Serbia reiterates commitment to energy co-operation accord with Russia

19/08/2008

BELGRADE, Serbia -- The government stands behind all commitments stipulated in the energy co-operation accord with Russia, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said on Monday (August 18th). Serbia and Russia signed an energy agreement in January aimed at strengthening strategic economic co-operation. The pact involves gas supplies, the construction of a gas pipeline and the direct sale of the state NIS oil and gas company to Russia's Gazprom. All projects related to that accord, including the sale of NIS, are to stem from separate contracts. Cvetkovic said talks on the sale of NIS are ongoing, in response to accusations by the opposition Serbian Democratic Party, which says the government is trying to scrap the accord. Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic recently announced the ministry has hired consultants from Deloitte and Touche to assess the value of NIS, implying Serbia might ask for a higher price for the majority stake than the initially announced 400m euros. Gazprom recently rejected the possibility of renegotiating the price. (Beta, B92 -18/08/08)

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Albania on global blacklist of child sex trafficking

TIRANA, Albania -- A coalition of child protection organisations in the United Kingdom describes Albania as a country with one of the highest levels of child trafficking for sex. British media reported on Sunday (August 17th) the findings, which suggest Albania, Ghana and Cambodia are hosts to so-called child sex tourism. Traffickers smuggle the children from the country of origin mostly to the United Kingdom for sexual exploitation. The report criticises the British justice system for tolerating this phenomenon while stressing that most of the paedophiles are teachers or volunteers who work in orphanages. Currently, British citizen David Brown, former administrator of a children's centre in Tirana, and two other foreign citizens are on trial in Albania for paedophilia. (Top Channel, BalkanWeb, Netpress - 18/08/08)