Borissov held talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Tue, Sep 21 2010 06:50 CETbyThe Sofia Echo staff262 Views

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Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov

Photo: Anelia Nikolova

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov held talks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the start of his week-long working visit to the United States, Bulgarian media reported on September 21 2010. The meeting was held after the UN Millennium Development Goals summit conference in New York.

The Millennium Development Goals or (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 192 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organisations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for development

Following the meeting, Borissov met Ban, telling journalists afterwards that the UN relies heavily on Bulgaria in South Eastern Europe.

"As a country which enjoys political, financial, economical and religious stability, Bulgaria is entrusted with a lot in the Balkans," Borissov said. "My personal friendship with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo is also of importance," he said.

Borissov said, however, that his most important meeting during his visit to UN headquarters was with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao after the European Union last week declared China a strategic partner.

"The European Commission declared China a strategic partner, but already we are well ahead in our bilateral and investment relations. We want China to invest in the production of technologies and to have a permanent exposition in Europe. Furthermore, our ports are among the most attractive in Europe," Borissov said.

http://sofiaecho.com/2010/09/21/963493_borissov-held-talks-with-un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moon

Un bulgaro in arresto a Gallipoli

Scritto da Administrator

Lunedì 20 Settembre 2010 12:49

GALLIPOLI – Lei lavorava, lui ne godeva i frutti, soffiandole il denaro appena guadagnato. E se provava a dissentire, giù anche le botte dissuasive. Sembra che la cosa andasse avanti da un bel po’ di tempo. Non meno di due anni. Fino a quando lei, la vittima, non ha deciso di parlare e di denunciare il tutto. Questa mattina all’alba, dunque, Kotsi Mladenov Kotsev, bulgaro di 47 anni, già noto alle forze dell’ordine per reati di varia natura, ha visto fare l’ingresso in casa dei carabinieri della compagnia di Gallipoli. Per contestargli una serie di nuovi reati, in flagranza: estorsione continuata aggravata, percosse e lesioni personali. L’hanno beccato proprio mentre stava per alzare le mani alla donna. La quale altri non sarebbe, che la figlia della convivente dell'uomo. Sapevano che era in zona. Da poco arrivato dal suo Paese natale, dal quale, a quanto pare, faceva la spola. Anche se s'ignora con quale cadenza questo avvenisse. L’attività d’indagine, culminata nell’arresto del 47enne, è nata, come detto, dalla denuncia della donna, una giovane connazionale bulgara, in Italia per lavoro. Ormai esausta dalla situazione che si era venuta a creare. Fino a quando non ha preso il coraggio a due mani ed è andata in caserma, a Gallipoli, per riferire dei soprusi che avrebbe subito nel tempo. Un racconto lungo, che parte da lontano. Ogni mese, iniziando dal 2008, infatti, la ragazza sarebbe stata costretta, sotto minaccia, a consegnare il compenso dell’attività di badante, che svolge regolarmente. Circa 700 euro, ogni volta, finiti regolarmente nelle mani dell’uomo. Si stima che in questo modo Kotsev abbia sottratto non meno di 10mila euro. Sottoposto a perquisizione, il bulgaro è stato trovato con mille e 310 euro in contanti, soldi che i carabinieri hanno sequestrato, poiché ritenuti frutti del lavoro della malcapitata, finiti nelle tasche del presunto aguzzino. Il quale, e non è un dettaglio, non abita in Italia, ma in Bulgaria. Come detto, sembra che Kotsev andasse avanti e indietro dal suo Paese, proprio per ritirare i soldi e poi fare rientro. E questo fatto apre un inquietante interrogativo: possibile che l’uomo avesse sotto di sé diverse altre donne che svolgono lo stesso mestiere di badante e che giungesse in Italia, di volta in volta, a fare una sorta direcupero crediti? Saranno le successive indagini ad accertarlo, le quali potrebbero aprire lo spiraglio su mondo sommerso di soprusi. Per ora il 47enne è rinchiuso nel carcere di Lecce. Fonte: Lecce prima http://www.sofiaoggi.com/Home-page/A-fuoco-Bulgaria/un-bulgaro-in-arresto-a-gallipoli.html

UN Talks Fail to Yield New Macedonia Proposal

Skopje | 20 September 2010 | Sinisa Jakov Marusic
 

UN building in New York

The UN mediator in the long-standing name row between Macedonia and Greece did not extend any new proposals aimed at resolving the issue during a meeting with Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov.

Matthew Nimetz instead urged both sides to continue building mutual trust and understanding so they can more easily reach a compromise, he said after the talks in New York late on Sunday.

