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February

- NOVI SAD: Vojvodina Ombudsman, Petar Teofilovic, says that the number of interethnic incidents in Vojvodina has significantly decreased and the arrest of the members of the "National formation" has caused the tensions to decrease.
He says that in the course of this year, the "Life without violence" project against family violence will continue and also the projects for schoolchildren familiarizing them with the concept of human rights and children's rights.
Last year 17 million dinars were spent from the budget of Vojvodina on the activities of the Ombudsman's office and Teofilovic has announced that he will submit a report next month.
"Danas", 1. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: In Serbia 55% of the children aged 13-15 have tried cigarettes or are regular smokers, and 97% of the children are passive smokers because they are exposed to cigarette smoke every day.
Half of the men, 1/3 of the women and every 4th teenager in our country are smokers. We are in second place in Europe when it comes to the number of nicotine addicts and number of cigarettes smoked (Turkey is in first place).
Under the new regulations of the Law on ban on smoking in confined spaces, the fine for every cigarette lit is 5.000 dinars for an individual, 10.000-50.000 for a company manager and 500.000 for an institution. Except for cafes and restaurants, there is almost no other public place where you can smoke.
It is officially confirmed that 1/3 of the medical doctors in Serbia are smokers. "Even in the health protection institutes, the main promoters of the non-smoking policy, 1/3 of the doctors and half the other staff are passionate smokers", says Dr Tanja Knezevic, director of the "Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut" Health Protection Institute.
73 tons of cigarettes are smoked in Serbia per day and 1,2 billion euros are spent on cigarettes per year.
"Vecernje novosti", 1. 2. 2006.

- KOSJERIC: Thanks to the Greek "European perspective" humanitarian organization, 27 apartments will be built for refugees in Kosjeric. The local community has already provided the location and fitted it with infrastructure. The construction is expected to start in the spring.
The future tenants will only be paying the bills for water, electricity etc. in the first three years, then they will be paying some symbolic rent for 5 years and after that they will have a chance to either buy the apartments or continue to pay the rent.
"Vecernje novosti"', 1. 2. 2006.

CACAK: The customers who purchase more than 500 dinars worth of goods in the "Ishrana" stores in Cacak get a loaf of bread as a present.
"Vecernje novosti", 2. 2. 2006.

- In the town of Strasshoff, Austria, Gunter P. (aged 28) killed with a 20 centimeter butcher blade Denis A. of Serb ethnicity (aged 18) and badly wounded his brother Dejan A. (aged 27) for playing the "Balcan turbofolk" music too loud.
"Vecernje novosti", 2. 2. 2006.

- HUNGARIAN DONATION: The Hungarian Government has assigned 150.000 euros for the "Affirmation of multi-culturalism and tolerance in Vojvodina" project organized by the Executive Council of Vojvodina.
"Blic", 2. 2. 2006.

- NIS: "Mobrku sana zdida" wished the happy Arabian New Year to each other the Serbs gathered in the "Regent" restaurant two nights ago. It was the first organized celebration of the Arabian New Year in Nis, with belly dancers and oriental food. "I like Arabian music and culture and tonight everything is first-class. I had a chance before to learn about the spirit of the Arabian world, but it is really a pleasure to see the belly dancing again and be a part of this atmosphere", says one of the guests Danijela Djordjevic.
"Blic", 2. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The Serbian Government has offered to deliver 50 million kilowatt-hours of power to the Serb enclaves in Kosovo with a risk that they might never be paid but the head of UNMIK's Energetics and Economy Department, Joakim Riker rejected the offer yesterday - says Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, president of the Coordination Center for Kosovo.
Radomir Naumov, Serbia's Minister of Energetics, says that Riker rejected the offer because of the position that the solutions to the problems in Kosovo should not be temporary but permanent and based on commercial contracts. Riker also insists that Serbs in Kosovo should sign a contract with the Kosovo Electric Corporation and pay for the electricity they have spent and only then should they start to count on regular power supplies. Riker rejected Naumov's claim that the situation with the power in the Serb enclaves was a humanitarian catastrophe and qualified it as an energy crisis.
"Danas", 3. 2. 2006.

