More glory for Stjepanovic at Junior European Championships

Source: TheNational

The Dubai-based swimmer Velimir Stjepanovic has picked up a second gold medal at the Junior European Championships in Belgrade.

The 17 year old won the 100m butterfly final in 53.79secs, beating Ukraine's Yevgen Koptyelov by 0.15secs with Martino Lucatello of Italy taking the bronze.

Stjepanovic, who competes for Serbia, won his first gold on Friday in the 100m freestyle.

The former Jumeirah College high school pupil returns to the UAE tomorrow and will begin his training for the Shanghai World Cup, which starts on July 20.

"RS already apologized, but others did not"

Source: Tanjug

VIENNA -- Serb Republic (RS) President Milorad Dodik said in an interview for the Vienna-based daily Der Standard that RS already apologized for Srebrenica.

However, said Dodik, "others" are yet to apologize for crimes committed against Serbs.

Asked if RS will send someone to attend this year's commemoration in Potočari near Srebrenica, Dodik said that a few years ago the then RS President Dragan Čavić was there and apologized in public on the behalf of the RS for the crimes.

"Representatives of our government go there each year. However, we do not think we should apologize every time we go there, because we have still not heard an apology from the other side," he added.

Dodik said it is "quite clear" that what happened in Srebrenica should have been avoided and that the "people involved in such crimes are no heroes, but can only be treated as criminals."

Commenting on the Serb entity's decision to offer EUR 50,000 for the defense of Hague indictee Ratko Mladić, Dodik said that just like Croatia helped the defense of its Hague indictees, the RS also has an obligation to assist its citizens in the The Hague Tribunal.

This does not mean that the RS wants to protect anyone who is involved in crimes, Dodik underlined.

Serbia celebrates science and marks Tesla's birthday

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- The birthday of scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, July 10, is marked as Science Day in Serbia.

Numerous events are organized in order to draw attention to the significance of inventions of the great scientist, and show the young generations that interest in science can be beneficial, said announcements from organizers.

Tesla was a Serb, born in the region of Austria-Hungary that is today Croatia.

He built his career in the United States.

The Center for Promotion of Science will organize an Evening with the Starts at the Kolarac Endowment in Belgrade, where astrophysicist Goran Pavičić will hold a presentation about space.

A mobile planetarium will also be set at the Kolarac Endowment, which can receive about 20 visitors at once, and each presentation will last about 20 minutes.

At the same time, an exhibition dubbed De Revolutionibus will be held, which traces the history of science back to 1,500 - the year of the beginning of the scientific revolution.

The aim of the Center for Promotion of Science is to bring science closer to the audience, the center said in a statement.

The Serbian government decided in August 2010 to declare Tesla's birthday, July 10, as Science Day in Serbia.

The next step in the promotion of the day will be the launching of an initiative before the UN that the birthday of Nikola Tesla, one of the world's greatest scientists of all time, be declared as International Science Day.

"Big powers against UN-mandate organ trafficking probe"

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- The U.S., Britain and France are hindering Serbia's request for the investigation into human organ trafficking in Kosovo to be conducted under the UN mandate.

This is according to Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić.

"Our request for the investigators to work with a mandate on the case of organ trafficking in Kosovo and Albania, and submit their reports to the UN Security Council, has unfortunately been hindered by those who have the institutional capacity to do that," Jeremić told Belgrade-based daily Blic in an interview.

He identified those countries as the United States, Britain and France.

When asked about whether this "ruins the last chance to carry out an independent investigation under the mandate of the UN Security Council", Jeremic said that "talks continued".

"I would like to believe that, in the weeks to come, we will manage to overcome the obstacle and achieve progress. If that does not happen, it will be extremely difficult to resist the impression that there is something in the case of human organ trafficking in Kosovo that, for some reason, should by no means see the light of day."

The Marty report published in late 2010 named members of the ethnic Albanian KLA as perpetrators of the body part trafficking atrocities, and kidnapped Serb and other civilians as their victims.

