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Holiday-makers had heat strokes at the Bourgas beach yesterday because of the broiling heat. The central beach of Bourgas ( on the photo) was overcrowded yesterday. At the same time a 39-year-old man died in the street in Targovishte, when the temperatures there hit 37 C. The record, however, was registered in the town of Kyustendil - 50 C. The highs will drop by 10 C from Wednesday, meteorologists forecast. PHOTO Impact Press Group
In Varna (on the Black Sea), thousands of local residents and holidaymakers flocked to the beach as daytime air temperatures hit record highs. PRESSPHOTO-BTA Photo: Krassimir Krustev
CATHEDRAL ST. SOFIA IN OHRID RECONSECRATED.
MIA
Within the second day of the Holy Spirit Day, a ceremonial divine archbishopric liturgy is held Monday, for reconsecration of the Cathedral of St. Sofia in Ohrid.
Head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia, His Holiness Stefan, held a holy service together with the Holy Archbishopric Synod.
After the sanctifying ceremony of the cathedral church "St. Sofia" in Ohrid, Macedonian Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski gave certificates to the donors and congratulated to all believers this holy act.
"After 535 years 'St. Sofia' became a church again. It was previously turned into mosque by the Osmanli, and during the communist atheism we had church that was used as a concert hall for 35 years, but now it is a church again and that is its true purpose," Georgievski said.
He pointed out that this was wonderful introduction for the sanctifying of St. Kliment church, which reconstruction is close to an end.
The Culture Minister Ganka Samoilovska-Cvetanova, the Minister for Transport and Communications, Ljupco Balkovski, public and political representatives from the country and many believers attended the service.
The reconsecration of the Cathedral takes place after five hundred and thirty years. The Cathedral has a new iconostasis and redone floor.
The Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia, his holiness Stefan, placed the signed Charter in the church that was a residence of all Ohrid archbishops.
MEETING OF CEI MEMBER STATES IN OHRID.
MIA
A session of the CEI Committee of National Co-ordinators will be held Tuesday within the frameworks of started meeting of CEI representatives.
CEI National Co-ordinators should draft the text of the final document, which will be adopted at the conference of CEI Ministers of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.
The document will include evaluations of the current political situation in the region and the strategy for accomplishment of the main priority of CEI, approach of the CEI Member States to the EU.
A seminar for the members of the CEI working groups focused on projects, which are carried out within the frameworks of the Initiative, will be held Tuesday.
The participants of today's meetings are to be received by the mayor of Ohrid Nikola Naumov.
Delegations that are to participate at Wednesday's ministerial conference are to arrive Tuesday afternoon.
The Conference on CEI Co-operation was held Monday at the first day of the meeting where National Co-ordinators of CEI Member States, CEI chairs of working groups and members of the CEI - Executive Secretariat participated.
Molotov Cocktail Thrown On Macedonian Embassy In Bern.
MIA
Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Monday the Swiss Ambassador to the country, Stephan Nellen and gave him a note of protests due to the Sunday's incident in Bern, when Molotov cocktail was thrown on the Macedonian Embassy, causing small fire in the garden.
According to the press release from the Foreign Ministry, the protest note reads that this incident was the most severe act that jeopardized the security of the Embassy in Bern, after numerous verbal threats directed towards the staff and the facility.
The Ministry in compliance with the provisions of the Viennese Convention on diplomatic relations requests from the authorized Swiss institutions to undertake all necessary measure for protection of the staff and the facility of the Macedonian Embassy in Bern and to conduct investigation in order to discover the perpetrator of this vandal act and to bring him to justice.
A note with identical contents was submitted by the Macedonian Embassy in Bern to the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
ATMs Will be Blocked.
Standartnews
Payment with credit cards will stop for several hours next Sunday.
