France

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said during a meeting in Belgrade Saturday with Elisabeth Guigou, chairwoman of the French parliament foreign affairs committee, that he was confident that the upcoming visit to Belgrade by
French Prime Minister would contribute to the improvement of bilateral relations, particularly in the economic sphere.

BELGRADE - Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic said during a meeting he had with Chair of the French parliament foreign affairs committee Elisabeth Guigou Saturday that Serbia's membership of the EU was a key foreign policy priority for the country.

During a joint press conference in Paris with French President François Hollande on Oct. 31, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the acronym DA’ISH, instead of ISIL to refer to the fundamentalist organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

The 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), and curated by Zoë Ryan, opens on Nov. 1. The theme of this year’s edition is “The Future Is Not What It Used to Be.”

BELGRADE - Chair of the French parliament foreign affairs committee Elisabeth Guigou praised on Friday Serbia's progress in EU integration.

France and Turkey concur that anti-ISIL operations must extend beyond Kobane as President Erdoğan again demands a wider fight against al-Assad Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took aim at Western leaders in Paris on Oct.

Foreign jihadists from more than 80 countries have flocked to fight in Iraq and Syria on an "unprecedented scale", according to extracts of a UN report published by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Oct. 31.
      

Burkina Faso's embattled President Blaise Compaore announced on Friday that he was stepping down to make way for elections following a violent uprising against his 27-year rule that saw parliament set ablaze.
      

PARIS - Serbia's Novak Djokovic, the current world number one in men's tennis, has reached the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters tournament by beating France's Gael Monfils 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) late Thursday.

Continuing his domination against Monfils, Djokovic claimed his 11th victory in as many matches against the Frenchman.

Austrian energy concern Verbund is selling its wind park at Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, the concern said in a statement Thursday.

A subsidiary of the Bulgarian financial company called Inovent Holding AD is to purchase the wind turbines.

The park's turbines have a total power of about 16 MW, producing electricity for 14 000 households.