Archive for the month of June 2008

Border marker planted between Kosovo and Macedonia

30 Jun, 2008 Balkanblog

The Kosovo-Macedonia border is largely disputed by Kosovo, claiming that Serbia gave some 5,000 acres of Kosovo's territory to Macedonia when the country gained independence in 1991. But today a border marker was planted on a non-disputed part of the border between the two countries on Mount Sara.

It remains to be seen whether other border markers in disputed areas will be planted any time soon.

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Tadic asks support of African Union

30 Jun, 2008 Balkanblog

In the Egyptian resort of Sham el Sheikh, Serbian president Boris Tadic asked members of the African Union to support a Serbian resolution regarding Kosovo that will be presented to the UN General Assembly in September.

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Serbian shadow parliament in Kosovo inaugurates itself

28 Jun, 2008 Balkanblog

Kosovo's Serbs inaugurated their 53-seat shadow assembly, challenging the UN and Kosovo's government. The "parliament" has officially dubbed itself the Assembly of the Union of Municipalities of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and drafted what it considers its mandate. Their statement said the parliament "adopts legislative measures, resolutions and has the right to propose for adoption new laws important to the life of citizens."

Kosovo's deputy prime minister Ram Manaj rcalled the meeting illegal and unacceptable.

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Force Sansa View in MTP or MSC mode

28 Jun, 2008 Stephan 2 Comments

The Sansa View is a great MP3/video player but SanDisk could have improved the way the operating mode is chosen. You can either work with Windows Media Player and sync your music from there (MTP mode). Or you if you prefer dragging/dropping files you can work from Windows Explorer (MSC mode). I prefer MSC mode myself.

MTP = Media Transfer Protocol
MSC = Mass Storage Class
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Google Reader failing to load

28 Jun, 2008 Stephan 2 Comments

There is something strange going on with Google Reader. For some reason, it just does not want to load in Firefox 3. The header part with the logo shows up, but the rest of the page fails to load properly.

Because I connect to many networks, I have a software firewall running allowing me to restrict inbound/outbound connections for certain networks. I noticed that there are many blocked inbound TCP connections by Google's servers to unopened ports on my machine.

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Serb assembly in Kosovo to hold first meeting

28 Jun, 2008 Balkanblog

The 53 seat Serb assembly in Kosovo will hold its first meeting in Mitrovica, challenging UN and Kosovo authorities. The assembly was established after Serb elections in Kosovo, against the wishes of the UN, who declared these elections illegal.

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Karadzic files last-minute appeal against transfer to tribunal

27 Jun, 2008 Balkanblog

In a move to slow down the legal process, Karadzic's lawyers sent off an appeal at the last possible minute against his transfer to a UN tribunal in The Hague. This delay could give his Bosnia-based family, including wife Ljiljana and daughter Sonja, time to get back confiscated travel papers and visit him before his transfer.

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Serbian coalition agreement

27 Jun, 2008 Balkanblog

The president of the Serbian National Assembly, Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, announced a coalition deal has been signed. The new government is expected to be elected next week.

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EU delegation: Russia not helping

27 Jun, 2008 Balkanblog

The head of the EU delegation to Moscow, Marc Franco, believes that Russia's stance on Kosovo is not sufficiently constructive. The EU agrees with UN SG Ban Ki-moon's suggestion to the UN to reconfigure UNMIK and to transfer its powers to the Kosovo government and to the EULEX mission. Russia strongly opposes this.

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