Balkans

The United States will not move any missile defenses to the Balkans, a top U.S. official said Thursday. The statement comes after President Barack Obama dropped plans by predecessor George W. Bush for ground-based interceptor missiles in Poland and a related radar site in the Czech Republic to provide European …

Membership in the European Union remains a dream of all countries that emerged from the ashes of the former Yugoslav Federation, with some of them still far away from achieving of this goal. Nonetheless, the paper adds, the prospects are not all that bleak. Macedonia might get a date for …

If there are enough facts on violations during vote at Bulgarian parliamentary elections in Turkey they should be annulled,  leader Ataka political party Volen Siderov said. He added annulling elections is Turkey is a matter of finding violations, which would be accepted by the court and the Central Electoral Commission. …

The name Albanians and the time when they arrived in Macedonia are issues that are interpreted in different ways in other encyclopedias published in the country earlier and in Former Yugoslavia, Macedonian Nova Makedonija newspaper writes. Some back the thesis that the Albanians arrived in Macedonia in the XVI century, …

Russia and Bulgaria will continue co-operation on the construction of Belene NPP, the first vice-president of Atomstroyeksport Alexander Gluhov said. “We will not stop the project but will continue it after we correct the financial scheme.” Gluhov pointed negotiations in Bulgaria with the Russian energy minister Sergey Shmatko and head …

Russia’s Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Konuzin has asked Belgrade to switch back street names to those of Russian soldiers that took part in the liberation of Belgrade during World War II, local media report. The daily newspaper Blic speculates that the proposal comes ahead of a visit by Russian President …

The Bosnian town of Tuzla has filed criminal charges against the prime minister of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska for denying that massacres of civilians in Tuzla and Sarajevo took place during the 1992-95 war. Milorad Dodik has said that a Serb mortar attack in 1995 that killed …

Enough ideas are on the table for Macedonia and Greece to start thinking creatively and find a solution for their “name” spat, the UN mediator Matthew Nimetz said Thursday in New York after meeting Macedonian President Georgi Ivanov. “I intend to resume the talks as soon as the new government …

Croatia’s President Stepjan Mesic welcomed the visit by Croatia’s top prelate Cardinal Josip Bozanic to the notorious World War II concentration camps this week, but commented that the visit should have come ‘much earlier’. Bozanic, accompanied by some 400 priests, set out on a historic pilgrimage to visit the sites …

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic announced that the government on Firday sent its official report to the European Commission showing that it has met all the conditions for the lifting of the visa regime. Speaking at a round table titled “Towards the White Schengen List“, Djelic explained that the …