By Associated Press Novak Djokovic wasn’t optimistic about his right ankle injury after lifting Serbia to an insurmountable 3-1 lead over the U.S. with a 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-0 win over Sam Querrey in a Davis Cup quarterfinal. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at ESPN Headlines
Serbia‘s president has hinted the country’s leadership will reject an EU-mediated plan for Kosovo that would pave the way for Serbia‘s eventual membership in the bloc.
The EU has given Serbia until Tuesday to say whether it would relinquish control of northern Kosovo — one of the most contentious issues dividing the former Serbian province — in exchange for the start of Serbia‘s EU membership negotiations.
Talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian officials on the issue broke down last week in Brussels, and Serbian leaders have since been debating whether to accept or reject the deal, which Serbian nationalist President Tomislav Nikolic described Sunday as unfair.
Nikolic says the EU-backed proposal “was not an offer, but an ultimatum.”
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The influential Serbian Orthodox Church has appealed against a deal with Kosovo Albanians that would pave the way for Serbia‘s EU membership.
The EU has given Serbia until Tuesday to say whether it would relinquish the control of northern of Kosovo — one of the most difficult issues dividing the former Serbian province — in exchange for the start of Serbia‘s EU membership negotiations.
Talks between Serbian and Kosovo officials on the issue broke down last week in Brussels. Kosovo declared independence in 2008.
Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej said in a letter Saturday addressed to Serbian leaders that they shouldn’t “give up, sell or betray” Kosovo for a “murky” EU membership promise.
Kosovo is considered by nationalists to be the cradle of Serbian medieval statehood and religion.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
A senior Serbian official has blamed Kosovo Albanian leaders for the failure of EU-mediated talks on the future of northern Kosovo.
Presidential adviser Marko Djuric said after a meeting of the Serbian leadership that Serb proposals were rejected by ethnic Albanian officials during the meeting in Brussels that broke up early Wednesday.
Earlier, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thachi said his delegation’s proposals were met with “hesitation” by Serbia.
Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008. While some 90 countries have recognized it as an independent country, Serbia has not. The most contentious issue is northern Kosovo, where Serbs dominate and refuse to accept the authority of the ethnic Albanian-controlled government.
Djuric said: “The situations is very serious, but we will continue to search for a compromise.”
The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo have reached a decisive stage in EU-mediated talks, focusing on the thorny issue of the status of Serb-dominated northern Kosovo. EU-mediated talks
The talks — the eighth session between Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci — are being held Tuesday in Brussels under the mediation of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008. While many countries have recognized it as an independent country, Serbia has not. Neither have many of the ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo. They do not see themselves as subject to the government in Pristina, which is dominated by ethnic Albanians.
In order for Serbia to join the EU, it must normalize relations with Kosovo.
Branimir Cvetnic likes to remember his hometown of Mitrovica as the lively, multicultural industrial hub it once was, rather than the grim symbol of Kosovo’s ethnic division it has become.
“Back then, Mitrovica was an open city, a city for everybody. And, now … it’s not even possible to compare,” said Cvetnic, 57, whose family have lived here for almost a century. “We used to live together, but can we do it again? I don’t know.”
Mitrovica, a former mining center in northern Kosovo, was sharply split into Serb and Albanian parts at the end of the Kosovo war in 1999. Officials from Serbia and Kosovo meet in Brussels on Tuesday in hopes of reaching an agreement that could pave the way for reuniting the city — an agreement that the town’s Serbs fear could see their demands sacrificed by a Serbia desperate to join the European Union.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but until now Belgrade has refused to accept the split. The Serbs of northern Kosovo — up to 50,000 people — have rejected any authority of the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina, creating parallel institutions, including hospitals and schools, all financed and supported from the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
But Serbia‘s bid for membership in the European Union has been conditioned on normalizing relations with its former province and abolishing the parallel structures.
