BRUSSELS (AFP) – Slovenia’s “swift and smooth” adoption of the euro in January can be put down to its good preparation, the European Commission said yesterday, urging other euro hopefuls to follow its example. Four months after the ex-Yugoslav republic swapped its tolars for euros, the European Union’s executive arm said that citizens had easily adapted to their new currency and that inflation had been little affected by the changeover. “Slovenia’s adoption of the euro was a swift and smooth affair,” said European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. “This once more underlines the importance of early and careful preparations and of timely information and communication on the euro,” he added. On January 1, the tiny Alpine republic became the first to adopt the euro of the 10 mostly former communist countries that joined the European Union in May 2004.

PRISTINA (AFP) – Germany expects an agreement to be reached between UN Security Council members on Kosovo’s future status, Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said yesterday on a visit to the disputed province. “I think it is (a) positive sign what we hear from London that they are moving toward drafting a common resolution for the UN Security Council,” said Jung. Jung, on a two-day trip to the breakaway Serbian province, was referring to a meeting Thursday of the Contact Group of nations overseeing the process to determine Kosovo’s future. In the coming weeks, the Security Council is to decide on a proposal for Kosovo’s internationally supervised independence, as backed by the US and EU but staunchly opposed by Serbia and Russia.

Romania’s prime minister ordered an inquiry yesterday after cocaine with a street value of more than $82 million lay undiscovered in a car in a government garage for more than four years. The cocaine had apparently been missed when customs officers confiscated the Porsche in 2002 from a drug trafficker after finding 60 kilogramsof drugs hidden under the back seat. (AP)

A federal jury has convicted a Bosnian Serb of lying about his military service on US immigration forms, the News-Record newspaper reported in its Friday editions. Veselin Vidacak, 32, was convicted on Thursday after being charged with leaving out his service in the Republic of Srpska’s Zvornik Brigade when applying for refugee status. The brigade was responsible for the massacre of thousands of Muslims in the village of Srebrenica in July 1995. (AP)