are entitled
to vote. Opinion polls show incumbent Filip Vujanovic, an ally of popular
Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, may get more than 50 percent to win
the largely ceremonial post in the first round.
The former Yugoslav republic of some 650,000 people voted to end its
loose union with neighbor Serbia in 2006 and has since enjoyed strong
growth, faster progress towards the European Union and a positive image
as a booming tourism destination.
Wednesday - March 26, 2008
Last ditch Macedonia "name" plan handed
SKOPJE (BIRN) - Greek and Macedonian diplomats were given a new proposal
at UN-sponsored talks on the "name" row between the two nations.
"It's a new proposal. It has a lot of elements of prior proposals.
It's not out of the blue," the UN's mediator in the long-running
dispute, Matthew Nimetz told reporters after talks with Greek Ambassador
Adamantios Vassilakis and his Macedonian counterpart, Nikola Dimitrov.
The Macedonia name proposal included "a geographical dimension"
that could be incorporated into the name of the country, Nimetz said,
after what appears to been the last UN-sponsored meeting ahead of next
week's NATO summit, where Macedonia is seeking to avoid a Greek veto
of its bid to join the alliance. He declined to give further details
about his proposal but media in both countries speculated various alternatives
of the proposal Republic of Macedonia (Skopje) as being the most probable
offer.
Sunday - March 23, 2008
Pacific Life Open 2008: Serbian Champions!
INDIAN WELLS - The best Serbian tennis players, Ana Ivanovic and Novak
Djokovic won the titles on the first ATP Masters Series Tournament in
2008. In today's final matches in California, Ana Ivanovic defeated
Svetlana Kuznetsova from Russia - 6:4, 6:3 and Novak Djokovic won against
U.S. player Mardy Fish - 6:2, 5:7, 6:3.
Friday - March 21, 2008
"KLA sold Kosovo Serb organs in Albania"
BELGRADE (B92, Beta) - The prosecutor is to look into the sale of organs
of Kosovo Serbs who vanished during and after the 1999 bombing. "We
are checking some informal statements we obtained through operative
work that, in 1999, two trucks carrying imprisoned Kosovo Serbs were
sent to Albania," said War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević.
He said that the informal information had been obtained from Hague Tribunal
investigators. According to those sources, there are unregistered mass
graves with bodies of murdered Serbs in Albania.
In her book, "The Hunt", to be published in Italy on April
3, the former Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte states
that, during investigations into war crimes committed by the Kosovo
Liberation Army, KLA, against Serbs and other non-Albanians, the prosecutor's
office was informed that persons who disappeared during the Kosovo conflict
were used in organ smuggling operations. The office obtained information
that UNMIK investigators and officials had received from groups of so-called
reliable journalists, according to whom, Kosovo Albanians had transferred
300 Serb and other non-Albanian hostages in trucks to northern Albania
in the summer of 1999. Those prisoners were first imprisoned in camps
in places like Kukes and Tropoje.
According to journalist sources, the younger and fitter prisoners were
examined by doctors, got food and were not beaten. After that, they
were kept in custody in other centers in Burel and the surrounding area.
One group was held in barracks behind a yellow house some twenty kilometers
to the south of that town, states the former prosecutor. One room in
that yellow house, according to the journalists, served as an operation
room where doctors extracted prisoners' organs. Afterwards, the organs,
according to the sources, were sent abroad from Rinas airport near Tirana
where they were used in transplantations for patients who had paid for
it.
Daily Večernje Novosti brings more details from the book, which says
that the Hague and UNMIK investigators, and several journalist, along
with an Albanian prosecutor, made a trip to the yellow house in 2003.
"It was now white," Del Ponte writes. "Despite the fact
that investigators discovered traces of yellow paint on it, the owner
denied it was ever repainted." In its vicinity, investigators also
found pieces of gauze, used syringes, two plastic IV solution bags,
"petrified in mud", empty medicine bottles, including muscle
relaxants used during surgeries. Inside the house itself, forensics
discovered traces of blood on the walls and on the floor in one of the
rooms. A section of the floor, sized 180 by 60 centimeters, was clean.
"The owner of the house offered a series of explanations to the
investigators when it came to the origin of the blood traces. First,
he said that his wife gave birth in that room many years ago. But when
the wife made her statement and said that all their children were born
elsewhere, he claimed that his family used the room to slaughter animals
in order to celebrate a Muslim holiday," Del Ponte writes. As for
the Albanian prosecutor who accompanied them, the former chief Hague
prosecutor says he at one point bragged he had cousins who were KLA
members. "There are no graves of Serbs here," the Albanian
official said. "But, if they took the Serbs from the Kosovo border
and killed them, they did the right thing".
