Back from 10 days in lovely Istria. Here is a quick dump of noted news whilst I was away:

• Kosovo has been promised nearly $2bn in aid, with the EU alone offering EU500 million. Other big donors were Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland. Apparently the money “only scratches the surface of the financial support Kosovo will need in the future, and funds will be needed to ensure stability.” The UN has already spent over $3bn on Kosovo, and donors have previously contributed another 3bn. Kosovo’s 2 million people each get the equivalent of $4500 per person up to 2011. Meanwhile Africa’s 700 millions souls have only received $20bn of the $60bn pledged at last years G8 conference and in Myanmar the UN is begging donors for an additional $400m after a measly $178m has been donated so far to the cyclone ravaged country where the “UN says 2.4 million people have been seriously affected by the cyclone, and remain in need of long-term aid”.
• The Kovacevic Saga continues (the story of the Serb basketball player who after allegedly beating a fellow student into a coma, was helped to flee the US by a Serbian diplomat) but now the Serbian government is promising to “cooperate”. The US media however continue with their strident anti-Serb line. See the original post here.
• Serbia aiming for EU candidate status in 2009. The FT is also reporting this. Some in Serbia think the country will only join the EU in 2021.
• Serbs are outraged as the Hague acquits yet another indictee accused of massacring Serbs. In recent months Serbs have watched with disbelief as first KLA commander Ramush Haradinaj was “acquitted” after 9 witnesses against him were murdered, then the ICTY refused to investigate allegations of war crimes against Serbs because its “too late” (but promised to pursue Serb indictees indefinitely) and now have to watch this week as the ICTY overturned the conviction of a notorious warlord, Naser Oric, becuase the prosecution “failed to prove he had control over his men”. All talk of the ICTY even pretending to be even handed earns gales of laughter in Serbia today.
• The average pay packet in Serbia in May was EUR 404, 1.15 percent down on April (2.71 percent in real terms), says the Statistical Office.
• Israelis continue to pour money into Serbia, with Plaza centers announcing a new 5 Star Hotel for BG worth EU105mn.