Balkans

The Central Electoral Commission published the final list of candidates for the upcoming local elections scheduled for October 7.More than 30,000 individuals have been registered as candidates for local or municipal elections in Bosnia’s two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, the Central Electoral Commission, CIK, …

Serbia’s new defence minister, Aleksandar Vucic, has headed to Russia for his first official visit, confirming the new government’s desire to firm up ties to the Kremlin.Aleksandar Vucic, Defence Minister and head of Serbia’s National Security Council, will meet on Wednesday with Russia’s Vice President in charge of defence, Dmirty …

DUI official says party will walk if law on armed forces leaves out members of former Albanian guerilla fighters from 2001 conflict.Macedonia’s ruling coalition has been shaken after the government’s smaller coalition partner announced that it may leave, if a key piece of legislation is adopted.

The Hague Tribunal, ICTY, has refused the motion of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to question the former US president Bill Clinton.The ICTY’s Trail Chamber decided that Karadzic could not prove in his motion that Clinton’s testimony would be necessary to the case, or that the information Karadzic …

Albania’s leader has compared Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Hitler, once again showing that the Jewish state has a firm ally in Sali Berisha.Reacting to Ahmadinejad’s recent declaration, branding Israel as a tumour in the Middle East that should be eradicated, Sali Berisha on Sunday described the Iranian’s president’s stance …

Romania’s suspended President Traian Basescu is set to return to office within days after judges ruled an impeachment vote against him was invalid. The decision by the Constitutional Court still needs rubber-stamping by parliament on Friday. The court ruled against the referendum because turnout fell below the required 50 percent.

The Serb community in Croatia is divided over a dispute between the Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Milorad Pupovac, the Serb minority representative in the Croatian parliament.Seven associations representing the Serbian minority in Croatia have declared their support for Ivo Josipovic, the Croatian President, in his dispute with Pupovac, the …

Kasim Dal, a former close ally of Bulgarian ethnic Turkish leader Ahmed Dogan, has indicated that he will form a new political party.Dal plans to form the party alongside independent MP Korman Ismailov. Both men were previously members of the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which is …

Prime Ministers Hashim Thaci and Ivica Dacic are to sit at the same table on Tuesday at the UN Security Council to debate Kosovo’s progress – but no handshake is expected.The Prime Ministers of Kosovo and Serbia are to address the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to discuss the …

Serbia should take part in all regional meetings, whether or not Kosovo representatives are present, the director of Serbia’s EU Integration Office, Milan Pajevic, said.The director of the Serbian government’s EU Integration Office said that accepting the presence of Kosovo representatives at international meetings did not imply recognition of Kosovo’s …