Balkans

As the EU-led dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is set to resume on March 4, the two sides have made some advances on Serb-run northern Kosovo while areas of disagreement remain. In a meeting on Tuesday with the Kosovo President, Atifete Jahjaga, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said the two sides had …

Jail conditions are far better in Romania than what they were – but overcrowding and poor diet remain a problem, a new report says. The number of inmates in Romania’s prisons has risen constantly in recent years and the government spends over 41 million euro a year in supporting them, according …

Republika Srpska Prime Minister Aleksandar Dzomic and President Milorad Dodik on Monday agreed that the entity government will hand resignation on Wednesday, amid continuing economic woes and rising unemployment. Dodik will hold a government session on Wednesday where the name of a new prime minister will be announced, media reports …

A party representing war veterans has launched a campaign for a public vote to dismiss former ethnic Albanian fighter Talat Xhaferi from his new job as Macedonia’s defence chief.The small opposition party Dignity announced on Tuesday that it will start gathering the 150,000 signatures needed to support the referendum initiative …

Saudi Arabia has been supplying Syrian rebels with infantry weapons from Croatia in its drive to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad, The New York Times has reported.The New York Times reported on Monday that Saudi Arabia has paid for a “large purchase of infantry weapons” from Croatia to help …

War veterans associations have vowed to prevent the official introduction of Cyrillic script and the Serbian language into the Croatian city “by any means necessary”.“We will prevent the introduction of Cyrillic street signs, and the government should be held responsible for all possible undesirable events,” the Headquarters for the Defence …

A parliamentary committee has called a hearing with the interior minister and special prosecutor following an opposition daily’s claims that its journalists were secretly surveyed.Djurdjina Ivanovic, the special prosecutor, and Rasko Konjevic, the Interior Minister, will be summoned to appear before parliament’s Committee for Security and Defence, this body agreed …

The Social Democrat-led opposition has snubbed the government’s latest compromise proposal for overcoming the political crisis, calling it ‘hypocrisy’.Social Democrats on Monday said that the proposal for a one-week postponement of local elections slated for March 24 – giving them more time to submit lists of candidates – was hypocritical. …

As rallies continue in Bulgaria – despite the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov – the President is mulling appointing a caretaker government of experts.Protests against the political establishment continued on a smaller scale in Bulgaria on Monday, when several hundred people gathered for a rally in …

Metropolitan Neofit of Ruse has been elected the new patriarch of Bulgaria’s Orthodox church amid social unrest which hit the country in recent weeks.In a secret ballot on Sunday, the 14 bishops that make up the holy synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Christian church chose the 67-year-old Metropolitan Neofit from …