Balkans

Snakes from former Yugoslavia that are allegedly capable of crushing children to death are causing alarm in a plush part of central London.

The landmark Vijecnica city hall and national library has been reconstructed and reopened 22 years after it was shelled by Serb forces during the wartime siege of the Bosnian capital.

Twenty-two years after the Bosnian war began, there is still no consensus in the country about its causes, and because of continuing ethnic divisions, there may never be any agreement.

Former fighter Zoran Milic, who was convicted killing four members of a Bosniak family in Busovaca in 1993, had his prison sentence reduced from nine to seven years on appeal.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will pay his first official visit to Sarajevo on May 13 – a move seen as a step forward in relations between the two neighbouring countries.

Former Bosnian Croat fighter Zdenko Jakisa was arrested in the US state of Minnesota on suspicion of committing a series of violent crimes against civilians during the 1990s war.

Edinburgh professor Nigel Osborne tells Balkan Insight that the plenum movement is a refreshing inspiration to the rest of the region on how to transform society from the bottom-up.

Around Gavrilo Princip’s home village in Bosnia, disputes over whether he was a hero or a terrorist have raised tensions ahead of the centenary of the outbreak of World War I.

A witness said that ex-fighter Marinko Bjelica, on trial for war crimes in Kalinovik, vowed to commit murder at a school where Bosniaks were detained, in order to avenge his two sons.

Bosnia’s Federation entity has adopted a set of anti-corruption laws, which aim to establish specific law-enforcement bodies tasked with pursuing perpetrators of organised crime.