European Union monitors are stepping up their patrols in Georgia ahead of the release of a much anticipated report on the origins of last year’s war in South Ossetia, in case the report’s conclusions reignite tensions around the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. There has been heated speculation …

Besides patrol boats, Russia enters submarines to the Abkhaz marine area, Vice-Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Paata Davitaia told journalists. He said the submarines are already on the naval base in Ochamchira. Davitaia said Russia continued its occupation, which testifies its controlling over the Abkhazian sea area.

The Romanian Embassy hopes to continue Turkey’s fruitful activity as the NATO coordinator to Azerbaijan, the Romanian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Nicolae Ureke said at the seminar in the NATO school on Sept. 23.

BULGARIA The newly elected Director-General of UNESCO, Bulgarian Irina Bokova, has thanked three former prime ministers of her country for their support. “I owe this success to the successive governments of Simeon Saxecoburg, Sergey Stanshev and current Prime Minister Boyko Borisov,” Bokova, member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, said hours …

MACEDONIA In an emergency session on Wednesday the editorial committee of Macedonia’s Academy of Sciences and Arts’s, MANU, that prepared the country’s first encyclopaedia decided to revise the disputed parts of the book that refer to the history and present life of the large Albanian community living in Macedonia. After …

BiH All principal executive and legislative officials from the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska on Tuesday in the strongest terms condemned the latest decisions imposed by country’s High Representative Valentin Inzko. “The latest decision of the High Representative represents another step towards the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” media …

ALBANIA Albanian academics in Tirana have slammed a new encyclopaedia published by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences, MANU, which describes the country’s ethnic-Albanians as “settlers”. Adding his voice to a growing number of academics, politicians and NGO members who have sharply critcised the encyclopaedia, the Deputy Head of the Albanian …

MACEDONIA Macedonia has never abandoned the so-called double name formula as a solution to its unresolved name, there have been only different interpretations of that position, the country’s President Georgi Ivanov said Tuesday in New York. Ivanov said this after holding meetings in New York with NATO Secretary General Anders …

KOSOVO Kosovo’s premier Hashim Thaci has added his voice to the controversy surrounding the publication of the encyclopaedia by the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Science, MANU, saying that it is similar to the encyclopaedia published by the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science. Thaci said the facts presented in …

SERBIA Serbian President Boris Tadic said Belgrade will call for fresh talks with Pristina on Kosovo’s status once his government receives and advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, ICJ. Addressing students and professors at Columbia University in New York, Tadic said that for his part, there cannot be …