October 22 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in the online versions of Serbian media on Thursday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
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- Serbia’s annual tax revenue from the South Stream gas pipeline, which will carry between 36 and 41 billion cubic metres of gas annually, could amount to 500 million euro, Serbian gas monopoly's CEO Dusan Bajatovic said. He added that Russian electricity trader Inter Rao is interested in building gas-powered plants in Serbia, and that the government in Belgrade has suggested that Inter Rao, Russia’s Gazprom and Srbijagas build together a thermal power plant in Serbia’s northern town of Novi Sad, for which Serbia has already called a tender.
- The conditions Serbia must meet in order to receive a $1.0 billion loan from Russia, approved on Tuesday, will be made public by the end of next week, the assistant to Serbia’s Finance Minister Diana Dragutinovic, Zoran Cirovic, said.
- A court in Vienna has ruled that Serbia will be able to withdraw the 10 million euro bank guarantee placed by Austrian consortium Alpine-Porr in a failed deal for the construction of a key motorway. In 2007 the consortium was awarded the concession deal to build the motorway section connecting the southern Serbian town of Pozega with Horgos, at the border with Hungary in the north, at an estimated cost of 800 million euro excluding interests. In September, the consortium sought from Serbia 35 million euro in compensation for the cancellation of the concession deal, or a revision of the terms of the deal. The consortium claimed to have been cut off from most of the profit after having allegedly invested about 35 million euro in the project.
EMPORTAL
- The European Union will donate to Serbia 1.0 billion euro over the next five years in a bid to improve the living standard of the country’s citizens, the head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Serbia, Vincent Degert, said.
- A 46-year-old woman from Kraljevo in the southern part of the country is the first person to die from the A/H1N1 virus in Serbia, the head of the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Belgrade, Zoran Todorovic said.
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- Russia wants to take part in the construction of EU-defined Corridor X, of power plants and the underground railway system in Belgrade in exchange for the $1.0 billion loan to Serbia, unnamed sources said.
($=0.6674 euro)