Almost non-news: Talks between polticians from Belgrade and Prishtina on "Kosovo's cultural and religious heritage" have made no progress. One of the unresolved points of discussion in a meeting 2 weeks ago in Vienna was whether the monuments should be guarded by Serbian or UN police forces. (SETimes)

2008, 2010,... Istanbul on the road to disaster? First UNESCO threatens to withdraw the "World Heritage Site" honour if the deplorable situation of the historical peninsula's architectural and archaeological heritage does not improve until 2008 (see ICOMOS report/pdf). Then, hardly a year after Istanbul was designated to be Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010, the initial enthusiasm seems to have given way to the usual disintegration, as an article in the English-language Zaman suggests. www.istanbul2010.org (see also program for 2010). In other news real estate prices in Istanbul are reported to have reached EUropean dimensions, with rates higher than in Madrid, Stockholm, and Rome.

As BIRN reports, Romanians "return" to their late queen's beloved coastal resort of Balchik (in Bulgaria). "In 2006, Queen Marie’s palace and garden in Balchik was the second most visited museum in Bulgaria after the National History Museum in Sofia. Moreover, 70 per cent of the visitors to Balchik were Romanians."