- ZAGREB: The missing persons lists that Croatia and Serbia&Montenegro have harmonized with the International Committee of the Red Cross, contain 1.142 names of the persons that Croatia believes to have gone missing after the war, 935 names are Croatia's citizens of Serb nationality who went missing in 1995 and 440 are citizens of Serbia&Montenegro.
"Danas", 3. 2. 2006.

- PRISTINA: Two persons were injured and two vehicles were destroyed in yesterday's explosion in the courtyard of the Health Center in Kacanik (municipality in the south of Kosovo), reported the Pristina news media in Albanian.
The "KosovaLive" Agency has reported that one of the destroyed vehicles belonged to the executive head of Kacanik Municipality, Agron Surdani.
"Danas", 3. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: Boris Tadic, President of Serbia and Prime Minister Kostunica will send a joint letter to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan notifying him of the humanitarian catastrophe the Serbs and non-Albanians in Kosovo have been going through because they were cut from electric supplies several weeks ago.
"Vecernje novosti", 3. 2. 2006.

- The citizens of Serbia&Montenegro can travel to 32 countries without a visa; the citizens of Denmark, Finland and the United States have the greatest freedom of travel - they don't need a visa for 130 countries. The citizens of Afghanistan have the least freedom of movement - they can only travel to 12 countries without a visa.
"Vecernje novosti", 3. 2. 2006.

- ZAGREB: To raise 20 million US dollars - is the goal set by the newly established Foundation for Funding the Defence for the Croatian Generals in the Hague Tribunal. The founders say that it is a non-governmental, non-political foundation and it will be funded from the donations by "the people and companies". The funds raised will be used for legal defence for all the Croatian generals and soldiers.
"Vecernje novosti", 3. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: There are around 3.000 registered NGOs in Serbia.
"Glas javnosti", 5. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: Today the Red Cross of Serbia marked its 130th anniversary.
"Danas", 6. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The minimum price for a work hour in Serbia is 46 dinars, which is an increase of 5 dinars compared to the previous price, meaning that the minimum wage in the first half of the year will be 8.004 dinars instead of the previous 7.134 dinars. This was agreed at yesterday's session of the Social-economic Council of Serbia.
Rato Ninkovic, president of the Employers Association of Serbia, says that around 21.000 workers in Serbia receive salaries below the minimal, and around 11.000 receive minimum wages.
"Danas", 4.-5. 2. 2006.

- KRAGUJEVAC: Former rest house and collective center for refugees in Trmbas will be turned into a temporary shelter for the homeless of Kragujevac. They will be getting 3 meals a day and warm clothes and they will get to stay in Trmbas until the end of the winter.
Three persons froze to death in Kragujevac, Raca and Arandjelovac recently and meteorologists forcast a new drop in temperatures.
Accoridng to official statistics, there are no registered homeless persons in Kragujevac but unofficially, there are 15.
The civil protection headquarters appeals to the citizens to report such cases on the phone number 985.
"Glas javnosti", 6. 2. 2006.

- KRAGUJEVAC: The PKB collective centers is housing 130 people (41 families) displaced from Kosovo (more than half of them are children) all living on public assistance allowance, says one of PKB's tenants Milorad Ilic from Djakovica.
Every day at noon they get half a loaf of bread and a plate of soup, except for two local women who married IDPs in PKB - neither the two women nor their children have the right to a free daily meal.
One of them says, "My baby was hungry for days because I had nothing to eat. It cries at night, wants to eat but my breasts were empty. Who are they to decide my life? Don't I have the right to love a man who is a refugee?"
"Glas javnosti", 6. 2. 2006.

- KOSOVSKA MITROVICA: Kosovo's Ministry of Return and Communities will have a budget of a little over 5 million euros in 2006 for projects of return of IDPs and refugees, said the secretary of the Ministry, Mihajlo Scepanovic.
"Glas javnosti", 7. 2. 2006.

- PIROT: The latest systematic medical examinations of school children in Pirot determined undernourishment in 10,64% and obesity in 6,9% of the children, which is alarming.
"Glas javnosti", 7. 2. 2006.