Exit music festival to kick off on Thursday

Source: Tanjug

NOVI SAD -- The 12th Exit Festival will kick off with performances of Pulp and Arcade Fire in the Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, on Thursday.

The event will last through July 12.

During the four-day festival the audience will have an opportunity to enjoy some of the most popular musicians of today such as Editors, Jamiroquai, Portishead and M.I.A.

The gates of the venue will be opened on Thursday at 17:00 CET., and this year's Exit is expected to host its two millionth visitor.

First organized as a sign of protest against the regime's repression in Serbia in the nineties, Exit grew into one of the most important festivals in Southeastern Europe.

CNN included it on its list of the world's top ten music festivals of the world.

Apart from the music program, Exit also includes film screenings, lectures, parties and performances. According to the organizers, Exit has approximately 200,000 visitors per year.

This year, 30,000 foreigners are expected to make the trip to Novi Sad.

Four-day tickets cost to RSD 10,990.

New No. 1 Novak Djokovic Wins 2011 Wimbledon Title

Source: b/r

The 2011 Wimbledon final featured a battle between the current No. 1 and the future No. 1. Come Monday, Novak Djokovic will top the world tennis rankings as a first-time defending champion at Wimbledon.

On Sunday, Djokovic played at the top of his game and took two hours, 28 minutes to dethrone the 2010 champion Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. He adds the Wimbledon trophy to his two Australian Open crowns.

This marks the first time that Djokovic has defeated Nadal at a Grand Slam tournament, and their head-to-head series now stands at 16-12 in Nadal's favor. Djokovic's win on Sunday also ended the Spaniard's 20-match winning streak at Wimbledon. The only other time that they met at the Championships was in 2007, when Djokovic retired in the third set and was the World No. 6.

“It’s really hard to describe this with words but it is the best day of my life,” he told the crowd after collecting his trophy. “I’ve always dreamed of this. Thank you all for coming and making this day even more special. That’s probably my best match on grass. I would like to congratulate Rafa for having a great tournament.”

He owns a 48-1 record in 2011. The only man to beat Djokovic in 2011 is in fact Roger Federer at the French Open semifinal.

Djokovic got through Jeremy Chardy, Kevin Anderson, Marcos Baghdatis, Michael Llodra,Bernard Tomic, and Jo- Wilfried Tsonga in succession before his final against Nadal.

Nadal went into the match having admitting to the Associated Press that "Mentally he is in a better position than me probably because he won the last four finals against me."

“Wimbledon is the most special tournament. I can imagine how Novak feels,” as Nadal recalls taking the title twice to the press. “Seriously, I lost because I was playing against the best player of the moment, the best player of the world tomorrow."

Nadal defeated Michael Russell, Ryan Sweeting, Gilles Muller, Juan Martin Del Potro, Mardy Fish, and Andy Murray in the journey to his fifth final at the All England Club.

"I've been dreaming of winning this tournament for 20 years," Djokovic told John McEnroe, who reminded him that he is now the best player in the world. "I did it all perfectly except for the third set."

Djokovic had his whole family watching him, while in the Royal Box were the Duke of Kent, Serbian president Boris Tadic, Wimbledon legends Bjorn Borg, Peter Fleming, Justin Gimelstob and John Newcombe, golfer Rory McIlroy, Formula 1’s Jenson Button and former British Prime Minster Sir John Major.

The first set started with a strong service game from each player, but Djokovic was winning more points on his first serve. In the final game of the set, Novak came back on Nadal's serve up 30-0 to break with some long rallies and winners.

Djokovic took hold of the second set with a break of serve at 2-0 and 5-1. The Spaniard was only able to hold serve at 1-3 and Djokovic closed out the set to love.

The third set was the only time in the match during which Djokovic was not in total-domination mode.

At 2-0, Djokovic recovered from 0-30 to 30-30 but then hit two unforced errors to give the Nadal the break and confidence to hold the remaining games. The Serbian double-faulted again at break point in favor of Nadal at 5-1.

