Random Bosnian Thoughts

"Loddar" to become new coach of Bosnia's soccer team

Explanation for this ------>

see entry below.

According to today's Nezavisne Novine, Lothar "Loddar" Matthäus", German record soccer player, is to become the new coach of the BiH soccer team, as successor to Fuad Muzurovic.

The decision is to be finalised on Friday's meeting of the executive board of the Bosnian National Soccer Association.

Bogdan Ceko. vice president of the Bosnian Soccer Association, said that allthe details already had been clarified - should the Association decide for Matthäus, the contract could be signed within five minutes.

While very successful as a player, Matthäus' carreer as a coach gives a mixed impression:

In December 2002 he was hired by Partizan Belgrade in mid-season to replace recently sacked Ljubiša Tumbaković. Matthäus achieved the required success by steering the team to the 2002/03 title, but his finest hour with the club came in August 2003 when Partizan eliminated favourites Newcastle United in the 3rd qualifying round to reach the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League. Though drawn in a tough group with powerhouse Real Madrid, eventual champions FC Porto, and Olympique de Marseille, Partizan played some inspired football that autumn, only narrowly missing out on the UEFA Cup spot.

In December 2003, Matthäus made an abrupt announcement about leaving his post at Partizan only to follow it the next day with another of signing on to coach the national squad of Hungary. A country once synonymous with world class football was trying to return its national team on the path of former 1950s glory, and Matthäus was given the task of qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. After being drawn in a tough group with Sweden, Croatia and Bulgaria that goal looked increasingly difficult. The campaign started in the autumn of 2004 and fairly quickly it became obvious Hungary were in over their heads. However, Matthäus was not fired until the end of the campaign, and was even offered Hungarian citizenship, which he at the time said he would accept. There's no word whether he actually did.

On 11 January 2006, Matthäus signed a one-year contract to coach Atlético Paranaense of Brazil. However, after only 7 matches in charge (5 wins, 2 draws) he quit the club in March 2006 citing the need to be closer to his family. The way he left the club raised some questions about his professionalism. Apparently, only 5 weeks after signing a contract he informed club officials about a need to rush back to Europe in order to deal with an urgent personal problem, but assured them he'd be back in 3-4 days. After missing for two weeks, he faxed in his resignation and never even went back to Brazil to pick up his personal belongings.^[3]

On May 19, 2006, Matthäus was announced as coach of Red Bull Salzburg (formerly Austria Salzburg) for the 2006/2007 season. The Austrian Bundesliga side named Giovanni Trapattoni as their sporting director on the same day. Notably, Trapattoni coached Matthäus in the late 1980s (when at Internazionale) and from 1994-1996 and 1997-1998 (when at Bayern Munich). Despite co-leading the team to the Austrian league title by a large margin, Matthäus would eventually be fired on June 12, 2007 by unanimous decision of the Red Bull Salzburg's board of directors.

He is without a job in the moment.

Merry Christmas to you all!

And whoever thought that Wham's Last Christmas is the worst that can happen in this time of the year will be proven wrong: Dutch group Bearforce1 (see below) can top them any ol' time. Still: wishing you all a Christmas full of love with the people close to you!

Kosovo's doubtful future - Serbs to make up their minds

The meeting ended up going exactly as expected. The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday came together yet again to address the future of Kosovo. And since a series of UN-sponsored negotiations ended with no agreement earlier this month, all that was left was for the main protagonists to present their irreconcilable positions one last time.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's contribution was an appeal to international law. "Will, for the first time in UN's history, a decision be taken -- contrary to the will of a democratic state and, what is more, of a UN founding member -- to redraw its internationally recognized borders, to abolish its internationally recognized sovereignty and to amputate 15 percent of its territory?" he asked.

Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu countered with a plea that the final status of Kosovo, 90 percent of whose residents are ethnic Albanians, be determined sooner rather than later. "We are exhausted after nearly two decades of isolation, war and political limbo," Sejdiu said. "Lack of clarity about our status has held back our economy, discouraged international investment and prevented us from accessing international financial institution lending."