Cash drawing from automated teller machines and payment with credit cards in hotels and shops will be blocked on the night of June 30 between 00:30 and 05:30 a.m. The reason is the replacement of the computer system with an upgraded one. This is the first ATM stoppage after the denomination of the national currency in 1999, said Alexander Matrozov - CEO of BOPUCA (Bank Organization for Payment with Use of Cards). From July 1999 the number of bank cards in this country incresed seven times - from 178,000 up to 1.25 million, Matrozov said further. Of them 260,000 are the cards which can be used abroad as well. The number of ATMs currently amounts to 715, while 250 are in Sofia. In July 1999 they were 198.
Parvanov Proposes a Scheme to Save NPP Kozloduy.
Standartnews
Nevena Mircheva
Vladislava Peeva
We have to prolong the life of Reactors III and IV, President Parvanov maintains.
President Georgi Parvanov proposed three plans for the four small reactors of NPP Kozloduy yesterday to be discussed by Vice-PM Nikolai Vassilev, Energy minister Milko Kovachev, Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, Emil Vapirev, chairman of the Committee for Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy, the management of the N-Plant, as well as deputies from the Energy Committee and representatives of the Civil Committee for protection of Kozloduy NPP. The consolidated Bulgarian stand is to upgrade Reactors III and IV for a maximum life, Parvanov said further. The negotiations with the EC will be hard, given the agreed upon bases, but we are to submit expert arguments and we insist the EC to listen to us, the president was flat. At the same time Bulgaria should not let any delay in the accession rates. Today's discussion is a little bit late, the situation now is quite more complicated, than it was two years back, Parvanov elaborated. He stressed that safety is the key criterion to make decisions on the Kozloduy NPP.
BULGARIA - N-PLANT - SAFETY REVIEW.
BTA
IAEA Begins Safety Review Mission for 440 MW Units 3 and 4 of Kozloduy N-Plan.
Vratsa, Northwestern Bulgaria, June 24 (BTA) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Monday began a Safety Review Mission (SRM) for the 440 MW Units 3 and 4, the N-Plant said in a press release. The SRM has been requested by the Government of Bulgaria.
The idea is to obtain a competent international assessment of the safety status of Units 3 and 4 after implementation of the key stages of the comprehensive programme for their modernization.
The IAEA team consists of eight experts of France, Germany, the US, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey and Brazil and is headed by Aybars Guerpinar of Turkey, Head of the Engineering Safety Section of the Division of Nuclear Installation Safety in the IAEA Department of Nuclear Safety.
The formal launch of the mission was attended by Energy and Energy Resources Minister Milko Kovachev, the Chairman of the Committee for the Use of Atomic Energy for Peaceful Purposes Emil Vapirev, and the N-Plant management.
"In recent years, the Kozloduy N-Plant has been visited by many missions, for which we are grateful to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Kovachev said. He noted that the expertise provided under the technical cooperation programmes has been particularly valuable. "The greatest achievement we can report now is the enhancement of the safety culture of both the N-plant staff and the public," the Minister said.
Vapirev noted that in recent years experts have focussed on safety improvement and implementation of new technological solutions which have upgraded the nuclear safety of the generating units to a new level.
Kozloduy N-Plant Executive Director Yordan Kostadinov presented to the IAEA team the current status of the nuclear capacities and the modernization programmes, stressing that an independent expert assessment is exceptionally important for the people working at the plant because it will evaluate the efforts of the entire staff to improve Kozloduy's safety.
The SRM will take five days. The experts will assess Units 3 and 4 in seven key areas: operational safety, seismic stability, safety systems, accident analysis, power supply systems, control and management systems, and components integrity (including aspects of ageing).
Teams of experts have been formed at the N-Plant to render full assistance and provide the information which the IAEA experts will need during their work at Kozloduy, the press release said.
ITALIAN DELEGATION-MEETINGS.
BTA
Gustavo Selva: Italy Wants to Become Number One Investor in Bulgaria.
Sofia, June 24 (BTA) - Gustavo Selva, President of the Foreign and Community Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, stated his country's ambition to become the number one investor in Bulgaria at a meeting with Foreign Minister Solomon Passy on Monday. Selva is here on an official visit with a seven-member parliamentary delegation.