Impoverished by years of wars and international sanctions during the 1990s, Serbia is desperately seeking to move closer to EU membership. If the deal is reached on Tuesday, Serbia will likely be granted a date to open talks with the 27-nation bloc, which means access to pre-entry funds and an improved position in the eyes of international investors. If the deal is not reached, Serbia would likely be put on hold by the EU.
In a sign that agreement may be near, top Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic said last weekend that the country “can no longer afford a frozen conflict.”
Kosovo Serbs now fear they will be abandoned to save the EU deal. In Mitrovica, they warn that reuniting the town against their will could lead to a Serb exodus or to unrest.
The ethnic division is clear in every corner of Mitrovica — population unknown since the divided groups have never managed to carry out a reliable census. A huge pile …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
A Kosovo court has found three ethnic Serbs guilty of storming a U.N.-run court and inciting riots that led to the death of a Ukrainian peacekeeper in 2008.
A panel of three European Union judges convicted Marijan Ilincic and Dragan Milojevic to 22 and 18 months in prison, respectively.
The third defendant, Zoran Cavic, was given a 9-month sentence that was suspended for one year, according to the EU‘s rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX.
The suspects were cleared of charges including endangering U.N. staff.
Ethnic Serbs stormed the courthouse in Mitrovica soon after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 to prevent EULEX from replacing the U.N. administration.
Serbia rejects Kosovo’s independence. Ethnic Serbs, who dominate Kosovo’s north, boycott EULEX, saying it backs ethnic Albanian separatists.
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Titan Machinery Inc. to Report Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended January 31, 2013 Results on April 10, 2013
WEST FARGO, N.D.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Titan Machinery Inc. (NAS: TITN) announced today it will release financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended January 31, 2013, on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, followed by an investor conference call at 7:30 a.m. Central time (8:30 a.m. Eastern time).
Investors interested in participating in the live call can dial (888) 401-4668 from the U.S. International callers can dial (719) 325-2472. A telephone replay will be available approximately two hours after the call concludes and will be available through Wednesday, April 24, 2013, by dialing (877) 870-5176 from the U.S., or (858) 384-5517 from international locations, and entering confirmation code 1411336.
There also will be a simultaneous, live webcast available on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s web site at www.titanmachinery.com. The webcast will be archived for 30 days.
About Titan Machinery
Titan Machinery Inc., founded in 1980 and headquartered in West Fargo, North Dakota, is a multi-unit business with mature locations and newly-acquired locations. The Company owns and operates a network of full service agricultural and construction equipment stores in the United States and Europe. The Titan Machinery network consists of 106 North American dealerships in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, including two outlet stores, and 13 European dealerships in Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia. The Titan Machinery dealerships represent one or more of the CNH Brands (NYS: CNH) , a majority-owned subsidiary of Fiat Industrial (Milan: FI.MI), including CaseIH, New Holland Agriculture, Case Construction, New Holland Construction, Kobelco and CNH Capital. Additional information about Titan Machinery Inc. can be found at www.titanmachinery.com.
ICR, Inc.
John Mills
Senior Managing Director
310-954-1105
John.Mills@icrinc.com
KEYWORDS: United States North America North Dakota
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:
The article Titan Machinery Inc. to Report Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended January 31, 2013 Results on April 10, 2013 originally appeared on Fool.com.
Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Spanish, Portuguese and British police boarded a ship loaded with nearly two tons of cocaine destined for sale in Europe and arrested nine people, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.
Specialist agents, including members of Britain’s Serious Organized Crime Agency, conducted a dawn raid on March 15 while the ship was in the Atlantic Ocean, some 700 miles southwest of Portugal’s Cape Verde islands.
“It is the largest operation so far in 2013 in our fight against drug trafficking,” said Ignacio Cosido, Spain‘s director general of police.
Five crew aboard, four Brazilians and one Korean, were arrested and four alleged organizers — including the suspected Venezuelan mastermind — were rounded up the next day in the northern Portuguese city of Porto.
