Shorts

Credit robbery

Recently, two armed robbers (described by witnesses as quite young) stormed into the Krusevac branch of JIK Bank. Alas, these young criminals were unlucky: the cashier had no money!

Fortunately two customers saved the day by giving the robbers a cheque each.

The search for the criminals continues.

Eavesdropping

Not even eight months have lapsed since Ljubisa Arsenijevic, opposition MP from the Serbian Renewal Movement asked a parliamentary question, and already the answer has arrived. Or rather, the first of several answers.

In January, the MP in question asked the government, or rather the relevant minister if it is true that phones are being bugged and mail intercepted.

Six months later, Aleksa Jokic, (since 28 May the "former") minister of transport said that "according to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transport as stated in section 15 of the legislation on ministries, the parliamentary question is not within the jurisdiction of the Ministry, so the ministry can not provide an answer."

Mr. Jokic has no other option but to collect similar answers from all ministries; if all of them (including the ministry of interior) claim that interception of communication is outside their jurisdiction, both the MP and the public will have to conclude either that there is no interception, or if there is, that is being done independently of the legislation on Ministries.

Jet set

"Srpska Rec", in the issue of 29. July, published the article "Marko is (not) a Prince". The author of the article, Milovan Brkic claims that over 1,000 birthday invitations were printed and distributed to ministers, businessmen, etc. The Birthday boy easily splashed out several tens of thousands of German marks for his birthday party. The President Milosevic's son celebrated his twenty second birthday celebrated in his own, now legendary nightclub "Madonna". On the left hand side of the invitation were the names of Marko's famous namesakes: Marcus Aurelius, Marco Polo, Prince Marko, printed in lighter shade and highlighted with a marker. On the right hand side was the following Brkic's comment "At the age of 23, without a single day's work, without proper high-school education, he is still more powerful and richer than any of the three in their day".

Communications

So far Croatian press has been available in Belgrade only from street vendors. However, there appears to be a new way of obtaining it.

Recently, some flowers bought at the Kalenic market were found to be wrapped in a fresh and crispy page from a fairly recent issue of the Zagreb daily "Vjesnik", containing an interview with the respectable TV personality Helga Vlahovic.

It is however, unknown whether flower vendors at the Dolac market in Zagreb have the opportunity to wrap their flowers in pages from "Politika", decorated with pictures of some long forgotten personality from Belgrade.

Phenomena

Is a chemical war under way in the Belgrade park of Tasmajdan, or is it just a case of collective paranoia among dog owners caused by white powder of undetermined source and content.

Roomers say that five dogs already died of poisoning, although veterinary surgery in Belgrade claims that in the past week they had no cases of poisoning. Using the equipment belonging to council, local people washed more or less the whole park, and put up posters warning parents and dog owners that white powder scattered around the park could prove deadly for children and dogs.