"There is an increased sense of confidence that the problem can be resolved with dialogue at very high level between the leadership of the countries," Nimetz told reporters.

He described the perceived change in atmosphere as being a “very positive development”.

Nimetz declined to speculate on whether a solution could be found by November or December so that Skopje could get the go-ahead this year for the start of its EU accession talks and NATO entry.

Macedonian name negotiator, Zoran Jolevski, told the media that, at the meeting, President Ivanov had reaffirmed Macedonia’s commitment towards finding a solution.

Nimetz will also hold talks with Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas later on Monday.

No direct contacts between the Macedonian and Greek delegations visiting New York for the 65th UN General Assembly session have been announced.

Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski had previously said he would not go to the New York session, dismissing media speculation he could meet his Greek colleague, George Papandreou, who is attending.

Athens and Skopje have been locked in the dispute over the use of the name Macedonia for almost two decades.

Athens insists that Skopje’s official name, the Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims against its own northern province, also called Macedonia.

In 2008, Greece blocked Macedonia’s NATO accession pending a solution to the dispute.

Last December, Athens also blocked Skopje from getting a start date for its EU accession talks, despite a positive recommendation from the European Commission.

EU and NATO officials have been clear that, without a solution to the dispute, Macedonian cannot make progress towards EU membership.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/30618/

'123-Year-Old Voter' Raises Kosovo Poll Concerns

Pristina | 20 September 2010 | BIRN Team
 

Balkan Insight has uncovered evidence that a 123-year-old woman and a 120-year-old man voted in both rounds of November’s local elections in Kosovo, raising concerns of possible electoral abuse in the country’s outdated electoral roll.

The two individuals who, if alive, would be the world’s oldest and second-oldest people, cast votes in both rounds of Kosovo’s local elections in November 2009 according to records, raising suspicion among officials close to the election process.

Almost 900 people over the age of 100 remain on the voters’ list, with 23 of them recorded as having been born in the 1800s, research carried out by Balkan Insight shows.

The questionable registrations come despite a major push to update the electoral roll in the run-up to the elections being carried out by the Central Election Commission, CEC, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Xhemajl Pecani, the head of the CEC, told Balkan Insight that his organisation was aware of the problem, but would not be pushing for criminal investigations into people who may have fraudulently voted on behalf of the centenarians.

He said: "We are aware of dead people being on the voters’ list but, as the country has had continuous elections up until recent months, not much has been done until now."

He added that the OSCE and IFES, International Foundation for Electoral Services, "will now help the CEC with the voters’ registry".

Ismet Kryeziu, the head of Democracy in Action, a coalition of 11 non-governmental organisations, NGOs, which had more than 2,000 monitors in polling stations in November, said that inaccuracies in the electoral roll were open to abuse.

He explained: "The presence of those names is due to the non-registration of deceased people and also as a result of a lack of effort to encourage people to report deaths.

"In our tradition, people hesitate to go the competent authorities to announce the death of their family members."

He said a long-awaited census may help to improve the accuracy of the list.
But Majlinda Lulaj, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Administration, said that Kosovo’s census, which should be held in 2011 for the first time in decades, will not be used to update the list.

Blerim Camaj, the head of the agency for civilian status in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said the ministry was working to improve the accuracy of next year’s planned general elections.

He said the Ministry was working on creating a digital database of all civilian records which will be ready by the end of this year and will ensure that all relevant documents lodged at the municipal level will be included in the electoral roll.

The Law for Civilian Registry was approved by the Government last week and has been sent to Kosovo’s Assembly to be reviewed, he added.

The law will make the registration of births and deaths a legal obligation

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/30602/

Bulgarian Roma to 'Continue France Protests'

| 20 settembre 2010 | 
 

Nicolas Sarkozy

Le proteste in Bulgaria contro l'espulsione della Francia di Roma, per continuare fino a quando Parigi si rifiuta di porre fine alla politica, gli organizzatori hanno dichiarato di dimostrazione.

Le osservazioni presentate da Stela Kostova, il direttore della Gioventù Roma Organizzazione nella città di Sliven, giunge due giorni dopo circa 200 persone, per lo più rom, radunato davanti all'ambasciata francese a Sofia, capitale bulgara.

Kostova told Balkan Insight on Monday: “We will continue to protest peacefully and tell our supporters to stop buying French goods if France doesn’t stop returning Roma.”

Paris has returned about 1,200 Roma to Bulgaria and Romania to date, paying €300 in cash to adults and €100 to children who voluntarily agree to be sent back to their home countries.