But nobody quite knows what will happen next. The European Union has rushed to find a common position on handling the Serbian province, which has been administered by the UN since 1999. Most EU member states are prepared to recognize a declaration of independence by the province. On Thursday, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country takes over the rotating European Union presidency on Jan. 1, said that an independent Kosovo is inevitable.

"The EU and Kosovo have to agree what to do next in a reasonable manner and without any blackmail," he said. "It's clear that certain processes cannot be held back."

Rupel also threw a carrot Belgrade's way, suggesting that the criteria for Serbia's entrance into the European Union be relaxed. The country's accession has long been dependent on handing over Ratko Mladic and other Balkan war criminals to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Rupel pointed to the fact that Croatia was allowed to sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement -- a precursor to EU accession -- before it had turned over all those wanted by The Hague. The same standard should hold true for Serbia, Rupel said on Thursday.

"It is not a matter of being more tolerant of former Yugoslav (war) crimes," Rupel said according to the German news agency dpa. "We are talking about the stability of the Western Balkans."

But it is unclear whether Belgrade even wants closer association with the EU. Tomislav Nikolic, head of Serbia's ultranationalist Radical Party, suggested on Wednesday that the Russians be allowed to build a military base inside Serbia -- and some would like to see closer ties between Belgrade and Moscow. Russia has consistently backed the Serbian position on possible Kosovo independence. According to recent polls carried out ahead of the Serbian presidential elections set for Jan. 20, 75 percent of Serbs say that the country should not trade Kosovo for EU membership.

The polls, though, also reveal a deep split in the country. Even as Serbs want to hang on to Kosovo, 69 percent of them likewise are in favor of joining the EU. In the current campaign for the presidency, Nikolic is virtually even in the polls with the pro-Western incumbent Boris Tadic. Some 75 percent of Nikolic's supporters favor alignment with Russia, according to Reuters, whereas 90 percent of Tadic's supporters want to join the EU as soon as possible.

Kosovo has indicated that it will wait until after the Serbian elections to declare independence in an effort to avoid driving Serbs toward Nikolic. With UN-sponsored negotiations at an end, however, such a declaration now seems just a matter of time.

Shoplifting Squirrel Steals 'Kinder Surprise' Eggs

A squirrel in Finland is nuts about "Kinder Surprise" chocolate eggs -- so much so it has taken to shoplifting them from a grocery shop.

Even worse, the furry varmint is a repeat offender, going into the store in Jyvaskyla at least twice a day to steal the treats.

The candies, which are made by the Italian company Ferrero, take the form of a hollow chocolate egg containing a toy in a capsule inside. They are intended for children -- "Kinder" translates as "children" in German -- and are hugely popular in Europe where the toys have even become collectors items among adults.

The manager Irene Lindroos, who has dubbed the bushy-tailed thief the "Kinder squirrel," told Reuters that the animal always goes straight for the Kinder eggs. "Other sweets do not seem to interest it as much," she said. Surprisingly for an animal which is supposed to like nuts so much, it appears to prefer the plain chocolate Kinder eggs over other products by the company, such as Ferrero Rocher chocolates which contain a whole hazelnut.

"It removes the foil carefully, eats the chocolate and leaves the store with the toy," Lindroos said. However the tiny delinquent -- who clearly has no social conscience -- leaves the wrappers behind.

'tis the season, but be cautious!

A cautionary tale about mulled wine: A German man who drank too much at a Christmas market got lost on his way home, fell over and got his head stuck in a hole in the ground. His mobile phone -- and an elaborate police operation -- saved his life.

A German man walking home drunk from a Christmas market fell over and got his head and upper body stuck in a hole in the ground, sparking a frantic police operation to locate him while he communicated with them by mobile phone.

"He was severely inebriated and had somehow got trapped in a hole on the edge of a forest with his legs sticking out," said Klaus Laackman, spokesman for the police in the western city of Münster.

"He was able to see with the light from his mobile phone and rang the police, but he had no idea where he was," the spokesman explained. "A sober person may have been able to free himself -- but for someone that drunk it was clearly a different story."

