Balkans

Muslims in southwest Serbia say schools in their region should not feel pressured to celebrate the day of St Sava, the patron saint of Serbian schoolchildren and a heroic figure to Serbs.Mustafa Fetic, head of the educational board of the Bosniak National Council, which represents the country’s Muslim minority, says …

Foreign Affairs Committee welcomes Montenegro’s progress, while urging it to do more to tackle media freedom issues, women’s rights and gender equality.The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament adopted a draft resolution on Montenegro on Tuesday, hailing what it called the country’s solid progress. “Montenegro has made solid progress …

Tatjana Babic, the new head of Serbia’s Anti-Corruption Agency, says there will be no untouchable people in the fight against graft. Serbia’s Anti-Corruption Agency has elected its former acting director, Tatjana Babic, as head of the regulatory body. “As Tatjana Babic has particular experience and a good knowledge of the …

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said the Croatian town of Gospic should reinstall a renovated statue of the celebrated ethnic Serb scientist that was destroyed by a blast in 1992.”I appeal to the Gospic authorities to find a decent place for that monument, which I consider to be the heart of …

Opposition Social Democrats said they will resume roadblocks after a meeting of political leaders on Tuesday failed to defuse the political crisis in the country.Macedonia’s opposition Social Democrats said they will resume blocking roads in the capital and elsewhere as a sign of resistance to the government of Prime Minister …

A Zagreb court jailed reporter Jasna Babic for a month to ensure that she attends a libel trial against her initiated by a Croatian businessman.Police arrested Babic on Tuesday on the orders of Zagreb’s municipal court to make sure that she is present at her trial over the alleged libel …

OTV channel, owned by a controversial businessman-turned-politician, Dan Diaconescu, has been cut off for failing to pay long overdue fines.Romania’s TV regulator, the CNA, on Tuesday ordered a populist TV station, OTV, to stop broadcasting on the grounds that the company holding the channel license had not paid large fines …

Country is failing to promote its cut-price health services, a local expert in this field complains.Croatia has top class surgeons, advanced medical technology and, according to recent research by the portal CroMedicor, up to 65 per cent cheaper prices for plastic surgery than the EU. Breast enlargement operations in Croatia …

A Sofia court ordered pre-trial detention for a man who aimed a gun at a top ethnic Turkish politician during a party conference on live television.The court refused bail for Oktay Enimehmedov, the 25-year-old who pointed the tear-gas gun at the head of Ahmed Dogan, ex-leader of the Movement for …

Atifete Jahjaga and Tomislav Nikolic are likely to meet in February or March, the office of the Kosovo President has confirmed.Ramush Tahiri, political advisor to the President of Kosovo, told Kosovo’s public broadcaster on January 21 that Atifete Jahjaga is likely to meet her Serbian counterpart, Tomislav Nikolic, late in …