Environmental Protection Agency

Bosniak Sefik Dzaferovic (R) and Croat Zeljko Komsic (2-R), members of the presidency. EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

The presidency - comprising a Bosniak, Serb and Croat - was unable to agree the agenda for Tuesday's session and so postponed the meeting and a decision on appointing a prime minister, or the chair of the Council of Ministers.

Memories of the peace demonstration that put a crack in the Iron Curtain on August 19, 1989 loom large in both German and Hungarian psyches — large enough to lure Merkel to Hungary for the first time in more than four years.

Heating Up

Ever since the dialogue stalled after Serbia succeeded in thwarting Kosovo's bid for membership in Interpol last autumn and Kosovo's former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj immediately retaliated by imposing a 100 per cent tariff on Serbian goods, we've been hearing similar entreaties repeatedly.

A leaked copy of the draft policy was published in full (in Polish) in June by the Association for Legal Intervention rights group.

The Polish Helsinki Foundation, a human rights non-governmental organisation, said in a statement that the "conditions related to worldview and religion are a gross violation of fundamental freedoms and human rights".

A large fire that began after midnight Sunday in the eastern Athens suburb of Paiania had raced up the slopes of Mt Hymettus and reached its peak before it was brought under control Monday morning. The fire damaged radio station installations in the area. Concerns have been raised by the possibility that it could have been caused by a short circuit in the cables of Public Power Corporation.

Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire burning container boxes with telecommunication and radio equipment on Mount Hymettus, near Athens. Some 141 firefighters aided by five firefighting aircraft and five helicopters fought the blaze that started after midnight in the city's eastern suburb of Paiania [Kostas Tsironis/EPA]

As the driver collects the IDs, he passes a woman with a persistent cough and asks in Albanian: "A je mire?" - Are you OK? After seeing her name, he later returns her ID to her saying respectfully in Serbian: "Izvolite gospodo," - Here you are, ma'am.

That day, in Bucharest's Victory Square, after a group of demonstrators tried to storm the government building, riot police dispersed the crowd with water cannons and tear gas. Many ordinary protesters were beaten by policemen using batons. The fracas left more than 400 needing medical attention.

It will be a long time before survivors of wartime rape in Kosovo find lasting closure or healing, Mirlinda Sada says.