Disaster preparedness

BELGRADE - The migrant crisis, which saw around a million people pass through Serbia, posed new challenges for local communities and self-government authorities - the citizens demonstrated humaneness and the authorities became aware of the significance of improving resilience to various crises and ensuring the necessary infrastructure, a panel was told Friday.

BELGRADE - Almost everything poses a risk today and that is why society must be well-prepared and work on prevention and awareness, Serbian Minister without portfolio for Demographics and Population Policy Slavica Djukic Dejanovic said as the conference Investing in (Municipal) Resilience opened on Thursday.

BELGRADE - What capacities does a country such as Serbia need to be as resilient as possible to the effects of natural disasters? What information and what technologies would reduce the vulnerability to them? What are Western Balkan countries missing to improve disaster prevention and response?

Ivica Dacic said on Friday that the issue of the Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center (RSHC) in Nis comes down to a clash between big powers.

The first deputy PM and foreign minister added that Serbia "said it a hundred times" it did not want to take part in that.

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could visit Belgrade on Oct. 20, while there is a possibility that "the promised" Russian MiGs will arrive before him.

At least that is what the daily Vecernje Novosti claims, adding that the details and date of Shoigu's visit will be determined on September 29, when the Serbian minister of foreign affairs, Ivica Dacic, is traveling to Moscow.

A "pirate" website for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been launched in Turkey, five months after the website was banned in the country.

With its domain name registered in the capital Ankara, the mirror website "www.turkcewikipedia.org" contains all the content of Wikipedia in both English and Turkish.

Natural disasters are the new threat to humanity. Their number has increased dramatically in the last 50 years, so the number of people injured and killed has grown enormously. This year is another proof of the problem.

A US senator visiting Belgrade has urged Serbia not to grant diplomatic status to the staff of a Russian disaster-relief center that some Western officials suspect harbors spies and disseminates propaganda.

The National Park of Parnassos in Central Greece may become the country's sixth UNESCO Global Geopark, after regional officials initiated the process of drafting the application to United Nations agency.

The European Commission (EC) announced on Monday it would grant additional emergency aid worth € 6.48 million to Greece for the improvement of conditions in reception facilities on the islands of Lesvos (Kara Tepe) and Chios (Souda).