Rival Cypriot leaders begin fresh bid for unity
NICOSIA - New Cypriot President Demetris Christofias opened talks today
with Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. It comes in a fresh bid
to re-unite the divided island. The meeting is the first between Christofias,
whose election in February sparked a new drive for a solution to the
34-year division, and Talat. Both men were accompanied by top aides
for the meeting, hosted by UN chief of mission Michael Moller at his
official residence.
"We will have Cypriot coffee together," quipped Christofias
as he posed with Talat before both men went into the talks accompanied
by top aides and Moller. UN spokesman Jose Diaz described the atmosphere
surrounding the talks as "very friendly".
Serb suspended from Euro championships over Kosovo
EINDHOVEN (B92, Tanjug) - Swimmer Milorad Čavić has been suspended from
the European Swimming Championships in Eindhoven. Čavić wore a t-shirt
with the message "Kosovo is Serbia" during the medals ceremony
for the 50 meters butterfly, where he won gold. The European swimming
governing body LEN decided that the t-shirt worn by the new European
record holder "contained a political message" which contravened
the organization's rules.
"We have decided to suspend Mr. Milorad Čavić from the championships,"
reads a statement from the disciplinary commission. The Serbian Swimming
Organization has been fined EUR 7000.
Čavić had been due to compete in the 100 meters freestyle and the 100
meters butterfly. Even though he will not be allowed to take part, it
has been decided not to strip him of his gold medal. The swimmer said
yesterday that he had only been trying to send "positive energy
to the country he represents." President Boris Tadić condemned
LEN's decision, stating that "Milorad Čavić in no way wished to
politicize this big European competition with this gesture, or to bring
politics into sport, rather it was led by a feeling of injustice inflicted
on the country he represents." Meanwhile, Prime Minister Vojislav
Koštunica called on "reasonable and responsible people" within
the governing body to allow Čavić to continue competing, deeming the
decision to ban him "a defeat for sport," adding that the
swimmer was ready to "keep winning and breaking European records."
Wednesday - March 19, 2008
Sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Pioneering science fiction writer and visionary
Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his work on the movie "2001: A
Space Odyssey", has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the
age of 90. He died of respiratory complications and heart failure doctors
linked to the post-polio syndrome that had kept him wheelchair-bound
for years. Marking his "90th orbit of the sun" in December,
the prolific British-born author and theorist made three birthday wishes:
For E.T. to call, for man to kick his oil habit and for peace in Sri
Lanka.
Clarke was born in England on December 16, 1917, and served as a radar
specialist in the Royal Air Force during World War Two. He was one of
the first to suggest the use of satellites orbiting the earth for communications,
and in the 1940s forecast that man would reach the Moon by the year
2000 - an idea experts at first dismissed.
Monday - March 17, 2008
Kosovska Mitrovica: Brutal, savage action by UNMIK, KFOR
BELGRADE (Tanjug) - Serb Radical Party (SRS) Deputy President Tomislav
Nikolić strongly condemned today's events in Kosovska Mitrovica. He
said UNMIK and KFOR carried out a "brutal and savage action"
against Serbs. In a statement for reporters, he said this reminded him
of the reprisals that "Hitler's occupation regime conducted against
the Serbian citizens in Kragujevac, Kraljevo, and other places"
during the Second World War. "The women and men in Kosovska Mitrovica
are guilty only of being Serbs and of wanting to return to their places
of work."
UNMIK has decided to withdraw its civilian staff from northern Kosovo
and Metohija, "which means that they remain a pure force of occupation
in Kosovo and Metohija," Nikolić pointed out. "We must not
and cannot look on peacefully as they murder our citizens and seize
our territory".
Thursday - March 13, 2008
Serbia: President Tadić dissolves parliament, calls elections
BELGRADE (B92) - President Boris Tadić has dissolved parliament and
called snap parliamentary elections today. The elections will take place
on May 11, to coincide with the local and provincial elections. The
government handed the president a proposal on Monday to dissolve parliament
after concluding that the government could no longer continue to function.
"Elections are a democratic way for the citizens to decide how Serbia
should develop over the coming years. This is a chance for us to strengthen
our capacities to defend our country's sovereignty and territorial integrity,
to bolster our economic position through European integration, to confirm
our society's democratic credentials, and to change things for the better,"
said Tadić. The president called for a fair and clean campaign, and
for the elections to take place in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere
"for Serbia to have stable institutions that will work for the good
of Serbian citizens in the coming years."
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