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KRAKOW, Poland, Feb 20, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) -- NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed concern on Friday that politics in Slovenia might prevent Croatia from formally joining NATO at a summit in early April. "It gives me reason for concern that we might not see a situation at the summit in Strasbourg and Kehl that we can greet Albania and Croatia in the NATO family," he told a press conference at an informal NATO defense ministers' meeting. "I think everyone involved, including in Slovenia, should do everything they can to make that happen," he said....

You would never know, by skimming through Le Monde, and Le Figaro, let alone the international media, that the Treaty of Lisbon, short of some deus ex machina, will be ratified sometime between now and February 8. The French news is full of American politics. This is another great decoy for Sarkozy. Besides his marriage (which is now old news), there is the great American election to distract the French from the scenario that will unfold in their National Assembly and Senate over the next two days.Those of you who know French may be interested in this video from Nicolas...

08 February 2008, 16:47 CET (BELGRADE) - A bomb blast rocked a Slovenian-run shopping mall in Serbia on Friday, while another had to be evacuated following an anonymous bomb threat, B92 radio reported. An explosive device went off early Friday at the entrance of Mercator Center in the New Belgrade area of the capital, which is located next to a police station, shattering glass but causing no casualties, the report said. The blast occurred at around 5:00 am (0400 GMT), according to a statement by police, who launched a probe but revealed no possible motives. Several hours later, employees and...

A human tongue has been served up in a hospital canteen's chicken risotto — and bosses reckon it was accidentally dropped into the food by a doctor.

(LJUBLJANA) - Slovenia became the first former communist state to assume the rotating EU presidency on Tuesday, with Kosovo and ratification of the bloc's new constitutional treaty at the top of its agenda. The small central European state, which borders Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy, took over the presidency at the stroke of midnight Monday, and will hold it for six months before passing the baton to France on July 1. "The EU's presidency is moving ... from the west to the east," Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said after officially taking over the role from Portugal's Foreign Minister Luis...

What is a fair voting system for the European Union? It looks as though, thanks to Poland, European leaders will be forced to debate this difficult question at their summit this week. Since the simplified draft treaty is substantively identical to the old and rejected constitution - minus some cosmetics - the voting system proposed is going to be the same one: passage of legislation requires a coalition of countries representing at least 55 per cent of the member states and 65 per cent of the population. The Poles have threatened a veto unless the second of those two numbers...

Released : Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:08 AM A Muslim community in Slovenia is planning to build the country's first mosque and an Islamic cultural center in Ljubljana. Slovenia's mufti Nedzad Grabus and Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic signed a letter of intent on the sale of land for the mosque and adjoining buildings, the Serbian B92 radio reported. The Muslim worship center will be built on an area of 4 acres and initial plans say it will be completed in the next six years. The Islamic community of Slovenia of 40,000 Muslims will pay $8.2 million for the building site...

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, March 31, 2007 – Slovenia’s deployments to multiple countries for NATO, the United Nations and the European Union drew praise here yesterday from the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani met with Defense Minister Karl Erjavec, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Albin Gutman and Gutman’s deputy, Maj. Gen. Alojz Steiner, at the Defense Ministry of this nation at the crossroads of central Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans. “Slovenia has contributed substantially to a variety of operations across NATO,” the admiral said at a news conference. “Clearly, the most...

Released : Friday, February 02, 2007 2:47 PM LONG-simmering tensions over the maritime border between Croatia and Slovenia have resurfaced over the last week, writes John McLaughlin. Slovenia has lodged a formal diplomatic protest over Croatia's extension of an offshore drilling contract for state-controlled oil company INA, and Croatia has sharply rejected Slovenia's position. In its diplomatic note, Slovenia protested strongly against the award on January 5 of a five-year extension to INA's existing oil and gas drilling contract in the northern Adriatic. Slovenia argued that the move amounted to a unilateral grab by Croatia of a sea area that...

Ljubljana, 11:00 European Union will not set Ratko Mladic's arrest as a precondition for resumption of stabilization and association negotiations with Serbia, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said. In an interview with weekly newspaper European Voice, Rupel said the "tough terms" should be set out in the final stage of negotiations not at the start of the process. "Belgrade's cooperation with The Hague Tribunal does not necessarily mean that Mladic should be arrested and handed over to The Hague," Rupel said. Slovenian media say the EU countries have no common position as to the interpretation of the "constructive cooperation", which...

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Slovenia Monday became the first post-communist country to enter the euro zone when it replaced its tolar currency with the euro. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa called the change the "biggest national achievement" since the country joined the European Union two years ago, Ljubljana's media said. Slovenia became the 13th EU member country to embrace the euro and the first of the 10 new EU members that joined the bloc in 2004. Financial transactions, at the exchange rate of 239.64 tolars to one euro, will be carried out both in tolars and euros through...