The 24-year-old man had been walking with a friend, but the friend was too drunk to remember where he had lost him.

Police established his general whereabouts by locating his mobile phone signal and dispatched squad cars with their sirens blaring so that the hole-bound man -- and the police officers speaking to him back at HQ -- could hear them.

The plan worked. They were able to locate and free him after he spent a total of 45 minutes trapped in freezing temperatures. "He was starting to suffer from hypothermia and was taken to hospital," said Laackman. "Without his mobile phone he probably wouldn't have survived."

Explanation

to all my non-German speaking readers: in the top righthand
side of the next few entries you'll find a drop-down menu that
might seem a bit odd at first.

It is a reaction of some friends and me on the latest developments in Austrian police and media law (Link here, alas only in German), an online demonstration and the possibility for readers to sign a petition against the most recent developments:

If everything goes alongside our government's ideas, in the future the following measures can be taken by the police without any order from a court:

• cellphone tracking
• the use of IMSI-catchers
• spying on IP-addresses

Therefore, some friends produced an online petition, to fight against an Orwellian scheme - we're not the US anyway.

Some might ask: why Metternich 2.0? Well, Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein was an Austrian chancellor in the Habsburg era, who from 1848 onwards fought against any potential revolutionary movements and introduced a highly elaborate spying system throughout the Monarchy. There are some similarities, nowadays, you see.

Christmas in Vienna

Since for the first time in years I am able to spend the Christmas season in Vienna I am enjoying it to the fullest:

Vienna is indeed a magical place before Christmas, with lots of Christmas markets, glittering lights and fantastic spells. Of course there is - like in any larger Western city - the hustle and bustle of pre-Christmas shopping madness, but even this is not as bad here as elsewhere. Okay, maybe I'm biased...

But then again: if you by any chance are in Vienna in the days before Christmas, visit Spittelberg Christmas Market, where organic farmers, artists and all kinds  of strange  conceptions can be found,  or the Kunsthandwerksmarkt am Karlsplatz (artisans' market), in front of the imposing Karlskirche cathedral, with lots of attractions for children, like pony riding, a mini-train and live goats to play with.

On some of the markets (like the one at Freyung, seen below) you can also get a feel for Viennese music and culture - something that attracts millions of tourists each year:

And - if you are inclined to - you can ride an oldtimer tram round Vienna's Ringstrasse, and mire watching the lights, get the feeling and get into some Christmas mood:

Vienna being the cosmopolitan place it claims to be, there is also a large Chinese community - they, however, have a different way to celebrate year's end, which in fact is not actually year's end for them, but they adapt quite well:

You can find some more impressions in this gallery.

Austrian energy giant OMV takes heat for 22b-euro deal with Iran

A major deal between Tehran and an Austrian conglomerate partly owned by the government has elicited a wave of protest in Austria amid fears Iran will use the profits to finance its nuclear program.

The Vienna-based Stop the Bomb organization launched a campaign last week calling for Austrian energy giant OMV to cancel the 22-billion-euro deal with Iran it initialed in April. Under the agreement, the largest energy deal in the European Union's history, OMV would develop Iranian gas and oil fields along the Persian Gulf.

One participant in the campaign, Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Elfriede Jelinek, told Israeli paper Haaretz: "We should not do deals with totalitarian regimes that admit that their goal is to destroy another state" - a reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's frequent calls to wipe Israel off the map. She said the new American intelligence estimate, which holds that Iran has ceased its nuclear weapons program, does not alter her view.

The OMV deal enjoys broad support among Austria's political class, from the Greens to the Social Democrats and People's Party. A spokesman for Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said the government "will not actively intervene" in the economic activities of "a private company."

But the fact the government is OMV's largest shareholder (with a 31.5 percent stake) has caused many public figures to demand that the firm sever its ties with Iran - especially because, as economist Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted, it is rare for any entity holding more than 25 percent of a company to refuse to intervene in its affairs. Clawson added that OMV's investment in Iran's energy sector would significantly increase the money Tehran has available for its nuclear program.

