BULGARIA JOINS GNEP
Bulgaria and Romania were among the 11 countries to join the US initiative Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) on September 17. Five of the new signatory countries were from Central and Eastern Europe. The other nations included Australia and Kazakhstan.
Before this the members of GNEP were US, Russia, France, Japan and China.
The ceremony took place at a summit in Vienna and included the signing of a declaration in principle, whose main aims are to encourage the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and to contain proliferation of nuclear arms.
Washington, the mastermind of the partnership, started the initiative in February last year as a growing number of countries view nuclear energy as an environmentally clean source of electricity.
The underlying idea of the partnership is for countries with capabilities to process uranium to do so and distribute nuclear fuel to a number of states. The members of GNEP have, however, outlined that the nuclear fuel should never be used for uranium enrichment programmes.

SERBIA-FRIENDLY
The leadership of Kosovo was ready to seal a Friendship Contract with Serbia, once it gained independence. The president of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu was expected to show the wording of the contract on 19 September, when the three intermediaries in the Kosovo conflict, the United States, European Union and Russia, held the next round of talks in London.
The agreement should form the backbone of the friendship between the two sovereign states, Sejdiu said on September 17, as quoted by Reuters news agency.
He said that the province could resort to a unilateral proclamation of independence should Belgrade continue to resist the idea. Kosovo plans have met with strong resistance from Russia. The West has also been trying to avoid this scenario as it may bring violence to the region, again.
The prime minister of Kosovo, Agim Ceku, has sided with Sejdiu saying that despite there being a reluctance to make conditions worse, if the international community refused to make a decision, the leadership of the province would take all responsibility.

NEW RUSSIAN PM
Russian parliament named Viktor Zubkov the new prime minister of Russia in a vote on September 14. 381 voted for Zubkov and 47 MPs abstained.
Zubkov said he would stick closely to the policies outlined by Russian president Vladimir Putin at the federal council the day before.
The priorities included boosting the Russian economy's sustainable development through the encouragement of innovation. Other priorities were the implementation of major national projects and demographic policies. The most importance sectors were listed as aircraft and ship construction, as well as the defence industry.
The new prime minister will also be looking to reduce the tax burden and inflation. In order to do this, Zubkov will oversee the work of the finance and economic development ministries personally.