New Year's Day

Deadly shootings by homegrown Islamists have cast a light on France's "geographical, social and ethnic apartheid", Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Jan. 20 in one of the starkest indictments of French society by a government figure.
   

PM receives U.S. ambassador, gets "greeting card from Obama"

BELGRADE -- Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic received on Thursday U.S. Ambassador Michael Kirby.

The diplomat presented him with "a personal New Year and Christmas card from President of the U.S. Barack Obama," Tanjug reported.

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic received on Thursday U.S. Ambassador Michael Kirby, who presented him with a personal New Year and Christmas card from President of the U.S. Barack Obama.

As the Serbian government's press office has stated in a release, Vucic and Kirby discussed several topics relating to Serbia's future, in economic terms in particular.

BELGRADE - Ivica Dacic, Serbia's first deputy prime minister and foreign minister, said on Wednesday that Serbia's foreign policy priorities remain the same in 2015 - the further EU integration and dialogue on the normalization of relations with Pristina.

BELGRADE - Ivica Dacic, Serbia's first deputy prime minister and foreign minister, said on Wednesday that Serbia's foreign policy priorities remain the same in 2015 - the further EU integration and dialogue on the normalization of relations with Pristina.

BELGRADE - Nutcracker (SSccelkunccik), popular ballet fairy tale performed worldwide in the spirit of the New Year and Christmas holidays, will be staged at Belgrade Sava Center on January 16.

Serbians welcome in "Orthodox" New Year

BELGRADE -- Tens of thousands of people across the country on Tuesday celebrated the beginning of the new year according to the Julian calendar.

This is the calendar adhered to by the Serbian Orthodox Church, so the January 13 festivities are sometimes referred to as the Orthodox, or Serbian New Year.

If you are a party animal and just can't get enough of New Year's Eve celebrations, should prolong your stay in Serbia, which has another New Year's Eve on January 13.

No, Serbs are not addicted to having two "wildest nights of the year" in one month. The second celebration is a consequence of the fact that the Serbian Orthodox Church still sticks to the old, Julian calendar.

Given that Turks represent the majority of Muslims in Germany, it is not surprising that the activities of the group known as PEGIDA, the German acronym for ?Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident,? should be attracting attention in Turkey.

Several hundred protesters in western Macedonia - outraged by an 11-day power outage in the depths of winter - blocked electricians from the power company from leaving the region until they fixed the problem.

Media reports said they threatened to destroy local facilities of the power company, EVN, after which police were dispatched to the scene.