“He is a well-known person,” Cosido said of the main suspect. “He has a background in drug trafficking and is an important member of that world.”
Cocaine bales hidden in a bow locker and a backpack with a large amount in U.S. dollars were seized. The cocaine arrived at the naval dockyard of the Canary Island port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Saturday, Cosido said.
The gang included a large group of Venezuela-based cocaine suppliers, the ministry statement said.
Earlier Saturday Spanish authorities said they had also seized 590 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of cocaine discovered inside a sailboat moored at a private dock and arrested two Eastern European men aboard.
The suspects were identified only as a 60-year-old Bulgarian and a 30-year-old from Serbia, one of whom was armed with a loaded 9mm pistol.
The operation began when a suspicious vessel sailing in international waters was found heading toward Spain‘s Mediterranean coast.
Agents observed the yacht entering the Sotogrande marina in southwestern Spain without lights and tying up at a private jetty. Investigators acting under instruction from a court in San Roque also searched several houses in that city and in Marbella.
The judicial authority ordered the suspects’ imprisonment. The arrest took place last week but an exact date was not given.
They turned soccer stadiums into battlegrounds and then fought real wars.
Now, nearly 20 years after the wars ended, the Balkan nations are mulling the formation of a joint soccer league, hoping to give a new life to the once-thriving competition.
European soccer’s governing body is considering a league that would comprise the former Yugoslav states — Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Macedonia — plus maybe Bulgaria and Hungary.
The idea, which has triggered controversy in the region, is to try to improve the quality of club soccer in the Balkans, which has deteriorated since the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
The main concern is security in the stadiums with ethnic tensions still ripe, with the Union of European Football Associations accusing Serbian and Croatian hooligans of being among the most notorious in Europe for violence and racial outbursts.
(Phys.org) —Physicists Milovan Šuvakov and V. Dmitrašinović of the Institute of Physics, Belgrade in Serbia have discovered using computer simulations, 13 new solutions to the three-body problem—predicting patterns that describe how three bodies will orbit around each other in space in a repeating pattern. The two describe how they came up with their solutions using computer simulations in their paper published in Physical Review Letters. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By Evann Gastaldo 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
1646 – Joseph Jenkes, MA, receives 1st colonial machine patent
1882 – Monarch Milan Obrenovic of Serbia crowns himself king
1924 – British Labour government cuts military budget
1961 – Dutch Queen Juliana celebrates 12½ year government jubilee
1965 – Bruce Taylor hits 105 for NZ v India in 1st Test Cricket innings
1980 – French Academy, founded in 1635, elects it 1st woman novelist (Marguerita Youcenar)
1917 – Roy Scott, cricketer (one Test NZ v England 1947, 18, 1-74)
1917 – J A Mommersteeg, Dutch asst sect of Defense (KVP)
1924 – William H Webster, US, judge/head FBI/CIA
1945 – Anna Maria Horsford, NYC, actress (Thelma Frye-Amen)
1947 – Judy Loe, Urmston Manchester UK, actress (Singles, Meaning of Life)
1956 – Peter Roebuck, cricketer (Somerset opening batsman and SMH writer)
1854 – Caspar GC Reinwardt, German/Dutch biologist, dies at 80
1959 – Fred Stone, actor (Hideaway, Westerner), dies at 85
1964 – King Paul I, of Greece (1947-64), dies at 62
1986 – Georgia O’Keeffe, American artist (b. 1887)
1995 – Helene Weijel, author (In Two Worlds), dies at 44
2012 – Donald Payne, American Congressman, dies from colon cancer at 77
…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at HistoryOrb.Com – This Day in History
A senior EU official says progress has been made in talks between the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo, but the Serbian leader says there’s still a stalemate over the status of the Serb minority in Kosovo.
Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci met Monday in Brussels for their sixth round of talks mediated by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Afterward, Ashton issued a statement saying, “We made good progress.” The statement didn’t elaborate but said another meeting was set for March 20.
