Government

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed on Tuesday the Bulgarian Petko Draganov as his Special Representative and Head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

Draganov succeeds the Slovak Miroslav Jenca, who was recently appointed as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, the site of UNRCCA informs.

Benjamin Netanyahu swept to a stunning election victory on March 18, securing a third straight term for an Israeli leader who has deepened tensions with the Palestinians and infuriated key ally Washington.

A film about the life of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to be screened in 2017, the managing director of AVE, the company behind the production, has said.

"Ms Merkel has a thrilling biography," according to Walid Nakschbandi, who runs AVE. However, he added he does not yet know who will star as the German leader.

Serbia mounts diplomacy drive

Boosting bilateral relations with Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia is a priority for Serbia.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic (left) meets with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski (right) on February 16th ahead of a joint summit in Skopje. [AFP]

A German film company on Tuesday announced plans to produce a movie about the life of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. If the schedule goes according to plan, the film will be released in 2017, coinciding with parliamentary elections in Germany.

According to Spiegel, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won't ? send Martin Schulz and Jean-Claude Juncker a list of privatizations and measures to combat tax evasion, as he previously promised.

The respected German magazine cited sources within the Maximos Mansion government headquarters as saying that no list will be sent after all.

Sixteen people have been arrested in connection with an international human-trafficking ring that allegedly earned 8 million euros from smuggling Syrian migrants from Turkey into Greece, European police organization Europol announced Tuesday in The Hague.

An Athens special court prosecutor on Wednesday recommended a guilty verdict for former PASOK FinMin Giorgos Papakonstantinou on two felony counts related to his handling of the so-called “Lagarde list”.

The two felony charges are falsification of a public document and breach of faith.

Alternate Minister for Administrative Reform Giorgos Katrougalos has drafted an amendment that will reinstate thousands of civil sector workers who were sacked or placed in a labor mobility scheme by the previous conservative administration as part of cost-cutting measures.

Angela Merkel seems to have “spilled the beans” to Bloomberg news agency about the difficulty of negotiations with Greece.

Calling upon an official of the German Chancellor’s party who spoke under anonymity, Bloomberg states that Mrs. Merkel underlined that Germany must do everything in its power to overcome difficulties with Greece.