- ZRENJANIN: The Social Work Center in Zrenjanin has announced that 907 households were receiving public assistance allowance in 2004 and last year the number increased to 1.200.
The director of the Center, Vesna Stankov, warns it is not just the increasing number of socially vulnerable families which is alarming but also their structure. She says that mostly persons unfit for work, old people, sick and abandoned people used to receive public assistance allowance. "However, the number of persons fit for work who have lost their jobs or can't get a job is twice the number of the previously mentioned vulnerable categories. They are mostly younger people and if the economic situation doesn't change, there will be more and more of them", said Stankov.
"Glas javnosti", 7. 2. 2006.

- GNJILANE: The house of Trajan Savic in Cernica near Gnjilane was destroyed in a fire set by unidentified persons on the night between Saturday and Sunday, Serb sources in Kosovo have reported. None of the six members of the Savic family was in the house.
It is the 45th house belonging to Serbs set on fire in Cernica since June 1999 and 12 local Serbs have been killed. The persons responsible for the murders or for more than 200 attacks on Serbs haven't been found or charged.
Around 200 Serbs and around 3.000 Albanians live in Cernica.
"Danas", 7. 2. 2006.

- PRISTINA: Joakim Riker, deputy chief of UNMIK, has said that the electricity is distributed in Kosovo on the basis of the regularity of payment and rejected the claims by Sanda Raskovic-Ivic (president of the Coordination Center for Kosovo) that the power is distributed on ethnic basis.
"Danas", 7. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: Roma representatives from Mladenovac, Smedervska Palanka, Sabac, Lazarevac, Obrenovac, Arandjelovac and Belgrade have formed a Movement for the Political Emancipation of the Roma and the Movement will take part in the next elections. It will be officially registered by the end of February, says a statement by the "Rom Interpress".
"Danas", 7. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The problem of urbanization of Roma settlements and other disorganized settlements in Belgrade is to be solved soon.
More than 40.000 Roma are living in Belgrade at the moment in 120 settlements most of which are inadequate for living.
"Not all the Roma settlements are of the same quality. The worst quality are the slums - the garbage dump on the bank of the Danube river and the settlement under the Gazelle bridge, where the 'houses' are built from nonbuilding materials, such as cardboard or tin. These settlements are bad living environment which reflects on the health and habits of these people. The second category are the settlements where the houses are of better quality but there is no infrastructure", says Vladimir Macura, vice-president of the Association for the Improvement of Roma Settlements. "The Action Plan of the Republic of Serbia from 2005 provides solutions for the arrangement of the Roma settlements and the inclusion of the Roma into the society. Under the Plan, between 2005 and 2015 the Roma would be included into the society and there should be lots of engagement and effort on removing the prejudice and barriers that the Roma are facing", said Macura.
"Danas", 7. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: According to the "Veritas" records, Serbs in Croatia owned around 50.000 apartments and at least 100.000 farming households each with at least one residential building.
Only during the operation "Storm" 22.000 houses were destroyed and damaged in Dalmatia, Lika and Kordun.
Savo Strbac, directorof the "Veritas", says that he is convinced that there is no way for their properties to be returned or for the damages to be compensated.
"Croatia's calculation is clear. The value of the properties belonging to refugee Serbs is around 3 billion euros. That would be much even for the richest countries. Croatia won't renounce to that", Strbac says.
Pressured by the international community, two years ago Croatia offered housing accommodation instead of giving back the tenancy rights. Each person who accepts it would get 35 sq meters, on the condition that he/she doesn't own a house or an apartment on the territory of former Yugoslavia. But none of the 4.100 applications haven't been solved yet. Croatia hasn't passed one decision in favour of Serbs for the return of their usurped properties. The Croatian courts always use the same excuse "All the deadlines have expired".
"Blic", 8. 2. 2006.