Italy is the third biggest investor in Bulgaria now, Passy said after the meeting.
The two also talked about the European Council in Seville, NATO enlargement, the Middle East problem, the situation in the Balkans and the work of the UN Security Council.
Passy said they talked about specific aspects of bilateral relations, which he called "superb".
Selva said the two countries' excellent partnership had been promoted by the exceptional personal contact between the prime ministers Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Silvio Berlusconi.
The guest confirmed that Italian investors were interested in strategic infrastructure projects in Bulgaria, such as construction of the Upper Arda cascade, highways and tourist facilities.
These large-scale projects are supported by the two countries' shared will, at parliamentary and government level, Selva said.
The Italian MP reaffirmed Rome's support for Bulgaria's membership in NATO and the EU. Bulgaria should be admitted to NATO at the Prague Summit in November, he said. Italy will help Bulgaria join the EU as quickly as possible, immediately after the first wave of enlargement, he said.
Earlier on Monday, the Italian delegation met with Bulgarian parliamentarians.
It can be said in advance that the Italian delegation to the Prague Summit will vote for inviting Bulgaria to NATO, Stanimir Ilchev, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy, Defence and Security, said after the meeting.
Italy is strongly motivated to work within the framework of communication and information projects in the armed forces, Ilchev said. The Italian deputies find further grounds for this in Italy's participation in the multinational brigade headquartered in Plovdiv.
The sides share the view that Italy is and will remain one of Bulgaria's biggest trading partners: 15 per cent of Bulgarian exports go to Italy, and 10 per cent of its imports come from Italy, Ilchev said.
It was decided that parliamentary delegations should be exchanged on a regular basis. The opportunities opened up by the memorandum of cooperation signed by the two parliaments in 2000 should be tapped.
It was extremely useful to share views on the Middle East conflict, Ilchev said.
The sides held close or identical positions on this matter during the conversation, according to him.
PM-CRANS MONTANA FORUM.
BTA
PM, Deputy PM Leave for Crans Montana Forum.
Sofia, June 25 (BTA) - Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikolai Vassilev, leaves Tuesday for Crans Montana, Switzerland, to attend the 13th annual meeting of the Crans Montana Forum which opens June 27.
Prime ministers and presidents of other countries have requested meetings with Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, said the Cabinet's information directorate chief Tsvetelina Ouzounova, but would not give any details about the visit as the itinerary is still being specified.
The Cabinet's information directorate added that Vassislev too will have a series of bilateral meetings.
According to the forum's programme which has been posted on the Net, the Bulgarian prime minister will be guest speaker at the official opening session together with the foreign minister of Afghanistan, the presidents of Kosovo and Mongolia, and the finance and economy minister of Iran, among others.
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha will attend June 28 and 29 the following discussions: "The EU Enlargement to Central Europe", "The Enlargement of NATO to Central and Eastern European Countries" and "The European Enlargement and Southeastern Europe: The Key is Democracy Consolidation", chaired by Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer.
Bulgarians Eat Less, But Drink More.
Standartnews
Stephan Kioutchukov
The annual income is enough to buy 4 TV sets, NSI data show.
Bulgarians are losing their purchasing power even when it comes to staple foods. The food consumption last year downed as compared with 2000, show the analysis of the National Statistics Institute (NSI). The average per capita bread consumption was 136.7 kg in 2000, while in 2001 - 133.1 kg. The consumption of meat dropped by 2 kg per capita - down to 20.9 kg. Contrary to this trend, the Bulgarians began to drink more alcohol. The per capita consumption of liquor in 2001 was 18.2 l. The annual incomes suffice for buying 4 TV sets. TV set can be bought in three months only, if we save the whole salary. The average per capita earnings in 2001 amounts to 1,589 levs, including wages, pensions, social aids and entrepreneurship. The monthly per capita income last year was 132.42 levs, or 4.35 levs daily. The chances for buying shoes have improved - now we can buy two more pairs, as compared with the previous year.
HERBS.
BTA
Legislation on Nutritional Additives Lacking.