Kostova, who was among the organisers of Saturday’s rally, stressed that Paris' actions against the Roma community were a violation of human rights.

She said: “This policy is absolutely inhumane, that’s how the concentrations camps during World War II were started.

“Most of the returned people have gone abroad just to look for a better life, as many other Bulgarians do.”

Holding posters declaring; “Europe is with us”, “We want jobs, not a €300 bribe”, “We’re all Roma”, the protesters in Sofia had demanded the immediate suspension of France’s policy towards Roma, calling it discriminative and racist.

They handed in a letter to French president Nicolas Sarkozy at the French embassy, which also demanded an apology from the French government. 

It also insisted on the equal treatment of Bulgarian Roma and the respect of their human and civil rights as European citizens.

Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borisov said last week that his country should not get involved in the debate, as the debate raged between the EU and France at last week’s EU summit in Brussels.

Read also: Roma Migrant Workers Revive Bulgarian Village

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/30623/

Bosnian Elections Touted as an 'Extreme Sport'

Sarajevo | 20 September 2010 | 
 

Sarajevo

Bosnia's general elections are being hailed as an "extreme sport" by a Hungarian-based institute inviting people “with a passion for politics” to go on tour to witness the event.

Research and consulting institute Political Capital is charging clients between €1,300 and €1,500 for a trip to Bosnia where they can meet the country’s leading politicians and opinion-makers.

“Three nations, three religions, 10 cantons and two entities, all in one state! Come with us and follow the election campaign,” trumpets an advert on
its website.

“Elections in Bosnia are the political equivalent of an extreme sport,” the institute says of the polls scheduled for October 3.

It promises the unusual tour will include “a cocktail party with the candidates and diplomats”.

“Place bets on the winners and win a special prize in our election pool,” potential clients are invited.

And, if guests get tired of Bosnia’s cumbersome politics, they can go rafting, hiking, horse riding or simply shop or relax at an indoor aqua park.

Under the Dayton Peace Agreement which ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, the country was split into two highly independent parts – the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Croat-Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) federation.

The Croat-Bosniak federation is further divided into 10 cantons, each with its own parliament and government responsible for local issues.

In the October elections – the sixth since the 1992-95 Bosnian war - more than 8,000 candidates will compete for seats in the state parliament, two entity parliaments and parliaments of 10 cantons.

The country’s collective presidency and president of the Republika Srpska will also be re-elected.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/30604/

Albanian Lawyers Attack 'Corrupt' Choice of Judges

Tirana | 20 September 2010 | 
 

Albania Supreme Court

Albanian President Bamir Topi’s recent appointments to the country’s high courts have been criticised as being "corrupt and incompetent" by the National Bar Association.

The association expressed its disappointment in a statement issued on Saturday, saying the president had not requested the advice of a legal expert group created to shortlist appointments.

“This process was abandoned by the president of the republic and turned into a demagogic show, which left out of the list of nominations legal personalities with high professional and moral integrity,” the association said.

“It installed a dangerous precedent by approving incompetence and corruption,” the statement added.

The consultation group, made up of the country’s top lawyers, was set up by the office of the president to shortlist nominations for vacancies in Albania’s Supreme and Constitutional Courts.

The bar association was represented in the group by its executive director, Maksim Haxhia.

The role of legal experts was particularly important due to the high number of vacancies in both the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court, which have proven politically sensitive.

The independent lawyers' group was intended to ensure credibility in the president’s nominations for judges, at a time when he was locked in a political row over with the majority, headed by Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who wanted to be consulted on the matter.

Speaking during a meeting of the experts' group on May 4, Topi promised that he would avoid nominating judges with a political affiliation to the country’s highest courts.

“In this process I will be careful not to select judges with a political profile in order to achieve the separation of judicial and political power,” Topi said.

“This selection will be based on two main pillars, professional and moral integrity,” he added.

In Albania, judges for the Supreme and Constitutional Courts are nominated by the president and later ratified by parliament.

While the ratification process does not envisage consultations with the ruling majority or the opposition, the president has been under pressure in the past to hold such talks.

Several nominations by Topi for the high courts have been rejected in recent month by the ruling majority on political grounds.

Specifically, the rejection by the ruling majority in parliament of several recent appointments to the Constitutional Court, on the grounds that they had served under the former communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, has created a political storm.

A lustration law, which aimed to bar judges from office based on the same broad criteria, had earlier been found to be unconstitutional.

Many local and international observers accused the majority of applying a law that was no longer on the statute books.

