Balkans

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Two of Serbia’s closest neighbors are expected to move toward recognizing Kosovo on Thursday, a blow to Belgrade’s efforts to counter the secession of its former province.

The UN’s decision to refer the issue of Kosovo’s status to the International Court of Justice has met with dismay in Pristina, which declared independence earlier this year.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats voted mostly along ethnic party lines in a local election Sunday, keeping them in power some 13 years after the war, preliminary results showed early Monday.

BRCKO, Bosnia (Reuters) – In the 1990s, Milorad Maglajcevic fought for Bosnia’s Serbs, whose wartime goal was to clear Muslims from areas they wanted for Serbs alone.

SARAJEVO (Reuters)SARAJEVO, October 4 (Reuters) – Bosnian police have arrested Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric, three months after he was acquitted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal of charges against Bosnian Serbs, a police source said Saturday.

KAMENICA, Bosnia (Reuters) – Forensic experts said on Wednesday they had unearthed the remains of 362 Muslim victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre from a mass grave in eastern Bosnia.

The Netherlands has prevented the EU from agreeing to extend new trade benefits to Serbia.The block comes despite a positive report from the chief UN war crimes prosecutor on Belgrade’s co-operation.

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The European Union’s executive commission said on Friday that a decision by the Bosnian Serb authority to withdraw from the state power transmitter may hurt Bosnia’s bid for EU integration.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia overwhelmingly backed a European Union pre-membership pact on Tuesday as well as an energy pact with Russia, in what the prime minister called a bid to build a bridge between the East and West.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union must offer further political and financial support to Bosnia during a difficult reform period to come, Bosnia’s top peace envoy said on Tuesday, warning of “unfinished business.”