- KOSOVSKA MITROVICA: One of the two Kosovo Albanians arrested two nights ago on suspicion of being in the group that beat up two local Serbs in Suvi Do near Kosovska Mitrovica, has been released because he is underage, announced UNMIK spokesman Larry Miller. He added that police are trying to find another two Albanians from the group and assessed the incident as "very serious".
According to Dejan Zivkovic from Suvi Do who witnessed the incident, it happened at around 20:00 in the Serb part of the village, when local Albanians attacked with bats Nebojsa Kragovic and Mirko Jeftic.
"Blic", 8. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The federal Ministry of Human and Minority Rights will open its Readmission Office at Belgrade airport today to provide expert assistance for Serbia&Montenegro citizens deported from the West, to react to human rights violations in accordance with the international documents, to follow the implementation of the contracts signed, to gather and process the data and analyze the situation, Jelena Markovic, assistant minister of human and minority rights has confirmed for the "Danas".
The state is also preparing a strategy for reintegration of deportees, from providing the document to all forms of protection, nostrification of professional diplomas, organizing classes for learning the language, employment etc. However, the funds for the implementation of the strategy will only be granted after the adoption of the strategy. Until that time, a Red Cross representative will be providing intervention humanitarian aid. One of the ideas is also to set up transition centers for temporary accommodation of deportees while their other problems are solved, such as status or personal documentation. A great limitation is also the lack of accurate and official information on the number and structure of the deportees. "According to the European Council's estimates, 50.000-100.000 people are to be returned from the EU member countries, mostly Roma from Germany. Between 2003 and 2005, escorted by the Ministry of Police, 5.883 persons were deported back to Serbia&Montenegro, and since the beginning of this year 60 persons have been deported, so the story of 100.000 Roma being returned all at once is unfounded. The return of 2.000-3.000 persons is expected per year", Jelena Markovic says, stressing that it is not in our interest to speed up the process because of the economic situation here.
"They have remembered it too late. They are only setting up the offices now and the process of forcing Roma out of western Europe has been going on for 3 years. We expect around 70.000 Roma to be deported from western European countries. These will be information centers and they will not solve the problem of the Roma population in exile", says Dragoljub Ackovic, member of the Presidency of the Congressional Union of Roma of Europe.
Asked what the chance is for them to reintegrate into our society, he said: "There are no conditions for it here. Most Roma left from Kosovo. Out of 150.000 Roma who lived in the Province before the NATO bombardment, only around 26.000 have stayed in Kosovo. There is no return to Kosovo because the situation has been unstable there, the status issue is unsolved, the freedom of movement and employment is restricted, not to mention the problem with personal documentation. There are almost no chance for their integration into the society in central Serbia which already has a problem with high unemployment rate. Even the Roma who have lived abroad for 15 years are forced to return. They have found jobs there and their children have started going to schools, some children were born abroad and they don't speak any Serbian. And here they will be additional burden for their relatives and for garbage dumps", Ackovic says.
"Danas", 14. 2. 2006.

- BOR: Last year there were 140 marriages and 114 divorces in Bor municipality. Most marriages divorce 1-5 years after the wedding. The most common reason for abandoning a matrimony is alcohol, then physical abuse and adultery.
"Glas javnosti", 10. 2. 2006.

- KIKINDA: The Swedish Individual Humanitarian Aid has announced the purchase of 7 houses (6 for refugees and one for a local socially vulnerable family) in the village of Basaid near Kikinda. Basaid was picked because of low prices and a large number of abandoned houses. The only obligation of the future owners is to engage in the production of organic food and provide in this way the means to support their families.
"Danas", 10. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The faculties of science and maths of Belgrade University are facing bankruptcy due to enormous unpaid bills for electricity, water, heating. They have appealed for help to the Ministry of Education and to the mayor of Belgrade warning that they will be forced to put a lock on their doors unless someone helps them. For example, the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy has a debt for unpaid bills worth 14 million dinars.
"Blic", 10. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: According to UNHCR records, last year 55 persons from Usbekistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Moldova, Mongolia and Morroco seeked asylum in Serbia.
"Blic", 13. 2. 2006.

- PRISTINA: The new President of Kosovo is Fatmir Sejdiu of the Democratic Union of Kosovo.
"Danas", 11.-12. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The unemployment rate among the population aged under 30 in Serbia is 48,8%.
"Danas", 11.-12. 2. 2006.