Dacic, however, said there was no progress on the autonomy of Kosovo Serbs who oppose the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital.
He says the sides “exchanged our stands, but the differences remained.”
Women in the Balkans are leading a political revolution.
Historically given little say in the politics of the conservative region, they are increasingly taking top leadership posts, signaling that the traditional rules are changing as Balkan countries shake off their war pasts and move toward membership in the European Union.
During the bloody 1990s, many in the Balkans turned to warrior leaders, mostly male nationalists they thought would protect them from the ethnic conflicts that flattened cities and left over a hundred thousand dead. The new millennium has brought crisis in a different form: economic doldrums, naggingly high unemployment and glaring political corruption.
Encouraged by the EU and influenced by closer ties with the West, more and more it is women who are stepping in to change the old ways of doing business in the macho Balkans. Some see women as less nationalistic and more attuned to the needs of a new era — diplomacy, consensus, and compromise.
“Women have always been more successful than men, with all due respect,” said Duska Latinovic, a nurse from the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia. “Women are … more sensitive, stronger, emotional, and in these rough times people need more of a heart.”
Although overall gender equality standards are still far from those in Western democracies, strongly patriarchal Kosovo and the post-war Serb mini-state in Bosnia have both installed women in their top positions. Male-dominated Serbia and Montenegro have passed laws to increase the numbers of women in leadership positions, part of a slate of efforts to convince the EU they belong in the bloc.
“The power of women in the politics is a soft power,” Atifete Jahjaga, the female president of Kosovo told the AP. “It is a positive change that our country and other countries in the region … are making by giving a chance to women.”
The latest political newcomer is the charismatic 43-year-old financial expert Alenka Bratusek, Slovenia‘s first ever female prime minister. While Slovenia has traditionally been more advanced than the rest of the Balkans, Bratusek’s election last week was significant because it came at a moment of deep financial and political turmoil in the small Alpine state.
A rising star among veteran Slovenian politicians, Bratusek has been entrusted with consolidating the nation’s economy and restoring confidence in state institutions, which have been badly shaken by the EU‘s broader financial crisis.
German authorities say they have found excessive levels of aflatoxin B1, a chemical produced by fungus, in a shipment of corn from Serbia destined for livestock feed.
The state agriculture ministry in Lower Saxony, a northwestern region, said Friday that the shipment totaled 45,000 tons. Most of that was impounded but about 10,000 tons was delivered to companies that produce feed for pigs, cattle and poultry in several German states and in the Netherlands.
Aflatoxins, which can be carcinogenic, are produced by a fungus that can grow on hay or grains and appear in the milk of animals that eat the mildewed feed.
The German ministry says it doesn’t believe there is any danger to consumers and there is no indication legal limits on aflatoxins in milk have been exceeded.
Kosovo’s culture minister says seven smuggled artifacts dating as far back as 4,000 B.C. are being returned to the country some seven years after they were found during a police raid in Germany.
Memli Krasniqi said Friday the artifacts were found by German police in 2005 in a sports bag belonging to two Serbs during an unrelated criminal investigation. Among them are an ancient terracotta figurine and the head of a cat made of clay.
Authorities believe they were meant for sale to private collectors. It took experts years to authenticate them and confirm they belong to Kosovo.
Serbia relocated some 1,200 artifacts from Kosovo’s main museum to Belgrade during NATO‘s 78-day bombing that eventually ended the Kosovo war in 1999. Their ownership is hotly debated.
It was a quick affair: the couple met in a restaurant and wed the next day. A Kosovo Serb man and an ethnic Albanian woman joined in marriage, unusual in war-torn Kosovo. Fifteen years later, they were an apparent target of a bombing in the ethnically split city of Mitrovica.
Slavoljub Masic, Nerxhivane Rrustolli and their children weren’t injured in last week’s hand grenade attack, one of about 20 in the city over the past two months that have alarmed both Serbs and Albanians. The latest blast came late Tuesday when an explosive was hurled on top of an ethnic Albanian house, damaging the roof but injuring no one.
