Balkans

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Serbia and Russia have strong political ties. He underscored that Moscow’s position on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija will not change and that Russia insists on it being resolved in line with UNSC Resolution 1244.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is meeting his counterpart Kristian Vigenin on July 7, during his official visit to Bulgaria. He is to mark the 135th anniversary since diplomatic relations were established between Bulgaria and Russia, the Foreign Ministry in Sofia said in a statement to the media.

BAGHDAD, June 25, (Agencies): Militants attacked one of Iraq’s largest air bases and seized control of several small oilfields on Wednesday as US special forces troops and intelligence analysts arrived to help Iraqi security forces counter a mounting Sunni insurgency. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting for his …

LONDON, June 23, (Agencies): British security forces will find it impossible to monitor all the estimated 500 jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq after they return home, a former top intelligence official said Monday. Richard Barrett, ex-head of counter-terrorism at the MI6 overseas security agency, told the BBC that authorities …

The UN refugee agency called on the authorities to ensure that people who fled Kosovo during the 1998-99 war have places to live and security if they choose to return home.

With the last votes from the general election yet to be counted, the political parties are still squabbling over who has the right to form a new government in Kosovo.

Kosovo police have launched a probe into the murder of Elvis Pista, a prospective MP from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, who was shot dead in his hometown of Rahovec/Orahovac.

Former military policeman Zeljko Stanarevic was arrested on suspicion of having participating in the killings of Bosniak civilians in the north-western Bihac municipality.

The protest movement that swept Bosnia earlier this year may have faded, but its principal legacy – a new sense of empowerment among the people – will endure.

Dysfunctional governments in Balkan countries continue to drive down democracy ratings in the region, according to Freedom Houses’s latest study, ‘Nations in Transit 2014’.