Sofia, June 24 (BTA) - 772 of the total of 12,000 plants whose remedial qualities have been catalogued internationally can be found in Bulgaria; 327 of the medicinal plants endemic to Bulgaria are used for phito-treatment and another 127 for herbal medicaments. Bulgaria is Europe's largest herbs exporter.
The Bulgarian parliament has passed a special law on medicinal plants that regulates the operation of herb collectors and of companies that purchase the plants from them and is designed to protect herbal plants from extinction.
Many people view nature from the point of view of consumers and that is where regulations and restrictions are needed, says botanist Dimitar Peev who co-authored the plan for the management of the Rila nature reserve. The plan envisages the introduction of charges for the gathering of herbs in the reserve.
The National Environmental Protection Fund finances projects for the gathering of medicinal plants targeting unemployment-hit mountainous regions.
The percentage of herbal medicaments on the market has increased from 2.5% in 1990 to 25% in 2002, said the Union of Herb Collectors, noting the negative trend of exporting herbs from the country which are then processed into medicaments abroad only to be imported back at steep retail prices.
Manager of company Remcopharma Ognyan Radev is not worried that Bulgaria exports the raw material only to get pricey imports in return. In the absence of a solid investor, Bulgaria can hardly afford to process locally the medicinal plants; that would require production facilities, experts, clinical tryouts, all of which are resources within the capabilities of multinational drug companies, he said.
Remcopharma started its business here 10 years ago. The company makes herb-based nutritional additives. Radev noted that the legislation on food additives is too loose and that could have a detrimental effect on the consumer.
Additives are a borderline product grouped with regular food products; but whereas there are strict regulations for the production of the latter, no such guidelines are available for nutritional additives, Radev said.
Unemployment Is Killing Bulgaria.
INTERVIEW Standartnews: Vladimir Kvint
Slavka Bozukova
It is even more dreadful that your country is the champion in population fall, says Prof. Vladimir Kvint.
Vladimir Kvint is a professor of economics, he teaches management and business in Fordam University in New York. During the election campaign last year he was the advisor to Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Vladimir Kvint is a member of the World Jewish Congerss and "Bretton-Wood" Commission, which monitors the World Bank, IMF and WTO.
At the end of January 2002, Prof. Kvint said that Bulgaria is seriously lagging behind with reforms. Later he recommended that our country should declare amnesty on capitals drained from Bulgaria.
- Prof. Kvint, you came to Bulgaria together with multimillionaire Steve Forbes. What did he tell you?
- Steve Forbes liked Bulgaria very much. He was very impressed meeting the Bulgarian businessmen during the lunch given by the "Vazrazhdane" club. President Georgi Parvanov also made a very favorable impression on us, he is a very promising politician, who perfectly grasps the situation in Bulgaria.
- How would you assess the situation in Bulgaria in comparison with the last June?
- What interests me in countries like Bulgaria is the unemployment rate and living standards. In my opinion Bulgaria has not yet reached the level of 1989. I mean the standing of the ordinary Bulgarians first of all.
- What seems most worrisome to you?
- The unemployment is most abhorring. It is killing people not only economically but psychologically as well. According to the assessment of economic climate given by "Wall Street Journal" in 2002 Albania moved up to 101 place overrunning Bulgaria, which rated 103, but now is 108, together with Fiji, Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania. I think that a European country, which Bulgaria undoubtedly is, deserves better ranking. It is awful that now Bulgaria holds the top position as regards population fall. NATO's Kosovo mission failed.
The Halifax Herald Limited
By Scott Taylor ON TARGET
Serbian children living in the Pristina ghetto are escorted daily by an armoured NATO convoy to school eight kilometres away in the Serbian enclave of Gracanica. Photo: James T. Phillips.
Mitrovica, Kosovo - IT HAS BEEN three years since NATO troops first rolled into Kosovo and the last of the Yugoslav security forces withdrew from this embattled province.
At that juncture, the western media hailed NATO's intervention as the "liberation of Kosovo" and a victory for Albanian Kosovars. Many misguided military analysts proclaimed the campaign to be "proof" that overwhelming air power alone was sufficient to win modern wars.
