Balkans

Freedom House Ranks Balkans ‘Partly Free’ and ‘Free’

Annual report on the state of global freedom by Freedom House, shows Balkan countries remain divided into ‘partly free’ and ‘free’, with only Bosnia moving up the table a notch.The US watchdog Freedom House has ranked Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia “partly free” countries, while Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, …

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Kosovo Arrests Serbian Grave Desecration Suspect

Police have detained a man suspected of destroying Serbian Orthodox graves in Kosovo Polje but insisted that he wasn’t motivated by ethnic hatred.A police statement said that a 48-year-old man, named as M. Buzuku, an ethnic Ashkali, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon for allegedly vandalising more than 50 gravestones. Police …

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Bulgaria to Start Afghanistan Withdrawal Process

Cabinet expected to agree on Wednesday to partly terminate the military mission to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.The Bulgarian decision will be made in accordance with the strategy for the transformation of participation in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, which the government in Sofia adopted at the end of 2011. …

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Kosovo-Serbia Border Talks in Stalemate

EU-led talks between Belgrade and Pristina ended on Tuesday without much progress on a recent border management deal.Talks on implementing the “Integrated Border Management Agreement” and preparing for the next round of the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia on January 17 ended inconclusively on Tuesday. Following a meeting of the …

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Parents Face Suspects at Macedonia Mass Murder Trial

The parents of five victims in the politically-charged case gave emotional testimony at a Skopje court as they faced those accused of killing their sons.The parents of five victims in the politically-charged case gave emotional testimony at a Skopje court as they faced those accused of killing their sons.With tears …

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Montenegro Shuts Media out of Constitutional Talks

Parliament’s constitutional committee was to discuss changes intended to bring EU accession closer but instead agreed to close its doors to press and public.Committee members adopted the closed-door policy at their first session on Tuesday, suggesting that it would stop the talks being manipulated for political advantage during the upcoming …

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Serbian Far-Right Group Risks Court Ban

The Constitutional Court may look again at banning SNP Nasi after its members torched a provincial flag and put up posters calling NGOs and media foreign agents.Vladimir Cvijan, head of parliament’s committee on constitutional affairs and a member of the presidency of the ruling Progressive Party, said the Constitutional Court …

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Montenegro’s Kosovo Refugees Protest for Electricity

Refugees from Kosovo living in containers at a camp in Montenegro’s capital staged a demonstration to demand power supplies.”This is not life – without electricity, it’s like we are in prison,” one of the refugees told journalists in front of the headquarters of the EU delegation in Montenegro’s capital Podgorica …

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