Balkans

Macedonia looks to the inauguration of Barack Obama with some trepidation about a possible shift in the United States’ position on the name dispute with Greece, while Athens appears quietly confident that the new US president will be more sympathetic to its stance. Athens and Skopje have been locked in …

“Barack Obama’s presidency will create a new chapter of values, not only for the United States, but for the rest of the world,” Albanian Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha said. Albanians are very pro-American and the US elections are often presented as a standard of democracy in the country, where after …

United States policy in the Balkans will not change with Barack Obama as US president, and Serbia cannot hope for any shift in Washington’s stance over Kosovo, a veteran Serbian diplomat said. Zivorad Kovacevic, a former Yugoslav ambassador to the US and current head of the European Movement NGO told …

The Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Jacques Barrot criticized Bulgaria’s judiciary during an official visit to Sofia on Tuesday, local media reported. Barrot, accompanied by Bulgaria’s European Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva, told reporters “your judiciary system is producing very few …

Croatia has slammed a map published by Slovenia’s Environmental Protection Agency that shows the contested Piran Bay area claimed by both countries as belonging to Slovenia. The Croatian Foreign Affairs and the European Integration Ministry said that the map published on the website of the agency, a part of the …

Unknown persons broke into the office of Vesna Bosotova, a judge in charge of a high profile war crime case dating from Macedonia’s armed conflict in 2001, local media reported late on Monday citing police sources. Bosotova leads one of the four cases of alleged war crimes that was returned …

War crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic said NATO forces conducted a “Gestapo-like attack against his home and family” in December last year as part of the search for the two remaining fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic. Karadzic, indicted on two counts of genocide for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnia …

The first hearing in the case of Macedonia versus Greece is due to start on Monday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The hearing will cover procedural issues that should determine the future course of the case that is expected to last no less than three years. …

SOFIA (Reuters) – Bulgaria has received the first quantities of Russian gas on Tuesday and normal daily supplies to domestic consumers could resume in 24 hours, the Economy and Energy Ministry said. Sofia has requested at least 8.6 million cubic meters of gas a day, the ministry said in a …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian and Serbian officials met in Belgrade earlier this week in a bid to improve ties between the two countries’ parliaments. At the meeting between Serbian Parliament Speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic and Iranian Ambassador to Serbia Seyed Morteza Mir Heydari, the two sides discussed promotion of bilateral parliamentary cooperation. …