In actual fact, unexpected Serbian defiance and the inability of NATO aircraft to locate and destroy the Yugoslav military had forced NATO to concede to then president Slobodan Milosevic's demands and negotiate a diplomatic settlement.
Originally, NATO planners had expected the Serbs to concede after five days of face-saving resistance. No one had planned for a campaign that would last 78 days without creating a crack in the Serbs' will to resist.
Likewise, despite the exaggerated daily claims of destruction by NATO spokesman Jamie Shea, the top brass knew their planes could not find the well-concealed Serbian forces in Kosovo.
Although Shea boasted of NATO pilots "killing" over 150 armoured vehicles, it was later confirmed that only 13 Yugoslav tanks were destroyed during the fighting.
Of these, five were, in fact, Second World War-vintage, U.S.-made M-10 tank destroyers, museum pieces, that were placed in fields by the Serbs as deliberate decoys.
As a result of the air campaign's failure to achieve its aims, NATO was forced to sign a peace deal with Milosevic, a man they had already indicted as a war criminal.
Under the terms of this deal (United Nations Resolution 1244), an international military occupation force in Kosovo would also include non-NATO contingents (notably the Russians, who rushed in to seize the strategic Pristina airport in advance of the NATO forces); the world would still recognize Kosovo as sovereign Yugoslav territory; the Albanian guerrilla force known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was to be quickly disarmed, at which time Serbian security forces would be allowed to re-enter the province to protect historical sites and border posts; and, finally, NATO's demand to hold a referendum on Kosovo's independence "within three years" was to be postponed "indefinitely."
However, what has become obvious over the past 36 months is that NATO negotiators never had any intention of fully implementing Resolution 1244.
Even after the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic's regime, it is apparent that the United Nations Mission in Kosovo is unwilling to co-operate with Yugoslav authorities.
Furthermore, the KLA was never fully disarmed and was reconstituted as the UN-funded Kosovo Protection Corps. Despite repeated protests from Yugoslav negotiators and the destruction of their religious sites, no Serbian police have been allowed to re-enter Kosovo, in spite of the fact that this province technically remains part of the sovereign territory of Yugoslavia.
More importantly, the arguments to justify NATO's military intervention continue to erode. At the time of the first bombing, we were led to believe that timely action would prevent a humanitarian crisis in Kosovo.
However, it was two days after the air strikes began that first a trickle, then a flood of refugees began pouring from the region.
With 800,000 Albanians housed in squalid refugee camps, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea told us that the bombing had to continue "because Milosevic was committing genocide."
At one stage, in order to encourage support for a military ground campaign, the U.S. State Department claimed that as many as 100,000 Albanians had been slaughtered in Kosovo. However, in the three years since NATO's occupation, United Nations forensic teams have had difficulty in identifying even 2,000 victims that would have been killed during the 78-day crisis. (This number includes over 400 Serbs and 300 other non-Albanians, and does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.)
Given the final death tally, even the newly constituted Albanian Kosovo Supreme Court ruled last month that no genocide had taken place in Kosovo, only the displacement of people.
Nevertheless, despite the presence of 40,000 NATO soldiers and 10,000 international police who patrol the province, over the past 36 months there have been 1,000 murders and 2,000 people were reported missing.
For the 239,000 Serbs who fled Kosovo in 1999, during the period of Albanian "revenge" attacks, displacement into refugee camps remains a reality.
For the additional 100,000 Serbs and non-Albanians who stayed in their homes in Kosovo, they continue to live in tiny enclaves under 24-hour NATO protection.
With an unresolved refugee crisis and continued inter-ethnic violence, it is difficult to understand how NATO officials, who were responsible for the intervention, can proclaim Kosovo to be either justifiable or a success.
New Jihadist Army Forming in Balkans.
