Balkans

BULGARIA The newly elected Director-General of UNESCO, Bulgarian Irina Bokova, has thanked three former prime ministers of her country for their support. “I owe this success to the successive governments of Simeon Saxecoburg, Sergey Stanshev and current Prime Minister Boyko Borisov,” Bokova, member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, said hours …

MACEDONIA In an emergency session on Wednesday the editorial committee of Macedonia’s Academy of Sciences and Arts’s, MANU, that prepared the country’s first encyclopaedia decided to revise the disputed parts of the book that refer to the history and present life of the large Albanian community living in Macedonia. After …

BiH All principal executive and legislative officials from the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska on Tuesday in the strongest terms condemned the latest decisions imposed by country’s High Representative Valentin Inzko. “The latest decision of the High Representative represents another step towards the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” media …

ALBANIA Albanian academics in Tirana have slammed a new encyclopaedia published by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences, MANU, which describes the country’s ethnic-Albanians as “settlers”. Adding his voice to a growing number of academics, politicians and NGO members who have sharply critcised the encyclopaedia, the Deputy Head of the Albanian …

MACEDONIA Macedonia has never abandoned the so-called double name formula as a solution to its unresolved name, there have been only different interpretations of that position, the country’s President Georgi Ivanov said Tuesday in New York. Ivanov said this after holding meetings in New York with NATO Secretary General Anders …

KOSOVO Kosovo’s premier Hashim Thaci has added his voice to the controversy surrounding the publication of the encyclopaedia by the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Science, MANU, saying that it is similar to the encyclopaedia published by the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science. Thaci said the facts presented in …

SERBIA Serbian President Boris Tadic said Belgrade will call for fresh talks with Pristina on Kosovo’s status once his government receives and advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, ICJ. Addressing students and professors at Columbia University in New York, Tadic said that for his part, there cannot be …

BiH BiH je ispunila manje od polovine uslova iz Evropskog partnerstva za ovu godinu, zbog čega će biti prolongirana pozitivna ocjena spremnosti BiH za dobijanje kandidatskog statusa za članstvo u EU, izjavio je Halid Genjac, predsjedavajući Parlamentarne komisije za evropske integracije BiH.

Chairman of the National Council for Hague Cooperation Rasim Ljajić says that Ratko Mladić must be arrested for Serbia to progress towards the EU. He said that there should be no illusions about Holland allowing the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) to be unfrozen before Mladić is extradited to The …

The war crimes chamber in Belgrade is expected to deliver its verdict today in the case of 2 suspected accomplices in the murder of the Bytyqi brothers in 1999. The trial of Sreten Popović and Miloš Stojanović, former members of the Serbian Interior Ministry, began on November 13, 2006. They …