News archive of November 2016

The state-run Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK) has moved to protect its intellectual property rights for its Fırtına howitzers, a weapon currently being used by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).

Former leader of the Democratic Party (DS) Bojan Pajtic says he has won a lawsuit he filed against the Belgrade-based daily Informer.

"They lied that I vacationed in a hotel on the Brionian Islands (in Croatia)," Pajtic posted on Twitter, and noting that the newspaper paid him RSD 170,000 - about EUR 1,380 - in damages.

Illustration - Photo from: Al-Alam

BELGRADE - Over the past two decades, the Kosovar government has spent over $2 billion on payment to former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) paramilitary organization. Kosovo received the money from the United States and the European Union and since 2009 mostly from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

PHOTO: TANJUG/ OKSANA TOSKIC

MOSCOW - Russian FM Sergey Lavrov will be on a working visit to Serbia on December 12-13, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, confirmed on Wednesday.

He will be received in Belgrade by the president, the prime minister and the foreign minister, Zakharova told a briefing.

The Turkish political establishment is raising the provocative nationalistic rhetoric once more, with both President Recep Erdigan and the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglou adopting extremely belligerent tones against Cyprus and Greece.

Some BGN 10 M more will be allocated to the Bulgarian Academy of Science next year compared to this one, members of Parliament's budget commission have agreed.

The figure will be a substantial increase of the BGN 80.84 expenditure that was granted this year.

Leader of the Enough is Enough (DSJ) Sasa Radulovic has announced that this movement will in January become a political party.

Radulovic spoke in Belgrade on Wednesday to add that Miroslava Milenkovic, who recently resigned as member of the Government Anti-Corruption Council, be the the future party's vice-president.

Increasing tension within Bosnia's main Bosniak [Muslim] party, the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, suggests that the party leader  - who is also chairman of the Bosnian Presidency - Bakir Izetbegovic, is losing his grip, analysts say. 

Ferries are expected to stay docked in ports across Greece on Friday and Saturday as seamen stage a 48-hour strike in protest at the latest round of cuts to pensions and job insecurity.

PNO has warned of an escalation of action if the left-led government does not address its concerns.

Russia and Islamist militants could try to boost their influence in the Balkan nations if the European Union doesn't take them in as members, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said in an interview published on Wednesday.

Rama told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung it was in the EU's interests to try and bring Balkan states into its fold.