Balkans

Police action in Serb-run north last July pushed the partition issue off the negotiating table, Kosovo Interior Minister says.Kosovo’s Interior Minister has paid tribute to the police intervention in July 2011 in the Serb-run north, saying it sent a clear message that Pristina will not allow the partition of Kosovo. …

Bulgaria needs to review terrorist threats to the country, the Consultative Council on National Security said in the wake of the recent suicide bombing in Burgas.President Rosen Plevneliev convened the Council on Thursday in the wake of the July 18 suicide bombing, which killed five Israelis and a bus driver …

Almost a hundred Kosovo Roma, who were made homeless after a fire destroyed parts of the Konik refugee camp, staged a protest on Wednesday in front of the Montenegrin government headquarters.The Roma were protesting because they had only been given tents as temporary housing after a fire burned down their …

Bulgaria needs a new assesment of terrorist threats against it, officially stated Bulgaria’s Consultative Council on National Security, which was assembled by President Rosen Plevneliev Thursday. The July 18 suicide bombing against a bus full of Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian sea resort city of Burgas, which killed 6 people, …

Talks aimed at normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia, are due to resume after Serbia forms a new government, Ashton tells Kosovo leader Hashim Thaci.Pristina and Belgrade are set to resume talks once a new government in Serbia is in place, the EU’s High Representative, Catherine Ashton, announced on Wednesday. …

Aleksandar Vulin, head of new office coordinating all 17 ministries on Kosovo, says he will never shake hands with Kosovo leaders and issues ringing defence of Serbian-funded bodies in Kosovo.”No one will ever shake hands with [Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim] Thaci.” So said Aleksandar Vulin, the hardline new head of …

Although all parties agree on the need to change the constitution to lift the immunity of high state officials, they remain divided on when the vote should taker place.Albania’s Council of Legislation, a parliamentary body tasked with drafting amending the constitution, on Tuesday approved a draft reform agreed by both …

Some 23 charter flights from Israel have been cancelled since the recent suicide bombing in Burgas on the Black Sea, the Bulgarian Tourism Minister said, adding that every effort must be made to keep cancellations to a minimum.Delyan Dobrev, the Bulgarian Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister, said the cancellations had …

Serbia’s Public Procurement Office has found irregularities in procurements worth up to 70 million euro in the first half of 2012 – three times more than in the whole of 2011.Predrag Jovanovic, head of the Procurement Office, said uncovered irregularities in urgent public procurements for first six months of 2012 …

Jailed former police minister Ljube Boskoski is the prime suspect for the killing of Marjan Tusevski, who was shot dead by unidentified hitmen 11 years ago in Skopje.Macedonian police on Tuesday arrested nine other former police officials who are also suspected in relation to the unsolved murder of Tusevski, a …