Last week the president nominated three new candidates for Albania’s Supreme Court.

However, before being vetted in parliament, their nominations came under fire from the judiciary’s ranks.

The bar association described the selection procedure as a “process that is not legal or convincing but rather reflective of narrow clique interests”.

“We can’t accept that the high representatives of constitutional institutions, mandated and directly responsible for the judicial system’s activity, act against it interests,” the association underlined.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/30626/

Bulgaria Sets Up Special Force to Investigate Land Swaps

Domestic | September 20, 2010, Monday

Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Naydenov (shown here trying a local cucumber) has set up a commission to investigate past land swap deals. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister has moved to establish a special commission for the investigation of the notorious land swap deals after the European Commissionrequested action from the Sofia Prosecutor's Office.

Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov has issued a special decree to set up the new commission, which will be investigating a total of 5 000 deals between the state and private companies and individuals for swapping land plots between 1999 and 2009.

The Commission has been founded after the Sofia Regional Court ordered the Inspectorate of the Ministry to carry out an inspection. It will include representatives of the Inspectorate, the legal department and other relevant structures of theMinistry of Agriculture and Foods.

The investigators will look at the administrative procedures, and will be obliged to submit their findings to the Prosecutor's Offices.

On Monday, a Bulgarian newspaper reported that the European Commissionrequested that the Prosecutor's Office in Bulgaria conduct checks of all land swapsin the country.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=120334

Govt interested in new tripartite agreement--Putin

18.09.2010, 14.18

MOSCOW, September 18 (Itar-Tass) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that the trade unions should work not only for the growth of wages, but also for the creation of jobs for the skilled personnel and for the formation of a civilized labour market. “Russia is pursuing a policy aimed at the formation of a civilized labour market, including the attraction of workers from abroad. We are discussing and resolving those problems with our partners and neighbours,” Putin said at a meeting of the General Council of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITU) of Russia here on Saturday. Putin confirmed that “Russia is interested in labour migration to be absolutely legal, in the disappearance of the so-called ‘grey zones,’ which breed crime and corruption.” At the same time, he is positive that “we should help the law-abiding people, who came here to work, to get adapted in Russia, and should protect their labour rights … This is an enormous sphere of activities for trade unions, which have much experience in the settlement of labour conflicts, as well as a strong legal service.” Putin stressed that “the most important problem today is the quality of the economic development.” “It is in line with our common interests to ensure the economic growth mostly as a result of the modernization of production, the creation of effective jobs and the growth of labour productivity. Otherwise Russian enterprises will not be able to remain competitive, and new jobs will be created outside Russia, the way it is taking place in many countries,” Putin believes. Putin suggested that the trade unions “link the fulfilment of production development plans with the creation of jobs for skilled and highly paid workers, because the modernization of enterprises and the manufacture of new products should lead to the growth of wages.” Aside from it, Putin recommended to the trade unions to have a say in the working out of a just structure of wages. “Wages are different for different industries and professions. It is important to establish the correct balance between the permanent tariff part of the wages and the stimulating payments,” he said. Putin reminded that at present “the growth of real wages stands at 4.9 per cent, and of industrial production – at 9.6 per cent. About one million new jobs were created over the past year. Unemployment was reduced to 7 per cent of the economically active population, although the figure for late 2009 was 8.6 per cent.” “The government regards trade unions as a reliable and effective partner. We are interested in the signing as soon as possible of a new general agreement between trade union associations, employers and the government, which would specify the concrete plans of our joint work for 2011-2013,” the Prime Minister stressed. http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15507876&PageNum=0

Mercedes рухнул в пропасть в Чечне

Оба пассажира машины погибли

На трассе в Чечне это не первое аналогичное происшествие

Фото: из архива "КП"

Егор АРЕФЬЕВ — 20.09.2010 11:44

На трассе в Чеченской республике вновь произошло ДТП у ущелья: машина рухнула в пропасть, погибли двое.

 

"Ночью в 00:22 в МЧС поступило сообщение о том, что на 45-м километре автодороги Грозный-Шатой в 60-метровую пропасть сорвался автомобиль Mercedes. В автомобиле оказалось два человека, оба они при падении погибли. Их тела подняты наверх спасателями со специальным снаряжением", - сообщили в пресс-службе МЧС по Чеченской республике.

 

Аналогичная трагедия произошла 8 сентября - на этой же трассе в пропасть сорвалась машина Лада-Приора, тогда погибло три человека, передает "Интерфакс".

http://www.kp.ru/online/news/742100/