Balkans

The Security Council today decided to extend the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus until 19 July 2012, and called on the leadership of the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities to accelerate the pace of talks aimed at reunification. 

At a meeting on Mt Vlasic, representatives of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia discussed the future of the search for and identification of missing persons, and agreed to continue co-operation. Representatives of the International Commission on Missing Persons, ICMP, Bosnia’s Institute for Missing Persons, INO, the Commission for Detained and Missing …

Three Bosnian Muslims, including two active police officers, were arrested Wednesday accused of involvement in the torture of ethnic Croats during the country’s 1992-1995 war, prosecutors said.

The authorities in Skopje launch a diplomatic battle for NATO membership. The government’s strategy was to present the member states with the situation after the ruling of the International Court of Justice. Macedonia will seek support for its NATO entry to be included on the agenda of the NATO summit …

Serbia has been asked to recognize Kosovo in order to obtain an EU candidate country status, but it has refused, said Serbian President Boris Tadic. Commenting on Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic’s statement that Serbia had to recognize Kosovo to get a candidate country status, Boris Tadic said a similar …

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated that the U.S supported united Bosnia-Herzegovina and wanted to see the country make progress next year. She met with Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency Chairman Željko Komšić in Washington. The U.S. secretary of state said the U.S. believed that Bosnia-Herzegovina would make progress in 2012 …

The Netherlands is firm on vetoing Bulgaria’s and Romania’s Schengen entry if there is a vote on the matter, according to Gerd Leers, Dutch Minister of Immigration and Asylum Affairs. Leers has spoken Tuesday, before the last for 2011 meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA). According to …

A Russian convoy of about 20 trucks transporting humanitarian aid to Serbs in northern Kosovo has been stopped and checked on the Kosovo-Serbia border at Jarinje. European police and customs officers in Kosovo stopped a convoy of about 20 trucks allegedly transporting humanitarian aid from Russia to the Serbs of …

Minister of Agriculture and Trade Dušan Petrović says Serbia “will not back down from Resolution 1244” when it comes to regional representation of Kosovo. The government believes this is a legitimate position, he said on Tuesday in Belgrade.

Joint Bulgarian-Romanian police units are starting patrols in the largest Bulgarian Black Sea resort Bansko as of December 13, the Interior Ministry announced. The joint patrols are stipulated under an agreement between the police authorities of