Rrustrolli, 38, called on the prime ministers of Kosovo and Serbia meeting Wednesday in Brussels for the second day of talks over security arrangements in Kosovo’s north to look at the violence on the ground.
“They threw a bomb at children, at an inter-ethnic couple,” she said.
The fifth round of talks between the leaders reportedly ended with progress. No details were made public and talks will resume March 4. Whatever agreement is reached, it will have a direct impact upon the lives of families like Masic. Kosovo officials say the attacks are aimed at derailing European Union-mediated talks.
Shattered glass from a window littered the front yard of the Masic compound. The explosion from two hand grenades left marks on the walls of the house. Nenad Masic, 7, peeked through the curtains of the glassless window frame.
“My youngest was outside playing a minute before the blast,” Slavoljub Masic, 38, said. “I don’t know who did it. But if I am the last Serb here, I will not move.”
The Serb-dominated north is virtually under Serbia‘s control through parallel police forces and other institutions. Serbs there boycott Kosovo’s authority and detest international peacekeepers. Serbia rejects Kosovo’s 2008 secession and its former province’s statehood.
The neighborhood where Masic and his family live, known as Bosniak Mahala, is the last multi-ethnic area in Mitrovica, a city that has been scarred by ethnic violence in the decade since the Kosovo war ended in 1999. Serb forces withdrew from Kosovo after NATO‘s 78-day air war, which stopped a brutal crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians. Those that remained fled from vengeful ethnic Albanians and gathered in the northern part bordering Serbia.
Two days of talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on the issue of so-called parallel rule of northern Kosovo by Serbia‘s government have reportedly ended with progress.
It was the fifth round of talks between Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, all in Brussels and mediated by the European Union.
No details were released, but EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Wednesday, “The prime ministers are pleased with the significant progress they have made, as am I.”
Serbia discreetly exercises virtual control of northern Kosovo, which is dominated by ethnic Serbs, through parallel police forces and other institutions.
Dacic and Thaci will return to Brussels on March 4 for more talks. Serbia considers Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, a renegade province.
Serbian officials ordered some brands of milk taken off store shelves on Wednesday despite earlier claims that they were safe and not dangerously contaminated with a potentially cancer-causing toxin.
The order came after widespread public outrage over allegations that health authorities have for weeks been hiding the results of lab tests which reportedly show that much of the milk sold in Serbia contains high levels of aflatoxins, a fungus linked to mildewed cattle feed that can cause cancer if consumed in high doses.
Authorities initially refused to reveal the brands that have been ordered out of shops, saying they were waiting for results of tests being conducted in the Netherlands.
“That’s really outrageous,” said Jelena Matic, 45-year-old anthropology researcher from Belgrade. “How are we supposed to know which milk we can buy?”
Later Wednesday, head of the veterinary inspection Sanja Celabicanin said authorities have ordered the withdrawal of 50 types of milk, from almost all diaries in Serbia.
There were no immediate shortages of milk in the shops, but some people are saying they will do without for a while.
Suspicions of the government cover-up are fed by the region’s widespread corruption and the cozy ties between politicians and industry.
An extremely dry summer last year provided conditions for the poisonous mold to grow, mostly in corn that is used as animal feed.
Very high doses are linked to cancer, especially of the liver, but experts say a person would have to drink a gallon a day for years to see any health effects.
Health Minister Slavica Djukic Dejanovic said there is no reason for panic and advised citizens to decide themselves whether they will drink the milk or not.
“I drink milk, obviously the citizens must decide on their own whether they will drink it or not,” she said.
Goran Jesic, an agriculture official who broke the silence and published the results of the aflatoxin tests on Tuesday, demanded on Wednesday that the government also withdraw the cattle feed and instruct the farmers how to neutralize the presence of aflatoxins.
Agriculture Minister Goran …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