Security experts also argue that the OMV precedent will encourage other foreign companies to sign similar deals with Iran, despite EU leaders' call last Friday for tighter sanctions against Iran. Austria, after all, is an EU member, yet an Iranian delegation visited its parliament just last week to discuss closer economic ties.

"Doing business with a regime that threatens to liquidate Israel, that is involved in violating human rights on a daily basis and that is also working to develop a nuclear bomb, is completely unacceptable to those who view themselves as democrats," argued Stop the Bomb spokeswoman Simone Dina Hartman.

An OMV spokesman responded that his company "is not responsible for the [Iranian] regime's political positions."

Following a September demonstration against the deal in Vienna, OMV distributed a letter to its workers justifying the contract. Ferdinand Nemesch, the workers' representative on OMV's board, insisted that all the company's contracts are being "reexamined," including the massive Nabucco project - a $6 billion deal to construct a natural gas pipeline from the Middle East (including Iran) to the EU, reducing Europe's dependence on Russian gas. OMV is one of the firms slated to build the pipeline, for which a contract was signed last year. Nabucco is due to open in 2009 or 2010.

Ironically, some of OMV's public relations, including on the Iranian issue, are being handled by the editor of the Vienna-based Jewish newspaper Nu, Peter Menasse, who also owns a PR firm. Menasse insisted that his contract with OMV is small - a few tens of thousands of euros - and that anything of a "political nature" is handled by OMV's in-house PR department. But he added that while he "respects" Israel's view of Iran, he prefers the "outstretched hand and open door" approach.

In contrast, Ariel Muzicant, head of Austria's Jewish community, wrote recently on the Web site www.juedische.at that the country's Jews favor a total embargo on Iran. The site's editor, Samuel Laster, added that the deal is liable to result in an Iranian bomb partly financed by Austria.

Gusenbauer's spokesman termed the charge that the government is helping a state that wants to destroy Israel "completely absurd." But Hartman at Stop the Bomb disagreed. "Austria was ready to support the Nazi regime in 1938, and it seems that now it's ready to support the anti-Semitic regime in Iran," she said.

You can help by signing the petition below:

China's growing emissions

According to this paper by two researchers at the University of California carbon dioxide emissions in China are projected to grow between 11.05% and 13.19% per year for the period 2000-2010. What does this mean? I hope you are sitting down because you won’t believe this.

In 2006 China’s carbon dioxide emissions contained about 1.70 gigatons of carbon (GtC) (source). By 2010, at the growth rates projected by these researchers the annual emissions from China will be between 2.6 and 2.8 GtC. The growth in China's emissions from 2006-2010 is equivalent to adding the 2004 emissions of Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia to China's 2006 total (source).  The emissions growth in China at these rates is like adding another Germany every year, or a UK and Australia together, to global emissions.  The graph below illustrates the point.

Think about that.

Croatia's Sanja Jovanovic sets new world record

Croatia's Sanja Jovanovic has set a new world record on her way to winning a short-course swimming race at the European Championships in Hungary.

Jovanovic finished the 50-meter backstroke in 26.5 seconds, 0.33 seconds faster than the previous record set by China's Hui Li in 2001 in Shanghai, China. Germany's Janine Pietsch was second (27.11) with our very own Austrian Fabienne Nadarajah third (27.50).

The German women's team also set a world record in the four-by-50-meter medley relay event, finishing in 1 minute, 46.67 seconds. The Netherlands held the previous mark (1:47.44).

In other races, Hungary's Laszlo Cseh won his third gold medal of the championships by taking the men's 200-meter butterfly race (in 1:55.55). Cseh had set world records in his previous two victories this week.

France's Laure Manaudou won her second gold medal of the championships by taking the women's 400-meter freestyle race (in 3:57.43). Compatriot Alain Bernard won the men's 100-meters freestyle race (in 46.39).

The meet is being held in a 25-meter pool in Debrecen, Hungary about 220 km away from Budapest. The competition ends today, Sunday.

EU to offer Serbia swift entry

European leaders are prepared to offer Serbia "accelerated" membership of the EU as a carrot for accepting the independence of Kosovo, it was reported today.

