Turkey suspends temporarily import of animal products from China

Turkey has temporarily suspended the import of animal products from China as a measure against the spreading of the new coronavirus, Hurriyet Daily News announced. Turkey’s Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca explained that the import of meat and any animal products is prohibited until further notice, because the virus can be transmitted from animals to people and it is not clear yet which animal the coronavirus comes from.

Greece to employ another 800 border guards to deal with refugee pressure

Greece will employ another 800 full-time border guards due to the huge refugee pressure, the Ministry of Civil Protection in Athens announced. They will be deployed to eight islands in the Northeastern Aegean Sea. 240 border guards are expected to be sent to the Island of Lesbos, 180 to Samos Island, 100 to Kos Island and the rest will be deployed to four smaller islands. At the end of January this year a job competition for the recruitment of another 400 border guards, which had to be deployed to the Greece-Turkey border, was announced.

Serbia reduces electoral threshold from 5% to 3%

Following a proposal of the Serbian Progressive Party and amendments to the Local Elections Act and the National Assembly Act, the Serbian Parliament reduced the electoral threshold from 5% to 3%. Serbia will hold Parliamentary elections on April 26. This country’s President Alexander Vucic already announced that he will lead the electoral list of the Serbian Progressive Party.

North Macedonia’s biggest oligarch left without passport

Orce Kamcev who is considered the biggest oligarch in North Macedonia remained without a passport by decision of the Court of Appeal in Skopje. Kamcev is among the main suspects in the investigation codenamed Empire. The case contains charges for money laundering, illegal financing provided to the party of former Premier Nikola Gruevski who fled to Hungary and other severe crimes. Orce Kamcev was also left without his Bulgarian passport by decision of the judicial authorities.

Number of Arabs buying real estate properties in Bosnia and Herzegovina up

The number of Arabs buying real estate property in Bosnia and Herzegovina has increased significantly, the Center for Investigative Reporting of this country informs. So far, they have acquired over 15 million squarer meters of land and hundreds of real estate properties in Sarajevo. Real estate properties in Sarajevo district owned by people from the Middle East and North Africa are predominantly plots of land covering a total area of 15.3 million square meters, CIR further notes.

Compiled by: Stoimen Pavlov

English version: Kostadin Atanasov