Serbia’s new nationalist president and the liberal rival likely to be the next prime minister assured the country Monday that they could overcome deep differences and create a stable, pro-European Union government.

Tomislav Nikolic defeated his predecessor Boris Tadic in the presidential election earlier this month, and Nikolic’s nationalist Progressive Party won the largest number of seats in the 250-member parliament. But because Tadic’s Democrats gained enough allies to form the next Cabinet, Nikolic is expected to be forced to name Tadic as premier-designate.

The position of prime minister is stronger than that of the president, a largely ceremonial role that cannot draft laws.

The two bitter political foes met Monday, a day after Tadic announced the start of negotiations on the formation of a new government that would leave Nikolic without real power.

“We had very good talks,” Tadic said. “This was a meeting not only about the transfer of power … but about what Serbia’s institutions should look like in the future.”

Nikolic also sounded an optimistic note.

“We have one common goal and that is for Serbia to move forward so that its citizens can live better,” the president told reporters. “I think that you can view Serbia’s political stability in the future with much more optimism.”

Over the last week or so, there have been a lot of stories coming out in the British media warning people to stay away from Euro 2012 because Ukraine and Poland are such viciously racist places. For example, this article from The Guardian says:

And yet on the eve of the tournament Ukraine is staring at nothing less than a full-blown PR disaster. In an interview with Panorama , the former England defender Sol Campbell bluntly says Uefa was wrong to give Euro 2012 to Poland and Ukraine because of their failure to get to grips with racism. He tells fans: “Stay at home, watch it on TV. Don’t even risk [going] … because you could end up coming back in a coffin.”

Campbell’s apocalyptic remarks come after the families of England players Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain said they would not be attending England’s three group-stage matches in Ukraine because of the threat of violence and racist attacks.

Although later in the article it says:

Some observers believe the dangers of racism in Ukraine are overstated. Yuri Bender, a journalist who follows Ukrainian football closely, points out that the country’s two leading clubs, Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev, both regularly field five or six black players in league and European matches. They are not subjected to abuse. A new, younger generation of supporters, particularly in the Donbass region, see the black, mainly Brazilian players as role models and make a six-eight hour round trip by bus to see their heroes every two weeks, he adds.

What do you think?

The 28-kilometre section between Demir Kapija and Smokvica is to be built with funding worth a total of 300 million Euros, which makes it one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Macedonia in recent years.

“We hope that this will boost the local economy, along with other capital projects that we are planning from the budget,” Stavrevski said. He did not specify the exact date on which construction work will begin.

In September last year Stavreski signed a loan agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development worth 107 million Euros for this section of the highway.

An additional 130 million Euros has been provided by the European Investment Bank, and another 45 million Euros has been granted under the European Unions’ Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance. The government said it will allocate remaining funds from the state budget.

Corridor 10 is one of the two main transport routes connecting Macedonia to Serbia, Greece and the rest of Europe.

This might seem like a boring topic, but if you’ve ever traveled around the Balkans you’ll know that the lack of solid infrastructure is a major obstacle to investment and development. For instance: I took a bus from Skopje to Sarajevo - which are 200 miles/320 km apart - that took 15 hours and took such a circuitous route that at one point we went through part of Croatia. Who is going to invest in an area where moving goods around is so time-consuming and arduous? Pretty much no one.

So I am always happy to see stories about building new roads.

An unsanctioned gay pride parade descended into violence Sunday as religious activists arrived to break up the demonstration and police detained protesters.

More than 10 people were arrested outside the Moscow City Duma Sunday, where gay rights activists had planned to hold to protest a new law being discussed that would ban “homosexual propaganda,” RIA-Novosti reported.

Three of those arrested were Orthodox Church activists who had come to disrupt the protest, while the other detained demonstrators were all participants of the gay rights protest, including event organizer Nikolai Alekseyev.

News media showed pictures and videos of physical altercations between the two groups in which a man holding a rainbow flag was being attacked as journalists stood by with cameras rolling.

Other pictures showed activists hold signs, including one anti-gay protester whose sign read “Moscow is not Sodom.”

After the arrests, the remaining activists were dispersed, and police stayed behind with several police buses to guard the area against further disturbances.

The organizers of the parade had planned for a crowd of several thousand to gather for a picket at the City Duma at 1 p.m. and to move to City Hall an hour later. Police had warned that demonstrators could face arrests and fines for holding an unsanctioned protest.

We now have video of Ukraine’s parliamentary brawl from yesterday. As narrated by the BBC.