The EU summit in Brussels today is expected to devote at least two hours to wrangling over a declaration of independence, which could be issued by the ethnic Albanian leadership within weeks.

A plan drafted this year by the Finnish UN envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, called for an 1,800-strong EU nation-building mission to implement independence but it has been rejected by Serbia, effectively vetoed by Russia, and there are also concerns within the EU.

European leaders plan to issue a statement urging Belgrade to give high priority to meeting conditions so that "progress on the road towards the EU ... can be accelerated", reported the Associated Press.

Diplomats told AP that some EU member states interpreted the statement as an offer for fast-track EU membership for Serbia but without setting a date.

EU leaders will declare that the status quo in Kosovo "is unsustainable", and the statement urges the UN, Serbian and Kosovan leaders to find a solution and refrain from violence.

Meanwhile, the EU's largest four member states are pushing to impose and oversee independence in Kosovo without a fresh UN mandate.

In a letter to European leaders at today's summit, David Miliband (pic to the right), the UK foreign secretary, and his counterparts from Germany, France and Italy, have demanded that the 27 EU governments "send a clear message on Kosovo" by agreeing to dispatch the EU nation-building mission.

The letter despaired of Russia assenting to the plan by backing a new mandate at the UN security council. It called on the EU to proceed on the basis of the security council resolution governing the UN protectorate in Kosovo after Nato drove out Serbian forces there in 1999.

Preparations for the EU mission to Kosovo, replacing the UN, are far advanced within the office of Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy coordinator.

EU officials say the mission could be dispatched "tomorrow" if a green light were given. But the 27 member states remain split over Kosovo despite months of trying to reach consensus.

The EU's big four, who along with the US and Russia comprise the "contact group" that sets international policy on the Balkans, will be the first, along with the Americans, to recognise Kosovo statehood after its ethnic Albanian leadership declares independence.

The letter, which is addressed to the Portuguese government, asked today's summit to pave the way for imposing independence early next year by declaring that: talks between Serbia and Kosovo finished; Kosovo's status has to be decided "urgently"; and the EU would play a "leading role in implementing a settlement".

There are to be further talks at the security council next week, with Moscow and Belgrade demanding more time for talks between Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaderships.

However, foreign ministers of the EU's big four, said: "We need to be realistic about the slim prospects of securing the necessary level of consensus in the security council."

Several EU states, notably Cyprus, Greece, and Slovakia, remain opposed to recognising an independent Kosovo without Serbia's agreement.

Other countries, such as the Netherlands, are worried about the international legal basis for the plan outlined by the four governments. A meeting of EU ambassadors last week in Brussels showed a consensus behind the plan of only around 16 out of 27, sources said.

There is general agreement that the EU mission could be deployed on the basis of security council resolution 1244, which set the terms for Kosovo at the end of the Nato-Serbia war in 1999. Although the Serbs have not controlled Kosovo since, the resolution acknowledged Belgrade's sovereignty.

Speaking of the EU plan, Sir John Sawers, the British ambassador to the UN in New York, said. "I don't think the security council ... will be able to reach agreement on the way forward, in which case other organisations will have to take the responsibilities."

Take action on climate change

Okay, this is not actually news, but I think it is important nonetheless:

I just signed an emergency petition trying to  save the crucial climate change talks in Bali, Indonesia right now by telling the US, Canada and Japan to stop blocking an agreemement. You can sign it here.

Almost all countries have agreed to cut rich country carbon emissions by 2020--which scientists say is crucial to stop catastrophic global warming, and will also help bring China and the developing world onboard. But with just 2 days left in the conference, the US and its close allies Canada and Japan have rejected any mention of such cuts.

We can't let three governments hold the world hostage and block agreement on this desperate issue.

There's still 2 days left to turn this around -  click below to sign the petition - it will be delivered direct to summit delegates, through stunts and in media advertisements, so our voices will actually be heard. But we need a lot of us, fast, to join in if we're going to make a difference. Just click on the link to add your name:

Sign here, please.