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A court in Rome ordered the Italian Ministry of Defense to pay 500,000 Euro as indemnity for the life of Stefano Melone, a military helicopter pilot who died of cancer after serving in Albania, Kosovo and other countries, OrvietoNews.it announced today. The court concluded that the malignant vascular tumour that caused the death of Melone, was due to exposure to radioactive substances, while serving in Balkans. The Italian pilot was diagnosed with cancer in 2000 and died in Milan in November 2001, only 40-year-old.

Balkan states are gambling on the nuclear option as the best way to reduce the energy shortage but whether the risks pay off remains to be seen. The three guards stand at the gate in the 40°C afternoon heat, ignoring the bustle around them. Grim-looking barbed wire coils round the top of the tall fence, as if designed to stop convicts escaping from prison.

Protests have been ongoing for some weeks in K.Mitrovica over a consignment of a suspected radioactive substance. A tanker carrying 70 tons of chemical material from Iran via Turkey, Bulgaria, and Macedonia arrived in Kosovo two months ago. Serbs and Albanians alike are concerned that the consignment could become radioactive if destroyed. The material is currently located at the customs terminal in southern Kosovska Mitrovica.