Officials celebrated as the EU flag was raised in Bucharest Huge celebrations have been held in Romania and Bulgaria to mark their accession to the European Union, 17 years after the fall of Communism. Tens of thousands attended concerts in the two capitals, Bucharest and Sofia. The Romanian president said EU entry was an "enormous chance for future generations", while Bulgaria's leader said it was a "heavenly moment". Their accession means the EU now has 27 members and half a billion people, and stretches as far east as the Black Sea. The day we are welcoming - 1 January...

By Carol Kaufmann Photographs by Arne Hodaliè Why did Romans, Celts, and even prehistoric settlers submerge their personal belongings, from swords to dishes, in a shallow river in Slovenia? Archaeologist Andrej Gaspari is haunted by pieces of the past. His hometown river, the Ljubljanica, has yielded thousands of them—Celtic coins, Roman luxuries, medieval swords—all from a shallow 12-mile (19 kilometers) stretch. Those who lived near and traveled along the stream that winds through Slovenia's capital of Ljubljana considered it sacred, Gaspari believes. That would explain why generations of Celts, Romans, and earlier inhabitants offered treasures—far too many to be...

THE nearest the cheerful, obsessively tidy former Yugoslav country of Slovenia comes to hell on earth these days is when a British stag party lands in the capital, Ljubljana. But since President Janez Drnovsek experienced a spiritual rebirth, baffled Slovenians have been warned that they are living on the edge of the apocalypse.Frequently dressed in Indian clothes and sometimes playing the flute with laurel leaves in his hair, the president has cast off the trappings of power. After he was diagnosed with kidney cancer, Drnovsek, 56, left his presidential palace in Ljubljana, sacked most of his staff and moved with...

The president of Slovenia has given up his palace for a mountain hut and habitually decks himself in leaves to celebrate nature.Adopting a New Age existence after being diagnosed with cancer, Janez Drnovsek, 56, has moved from the presidential palace in Ljubljana to the village of Zaplana, where he lives alone with his dog on a vegan diet of organic fruit and vegetables, while he bakes his own bread. He has even been known to "greet the trees" by dressing up in cloaks of leaves. Mr Drnovsek appealed this week to his fellow countrymen to join him in embracing the...

ZAGREB, Croatia Croatian and Slovene armed police were deployed Thursday at a disputed border area as tension between the two neighbors rose after Croatia accused several Slovene journalists of illegal border crossing and escorted them back to Slovenia. A regional Croatian mayor, Josip Posavec, called on both sides to "immediately remove all armed men so that the peace returns here."

Hitler's bugs 25.8.2006 - Michael Manske If we say Hitler and beetles, you may think of a fascist dictator and an old Volkswagen car. But there's another kind of beetle linked to the notorious German dictator, lurking in the caves of Slovenia. Michael Manske of Radio Slovenia International has more on this curious story: Slovenia has a number of endemic animals, most famously the proteus anguinus, commonly referred to as a "cave salamander" or "human fish". The amphibian is proudly displayed on the ten-tolar coin. But another cave dweller has recently started getting a lot of unwanted attention from around...

The first new entrant since 2003 to the twelve-member eurozone has been agreed by the European Commission. Slovenia's application to join the single currency on 1 January 2007 was accepted by the Commission. The application by the former communist state must now be approved by the European Parliament and EU member states, who will set the exchange rate. However, Lithuania's application for euro membership was rejected because its inflation rate was too high. If all goes to plan, EU finance ministers will fix the exchange rate between the euro and the tolar, the Slovenian currency, on 11 July. The euro...

BRUSSELS, May 16, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Slovenia today became the first new EU member state to get the green light to join the EU's common currency, the euro. Meeting in Strasbourg, the European Commission ruled the country meets all the necessary criteria and can adopt the euro as of January 1, 2007. The Commission turned down the application of a second candidate for early entry, Lithuania, saying the country's inflation is too high.

EUROPE DAY Did you know there was a "Europe Day"? A day to celebrate the EU? Me neither. But May 9th is it. Here's some thoughts of mine on the poor doomed European Union: Question: What do you get when you take two world wars, add the two most malign ideologies of the century, throw in genocide, the collapse of religious institutions, radical secularism, a political elite sealed off from opinions it finds distasteful, spiraling social costs, deathbed demographics and growing numbers of an unassimilated immigrant population? Answer: You get Europe in the new millennium - mired in aggressive pacifism,...