A violent scuffle has erupted in Ukraine’s parliament over a bill that would allow the use of the Russian language in courts, hospitals and other institutions in the Russian-speaking regions of the country.

The fight broke out Thursday evening between members of the pro-Western opposition who want to take Ukraine out of Russia’s shadow and lawmakers from President Viktor Yanukovych’s party, which bases its support in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east.

At least one legislator, opposition lawmaker Mykola Petruk, suffered an apparent blow to the head and was taken to the hospital with blood streaming down his face.

…Ukraine is deeply divided into the Russian-speaking east and south, which favors close ties with Moscow, and the Ukrainian-speaking west, which wants Ukraine to join the Western club.

Oh, Washington Post, that last paragraph is quite the oversimplification.

Hungary won’t allow abortion pills because they pose health risks, the country’s senior official responsible for healthcare issues said this week, sparking a new debate among the public, politicians and NGOs, some of who voiced concerns that the Hungarian government could go further and restrict or ban abortion.

“There are great risks that we must protect girls and women from,” the official, Miklos Szocska said.

In a response to Mr. Szocska’s comments on local television, the association of NGOs for women’s rights said they were flabbergasted by such remarks and said they weren’t aware of any such debate going on.

“The United Nation’s World Health Organization, and Hungary’s Professional College of Birth and Gynecology–the official advisory to the ministry of human resources–support the introduction of the abortion pill as they consider it safe,” said Julia Spronz, lawyer and member of the non-governmental umbrella organization Hungarian Women’s Lobby.

…A ban on the pill would bar state-owned hospitals from obtaining an otherwise registered medical product. Private hospitals may continue to offer the pill to their patients. The public relations office of Hungary’s only clinic where the pill is available said it would respond as soon as possible.

Horror fans are in for a treat with the release this week of “Chernobyl Diaries.” 

Faithful to the genre, six young American tourists go on an extreme tour to the Chornobyl fallout zone and the emptied-out city of Pripyat, with its sprawling concrete housing projects and abandoned schools and hospitals. The perky adventure-seekers get stranded and trouble ensues at the hands of radiation-mutated predators. 

Fans of exploitation cinema might be happy, but support groups for victims of the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster are not.

Robert Schuettpelz, the director of Friends of Chernobyl Centers, U.S., a nonprofit that provides financial support to five community centers in Ukraine situated within or near contaminated areas, says the film is upsetting.

“I’ve been working with Chornobyl survivors for the past eight years and after what I’ve seen and after I’ve got to know them, seeing this movie and the trailers, and the information about it, it’s kind of upsetting to see that they decided to make this movie and make light of the real situation in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia,” Schuettpelz says.

“People are still living with the after-effects of this every day — even 26 years after.”

What do you think? Are you planning on seeing this film?

A 5.8-magnitude quake struck Bulgaria early Tuesday, triggering panic among sleepy residents who ran into the streets in their pyjamas, and some minor damage, but no casualties were reported.

The quake jolted an area near Pernik, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Sofia and was felt in the capital and other towns as well as in neighbouring Greece and Macedonia.

Residents of tall apartment buildings in Sofia said objects crashed to the ground during the tremor which lasted several minutes, and was followed by about 20 lighter aftershocks, according to local seismologists.

“Everything was shaking like crazy. I ran out shouting … I won’t go back home today,” teenager Maria told AFP outside her apartment building in a western Sofia neighbourhood.

A state of emergency has been declared in the area around Pernik, a mining town of about 80,000 people, and police and firefighters were dispatched to the region to held distressed residents and check for damage.

School classes were cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday.

“So far, there are no (known) casualties or injuries, which is good news,” Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Focus press agency.

Civil defence chief Nikolay Nikolov said his service has received reports of toppled chimneys, falling masonry, cracked walls, broken windows and damaged cars in the Pernik region and Sofia.

My village is not too far from Pernik. D:

Polish taxi drivers brought Warsaw traffic to a crawl on Wednesday and joined a growing list of groups that have threatened similar protests during next month’s European soccer championship.

The drivers, opposing government plans to do away with taxi permits as part of a drive to free up various occupations, blocked several major roads and bridges around the Polish capital in the morning and ended their protest hours later in front of the parliament building.

Similar protests took place in other Polish cities, including Wroclaw and Gdansk, which will also host Euro 2012 matches starting on June 8.

“We don’t rule out the possibility of doing something on June 8,” said Pawel Biedrzycki, one of the protest organisers in Warsaw. “But we are also soccer fans, so we really don’t want to block (the city). It would be our last resort.”