- KRUSEVAC: The Italian "Inter SOS" organization will deliver 250.000 dinars worth of building materials for refugees from former Yugoslavia who are living on the territory of Krusevac.
"Blic", 12. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: There were 4.078 traffic accidents in Serbia in January in which 1.000 persons were injured and 49 lost their life. Last year there were 61.933 traffic accidents in Serbia in which 12.750 persons were injured and 839 lost their life.
"Blic", 12. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights has records on the people who get deported by force but not the records on the people who return voluntarily. "At the moment we practically don't know which region has the most returnees and where preschool groups should be organized for children and pay special attention to our returnees. Once we know that, after we conduct a research, we will be able to act more efficiently", said Jelena Markovic, assistant minister of human and minority rights.
Sandzak region is particularly interesting because Luxemburg has returned 7.000 emigrant workers there. It has turned out that most children don't speak their mother tongue so preparation groups for studying Serbian language have had to be organized for them. In the meantime, the news media have reported that as many as 90% of the deportees are unemployed, whereas Jelena Markovic says that it is not quite so: "Luxemburg has donated 11 million euros for the return of those people and for their integration into our society. I don't believe that the funds have reached everyone", Markovic says.
"Blic", 16. 2. 2006.

- NOVI PAZAR: President of Novi Pazar municipality, Sulejman Ugljanin, has sent a letter to the Serbian Prime Minister, to the Minister of Capital Investments and to the director of the Railway-Transportation Company of Serbia, requesting that they consider the possiblities of building a railroad from Raska to Novi Pazar. It is a distance of around 20km and according to Ugljanin, the railroad would mean a lot for Novi Pazar economy, since there are around 3.000 companies in Novi Pazar municipality. The construction of the railroad Raska-Novi Pazar started in 1948 when the entire route was marked out but in the 1970s the rout was used for the construction of a regional road.
"Glas javnosti", 16. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: According to the official statistics of the Commission for Refugees, there are 141.705 refugees living in Serbia and nearly 210.000 IDPs. In collaboration with the donors, mostly UNHCR, the Commission has built 2.650 housing units for around 10.000 refugees so far and another 570 apartments and houses are under construction.
In September 2002, the Commission started to close down the collective centers in accordance with the National strategy for durable solution of refugee problems. There are 98 collective centers at the moment housing around 9.000 people.
"Danas", 15. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: Serbs in Kosovo are still cut from electric supplies for 16 hours a day on average because UNMIK still refuses to accept the Serbian Government's proposal on humanitarian power supplies free of charge, confirmed Zeljko Martinovic, spokesman for the Ministry of Energy of Serbia.
"Glas javnosti", 18. 2. 2006.

- SENTA: Marta Barsi, member of the municipal council of Senta, said yesterday that Vojvodina Executive Council had delivered a million dinars for the accommodation of the Kolompar family, whose three members were killed in a fire on January 19th. The money will be used for the purchase of one large and three smaller residential units on the outskirts of Senta for the families of Kolompar, Dimovic and Jankovic, who are staying with their relatives at the moment.
Senta municipality intends to move out the tenants of the other wooden barrack in Eugen Savojski Street, located next to the one destroyed in the fire in January. Some twenty years ago, after the construction workers had left the two barracks, the local Roma moved in.
"Glas javnosti", 18. 2. 2006.

- PRIBOJ: Unemployment rate in Zlatibor County (Bajina Basta, Kosjeric, Uzice, Pozega, Cajetina, Arilje and Priboj) is 32,95%.
"Glas javnosti", 18. 2. 2006.

