Archive for the month of October 2008

Road sign reads: "I am not in the office..."

31 Oct, 2008 Stephan
Bilingual sign

English officials in Swansea on the UK's west coast needed to put up a sign to divert heavy traffic away from a residential area, the text was No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only. When they asked for a translation in Welsh, the response by email was Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gyfieithu.

They took the answer for granted without proofing and the sign was printed.

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Croatia's next step in EU accession process blocked

30 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog

Slovenia blocked Croatia from taking the next step in the EU accession negotiating process when it refused to back the opening of chapters covering regional policy; justice, freedom and security issues; the environment and the free circulation of capital.

Slovenia justified its decision its refusal to open the chapters by the fact that the current outgoing government is only managing day-to-day matters until a new cabinet is drawn up and the parliament resumes.

Croatia has now completed four out of 35 thematic chapters since EU accession talks started in 2005.

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EU says Bosnia must show commitment

30 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog

The EU rapporteur on the Stabilization and Association Agreement with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Doris Pack, said that the country must continue to implement significant reforms in order to meet EU membership criteria. Even agreeing on appointing a coordinator to deal with EU financial aid seems a hurdle.

Pack hinted that Bosnia may require constitutional reforms.

The draft of an EU report yet to be published, criticizes Bosnia for a lack of consensus and political will, slowing down the country's reforms.

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Drupal 5.x: hide input filter tips

29 Oct, 2008 Stephan

Since I only allow plain text to be entered in comment forms, I wanted to hide the filter tips that are displayed on the comment form. You can accomplish that by adding two functions to your template.php:

<?php
/*
 *hide input filter tips
 */
function phptemplate_filter_tips($format, $long = FALSE) {
  return '';
}
function phptemplate_filter_tips_more_info() {
  return '';
}
?>

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Serbia claims Albania destroyed evidence

29 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog

Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic insists that Albania is hiding evidence of mass murder to harvest organs during the Kosovo war. He also claimed Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha ordered the destruction of documents on victims.

Albania dismisses the unsubstantiated claims.

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Serbia "held hostage" by Mladic

29 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog

Serbia's minister in charge of cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal, Rasim Ljajic, said that Serbia is "undertaking the most intense activity until now to locate Mladic and Hadzic." In an interview he said that Mladic's arrest "is the main problem facing this government. The whole of Serbia is literally being held hostage by Ratko Mladic."

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UN judge reprimanded both Karadzic and prosecution

28 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog

Judge Iain Bonomy has reprimanded Karadzic and his prosecutors for a lack of progress since the last hearing in July.

The judge rejected Karadzic's argument of not being able to assemble a legal team of advisors, and that it was because of his own decision to run his own defense that he was not able to keep up. The judge said he warned Karadzic repeatedly of the consequence of running his own defense.

But Bonomy also reprimanded the prosecution for being unable to present details of several documents that had not yet been sent to Mr Karadzic.

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Miladin Kovacevic arrested in Serbia

28 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog

Serbian police in Belgrade arrested Miladin Kovacevic, wanted in the US on assault charges. He was arrested on suspicion that he inflicted severe bodily harm to Bryan Steinhauer in New York in May 2008. Steinhauer only recently emerged from a coma. It is not clear whether he will be charged.

It was also reported that a former Serbian council in New York has been arrested as well, suspected of providing travel documents used to help Kovacevic flee from the US to Serbia.

The issue has strained relations between Serbia and the US.

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Germany: EUFOR should remain in Bosnia for now

28 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog

German defence minister Franz Josef Jung said that the EU peace keeping mission EUFOR with some 2,100 troops should remain present in Bosnia because the mission of the Office of the High Representative has not been completed. He spoke after a meeting with Bosnia's tripartite presidency.

Jung has also promised Kosovo that Germany would help Kosovo establishing security force.

Germany has also rejected any form of partitioning of Kosovo.

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Serbia, Albania sharing information in organ trafficking investigation

27 Oct, 2008 Balkanblog Comment

Serb prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic is investigating claims that mass graves in Albania may contain the remains of Serbs. Serbia has shared their findings with Albania's Prosecutor General Ina Rama, who is investigating allegations that Serbs were killed by Kosovo Albanians during the '90s war and that organs were extracted and sold to raise money.

Both Albania and Kosovo have denied accusations that this took place. But the European Union has promised to investigate.

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