It was all over in the final set when Djokovic seemed to remember defeating the former No. 1 four times previously this year by breaking at 2-0. Nadal immediately broke back with a lucky net cord shot, but that would be the only break for him.

Nadal double-faulted for the first time in the match at 5-3, and Djokovic took advantage of dip. He held on to win the match and celebrated by throwing racquets into the crowd and eating some grass as the No. 1 player in the world.

Djokovic is the 25th player to reach No. 1.

“France not denying Serbian identity”

Source: B92

BELGRADE -- The French Embassy in Belgrade has stated that Paris is not denying Serbian identity of Orthodox monasteries in Kosovo.

“France fully understands the importance of the religious heritage in Kosovo that belongs to the Serbian Orthodox Church,” the embassy said in a statement.

UNESCO Committee for the Protection of World Cultural Heritage is a technical body and as such it is not a place for a political debate about to which country some cultural heritage belongs to, as it was explicitly stated by the 1972 World Heritage Protection Convention, the French Embassy believes.

“The draft resolution sent to the UNESCO aimed at protecting this extraordinary heritage,” the statement reads.

“Since this is an international organization, the draft was status neutral and UNMIK was mentioned in each paragraph. Our sincere efforts to reach an apolitical draft that would be neutral regarding the status did not yield results and we are very sorry about it,” the French Embassy pointed out in the statement.

Serbian Government Media Office Director Milivoje Mihajlović said Friday that the “Kosovo heritage thesis" represented a failed attempt to falsify history.

Organ trade working group to be “partly operational" soon

Source: Tanjug

PRIŠTINA -- Working group that will investigate organ trade allegations will be partly operational by the end of the month, EULEX Spokeswoman Irina Gudeljević told Tanjug.

"The working group is in the process of being formed. Staff is being recruited and it will be headed by a prosecutor, but made up of investigators and legal experts," she said.

According to her, "the working group will work on the preliminary investigation which EULEX started back in January."

Gudeljević reminded that EULEX, with full support of all 27 EU member countries, formed the working group to continue the investigation into the human organ trafficking allegations made in Council of Europe (CoE) Rapporteur Dick Marty’s report in December last year.

Djokovic world’s best tennis player as of Monday

Belgrade/London, 1 July 2011 – Serbia’s best tennis player Novak Djokovic will become the world’s No 1 as of 4 July after defeating France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga by 3:1 in sets – 7:6 (7:4), 6:2, 6:7 (9:11), 6:3 today.

Photo: Beta

On 3 July Djokovic will play the final match of the London tournament with the winner of the second semi-final game played between Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.

Lawsuit for Chelsea Handler!

Source: newjestic

The creator of the Facebook page called: “Boycott of Chelsea Handler until she apologizes to the Serbian people” has wrote on his page: “Dear friends, we are close of reaching something Serbian politicians haven’t succeeded in years, something real in the protection of Serbian people’s reputation. It is amazing how in this way we are demonstrating our ability to be very effective as a community. Imagine what would have looked like had we gathered as a nation around our basic interests? Think about this and be aware of our potentials.”

On question what has been done so far and what happends if she don’t apologize, Filip said: “We have contacted her management, sponsors, the Serbian consul, Jewish organizations, civil liberty unions, etc. The next step if we do not receive a response is that we are contacting lawyers.”

But one man went one step further!The businessman Dragan Djogovic from Düsseldorf decided to charge Chelsea because she said that name DRAGAN is “a popular name Bolshevik.”

Dragan Djogovic said: “I’m doing it on my own behalf and on behalf of my people. I am inviting all Dragan`s to join me,”

American media are also supporting Serbia in this boycott! But of cours there is some ignorant people who are justifying this saying that it was just a joke. Yeah, a joke that doesn’t bring Serbia in good light. According to Chelsea, people in Serbia are not allowed to go to concerts, they don’t have any rules there. Somebody had to stop this wrong propaganda of Serbia and tell the world real truth!

If you want to support Serbian people in this boycott, you can join the facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/Boycott.E.and.ChelseaHandler