PRISTINA (AFP) – Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu yesterday appointed the newly independent state’s first 10 diplomatic envoys to mainly Western capitals that have recognized its statehood. Kosovo will be represented in Albania, Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States by charges d’affaires who will later become ambassadors, said Sejdiu. “All these countries have expressed readiness to develop diplomatic relations (with Kosovo) at the embassy level and it was a big encouragement for us,” he said.

NICOSIA (AP) – Leaders of Cyprus’s rival communities are preparing for reunification talks, seen as the best chance in years of ending the island’s division. Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias will begin formal negotiations today with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. The meeting is expected to be largely ceremonial, but the talks have gained urgency because of concern that another failure could calcify the island’s partition.

THE HAGUE (AFP) – The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will visit Serbia this month, his spokeswoman told AFP yesterday. “Serge Brammertz will be in Belgrade on September 10 and 11. He will meet the authorities concerned with cooperation,” with the UN court, Olga Kavran said. The Belgian, who succeeded Carla Del Ponte as prosecutor at the beginning of the year, canceled a planned visit to Belgrade after the July 21 arrest of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, 13 years after he was indicted by the court.

The UN’s Yugoslav war crimes court will pass judgment September 15 on Rasim Delic, an ex-Bosnian Muslim general accused of murder, cruel treatment and rape committed during that country’s 1992-95 war. Delic, who led Muslim forces during the Bosnian war, has pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes before The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The 59-year-old’s trial started in July 2007 for murders, torture and beatings carried out by the so-called El Mujahed unit of foreign Islamic fighters under his command. (AFP)

Serbia’s inflation rate is likely to exceed projections but remain in single digits by the year’s end, central bank governor Radovan Jelasic said yesterday. Inflation in the former Yugoslav republic would overshoot a 2008 target of 6.5 percent and end up at around 9.4 percent, said the governor of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS). Jelasic said the rise was caused by high food and oil prices, in addition to problems including political turmoil resulting from Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February and early elections on May 11. (AFP)

Bulgaria sent a protest note to Istanbul yesterday to complain about new restrictions imposed on Bulgarian truck drivers in Turkey, the transport ministry said in a statement. As of September 1, Bulgarian cars without catalytic converters and trucks built before 1992 are no longer allowed into Turkey. Istanbul also introduced an 83-euro (120-dollar) tax on truck drivers delivering cargo in Turkey or transiting through the country. (AFP)

The Romanian government is likely to give its approval in the next week or two to plans to buy fighter aircraft to bring its outdated air force up to NATO standards, Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu said yesterday. Romania joined NATO in 2004 and has agreed to replace its Soviet-made MiG-21s with new aircraft. The minister has said in the past the government had plans to spend at least 4 billion euros ($5.8 billion) for 48 aircraft. “Very soon, maybe in a week or two, the government will agree on the procedure to acquire the planes,” Melescanu was quoted as saying by the local Agerpres news agency. (Reuters)