From DEBKA-Net-Weeklys Intelligence Report
24 June: The next radical Islamic terror attack in America could well originate in a corner of the Balkans, where a new jihad force is taking shape quietly and unhindered. In its last issue, published on Friday, June 21, DEBKA-Net-Weeklys military sources reported that close to 20,000 fighters, battled-hardened veterans and eager young recruits, are already under arms, with more joining up all the time.
An Islamist bloc of nations (whose formation has been reported in the past by DEBKAfile) - made up of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, al Qaeda and Hizballah, with active Palestinian support - is behind the new Muslim Balkan army. Saudi, Iranian and Iraqi intelligence services and al Qaeda operations officers in Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Albania are tasked with recruitment, training and organization. The units are armed with modern weaponry, including missiles and artillery, while handpicked young Muslim recruits have been sent to sign up at private flying schools, especially in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, as the nucleus of an air force.
Having learned the lessons of the war in Afghanistan, planners and commanders keep their heads well down, their training bases and facilities well hidden.
Recruitment is brisk among the ethnic Albanian Muslim populations of Kosovo, Macedonia and Bosnia, as well as Albania proper. Hundreds of mosques are sprouting in these countries, funded from deep Saudi pockets.
The mosques open cultural societies to attract boys aged 15 to 16 and enroll them at medressas which, like their Pakistani prototypes, integrate military training in their curricula. The result is an expanding recruiting pool for terrorists, the same as Pakistans medressas, before the US invasion of Afghanistan.
Because Balkan Muslim families tend to be large, the percentage of teenagers in the general population is among the highest in the world, close to half, providing a potential recruiting reservoir of three quarters of a million youngsters.
Each mosque has its Saudi imam, who takes orders from Saudi intelligence.
The military instructors are Iranian and Iraqi officers, as well as al Qaeda commanders who fought the Americans in Afghanistan. They mark out the best and brightest students for long-term careers. At the age of 17, these youths are promoted to a secret quasi-military organization and given three training sessions a week in urban warfare, weapons systems, the manufacture of explosive devices, bombs and mines, ways of demolishing tanks and aircraft, as well as night combat. After two months, they receive a fixed salary of roughly $500 to $700 a month, an irresistible draw in a society where employment is scarce. A month later, they are given uniforms and personal weapons, which they take home and hide. Drilled into them is the consciousness that their wages depend on perfect obedience to their instructors and religious mentors.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Pazdaran) have set up a logistical command center in the Iranian embassy in Skopje to coordinate the swelling movements of Iranian, Iraqi and Saudi instructors, organizers, couriers and bagmen in and out of the Balkans, usually from the Middle East. Most of the Saudis are al Qaeda operatives who fought in Afghanistan.
Until recently, they all traveled to the Balkans by indirect routes, careful not to draw attention to themselves, especially from agents of the US intelligence services attached to US Special Force contingents based in Kosovo and Bosnia. When they saw that no US intelligence service appeared interested in their activities, the travelers began to throw caution to the winds, freely using Skopjes international airport for their comings and goings.
Our sources have failed to turn up any hand obstructing the emergence of the Balkan Muslim terrorist force, although fundamentalist governments of the Middle East and al Qaeda have fathered it for the aim of injecting young blood into the Islamic terror movement and invigorate the movement dedicated to violent assault against the West, primarily the United States.
The government of the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, headed by its president Boris Trajkovski, is painfully aware of the threat. But, 11 months after concluding a ceasefire with Albanian insurgents, its army (see picture) can scarcely stand up alone to the youthful terrorist force, led by professional Saudi, Iranian and Iraqi military instructors as well as al-Qaeda terror experts.
As a provisional containment measure, the Macedonian government has secretly closed the countrys borders to the passage of goods to and from Kosovo, Bosnia and Albania, hoping to block the flow of weapons and ammunition supplies to the Muslim army. But it is probably too late to have much effect. Nevertheless, Macedonian forces are believed to be preparing to go into the regions taken over by the Jihadist force for the urgent but hopeless task of flushing the out.
If this action goes ahead, it will most likely trigger an upsurge of violence on the tiny Balkan republics borders.
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