- BEC: Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, demads from the EU to suspend the negotiations with Serbia&Montenegro on stabilization and accession unless Ratko Mladic is extradited by the end of February. "I learnt on Croatia's example that threatening with sanctions is useful. So I take the right to demand the same for Belgrade as well", she said for the Wienna "Standard" daily.
"Glas javnosti", 19. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: Serbia&Montenegro citizens can travel to 32 countries without a visa so our country occupies 128th place in the world when it comes to the freedom of travel. Denmark, Finland and the United States are in first place because they can travel to 130 countries without a visa.
Our citizens are forced to queue outside the embassies in Belgrade for days just to apply for a visa. The embassies charge their fees for issuing visas in advance and if a person isn't granted a visa, the money is not refunded. The Austrian Embassy explains that they keep the money as compensation for "looking at an application". "Someone has to examine all the applications filed, and it costs money. So the money is not refunded", said Ana Jankovic, director of the cultural forum in the Austrian Embassy.
"Glas javnosti", 19. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: With certain exceptions, a clean bill of health is not required for employment, not even for those occupying the most responsible positions in the state administration. It is only required for getting a driving licence.
"Glas javnosti", 19. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: Serbia&Montenegro will need around 500 million euros in the next 5 years to implement successfully the housing and social integration of its citizens of Roma, Bosniak and Ashkalia ethnicity who will be returned from the EU because they haven't obtained the right to asylum or residence papers. This is an estimated amount calculated in accordance with the funds assigned for the purpose in some of the European countries.
Dusan Janjic, coordinator of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, says that around 230.000 Serbia&Montenegro citizens are expected to return in the above period of time, most of them of Roma ethnicity.
"Support is necessary from donors and the countries where our people resided. I have been confirmed in Berlin that Germany has granted 50 million euros for the purpose. But housing is only part of the problem. Among the returnees the most numerous are Roma, some of whom have no personal ID cards, they were not included in the counting of the population and they have no accommodation. Part of them will return to the unhygienic settlements, they will start roaming and living in improvized shelters again, maybe new unhygienic settlements will be formed, some will try again to go abroad, so a program for social reintegration is necessary but not only for the returnees. The Ministry of Education should play a major part in this. Many Roma children end up in special schools due to their bad knowledge of Serbian language. Among the returnees there are lots of children who speak a little German, they can communicate in their first language but they speak no Serbian at all. There are also Roma returnees with advanced education and there lies the key to the problem. These people should be engaged in the reintegration programs. Many of them had work experience in Germany, they speak several languages well and they possess other knowledges", Janjic said.
"Glas javnosti", 20. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: In unemployment rate among people under 30, Serbia&Montenegro is in first place in Europe. There are around 50.000 job vacancies in Serbia but no one wants to accept those jobs or there are no people qualified enough for them.
"Young people usually leave Serbia after several failed attempts to find a job so we have prepared several programs to encourage and stimulate young people to stay here and get a job", said Slobodan Lalic, Minister of Work and Social Policy.
There are 140.000 unemployed people in Belgrade. It is the easiest for shop assistants, bankers, economists, waiters and pizza-makers to find a job and it is the hardest for archeologists, sociologists, those with a diploma of the Faculty of Political Science and those who have finished Gymnasium.
The unemployment rate in 2000 was 12,09%, and in 2004 it was 18,5%.
"Glas javnosti", 20. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: Each family in Vojvodina who gets triplets or quadruplets in 2006, will receive assistance of 600.000 dinars from the Province's budget, the Executive Council of Vojvodina has decided. This is one of the pronatality measures of the Vojvodina government, for whose implementation 4,8 million dinars are assigned. Last year the assistance for newly born triplets and quadruplets was 100.000 dinars per family but it has been established that the amount is not enough for everything babies need so it has been decided to increase the one-time cash aid to 600.000 dinars. Last year there were 9 sets of triplets in Vojvodina, of which 6 had been conceived by artificial insemination.
"Glas javnosti", 16. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: 300-350 children in Serbia get cancer every year.
"Glas javnosti", 16. 2. 2006.

- LEBANE: Lebane is the poorest municipality in Serbia. Almost none of the 6 state-owned and privatized companies are working and the average monthly salary in the municipality is 1.500 dinars. It is estimated that over 5.000 young people have left the area in the last decade, mostly for Italy. The municipality has a population of around 25.000.
"Glas javnosti", 16. 2. 2006.

- ZAGREB: One of the applicants for a job at the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Croatia was unpleasantly surprised when among nearly 300 test questions she also got those explicitly asking about the applicant's "sexual habits and tastes", such as - do you visit parties where partners are being exchanged, do you get excited when you watch porn movies, can you enjoy sex without any perversions etc. They have confirmed in the Ministry that such questions are a "standard part" of the test procedure, but they emphasize that the "sexual
orientation" does not affect the candidate's eligibility for the job but it is only an "indicator of their social sensitivity to certain subjects".
"Glas javnosti", 16. 2. 2006.

- PRIBOJ: Unemployment rate in Zlatibor County (Bajina Basta, Kosjeric, Uzice, Pozega, Cajetina, Arilje and Priboj) is 32,95%.
"Glas javnosti", 18. 2. 2006.

- BELGRADE: According to OSCE statistics, in Croatia there are around 30.000 apartments that Serbs have abandoned but the estimates by Serb associations are that the actual figure amount to as many as 50.000. According to estimates, only on this base Serbs lost at least a billion euros.
When it comes to the program for reconstruction of properties, Serbs were damaged at the start, according to minimal estimates, for around 245 million euros. The properties are only partly reconstructed and a family of three can only get 55 sq meters maximum, on condition that they don't own an apartment or a house nowhere on the territory of former Yugoslavia. In Croatia around 22.000 houses have been damaged, destroyed or usurped. Regardless of whether someone owned, say, 2 houses or some other buildings, they only have the right to 55 sq meters and returnee families rarely have more than 3 members. Another story is the Serbs' furniture which was taken away or destroyed, like house appliances etc. altogether worth at least 600 million German marks. Serbs were also left without 150.000 head of cattle, 7.000 business locations, a large number of cars, tractors and other vehicles, and many haven't solved the problems with pension and work experience, so the total damage is estimated at a minimum of 4,5 billion euros.
According to Croatia's Government records, since last year around 4.000 houses in Croatia are available to the owners and around 400 are still usurped. Between 1995 and 1998, 19.277 housing units, mostly houses, in Serbs' private possession were granted to Croats to use. Until July last year, Serbs filed 16.000 requests for reconstruction and 7.672 for housing.
"Glas javnosti", 21. 2. 2006.

- ZAGREB: As of March 22nd, Croatian citizens will not need visas for Great Britain any more, announced John Ramsden, British embassador in Zagreb.
London introduced visas for Croatia in 1999 with an explanation that a large number of Croatian citizens were seeking asylum in Britain.
"Glas javnosti", 2. 3. 2006.

- SARAJEVO: All 237 Serb families who fled the Federation of Bosnia&Herzegovina during the war have started legal proceedings against the Federation. The case will be examined in Sarajevo on April 25th and 26th. They are accusing the Federation of the destruction of their properties altogether worth around 32 million KM.
"Glas javnosti", 2. 3. 2006.

- KRAGUJEVAC: The construction is planned of 670 apartments for 3.000 refugees and local socially vulnerable persons in Kragujevac, Cacak, Kraljevo, Pancevo, Pazova and Valjevo. The project is financed by the Italian Government.
The construction of 32 of 96 apartments in Kragujevac started yesterday.
"Glas javnosti", 2. 3. 2006.

- NIS: The first person to call the volunteer on duty on the SOS phone for victims of domestic violence who ask help in Roma language asked timidly: "Is it true that now we also have someone to complain to?"
After this more Roma women asked for help the SOS volunteers in Belgrade Mahala in Nis.
The coordinator of the SOS phone, Ana Sacipovic, says that it was necessary to open such a phone line because lots of Roma women don't speak any Serbian. On the other hand, many are reluctant to ask SOS phone volunteers for help in Serbian. Since the first SOS phone was set up in 1992 for victims of domestic violence in Nis, only 7 Roma women have asked for help.
"Many victims of domestic violence won't tell their problems to non-Roma persons because they don't think they will be understood since non-Roma persons don't know their mentality. Roma women are brought up to serve their families and later their husbands. The unwritten law is that women have to obey men", Sacipovic says.
Thanks to foreign donors, 10 Roma speaking volunteers are being trained at the moment to work with victims of domestic violence.
"Blic", 2. 3. 2006.

- BELGRADE:The blind and persons with poor vision in Serbia haven't had a chance to get the necessary medical devices at the expense of the health insurance fund for 3 years now, said the representatives of the Blind Perons Union of Serbia at yesterday's press conference. They said that there are around 12.000 registered blind and persons with poor vision in Serbia and due to complicated tenders for the purchase of the devices, they can't use their right to dark glasses, white canes, Braille typing machines and other necessary equipment. They stressed that the problem is the Republic Health Insurance Department has signed contracts with companies who do sell appliances for handicapped persons but they have no equipment for blind people because "you can't make too much money on it".
"Danas", 2. 3. 2006.

- BELGRADE: The number of traffic accidents in Serbia nearly doubled from Monday to Tuesday - 266 traffic accidents were registered on Tuesday in which three persons were killed and 46 were injured. The roads were wet and slippery due to the snow that fell the previous day.
"Danas", 2. 3. 2006.

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