Balkans

BANJA LUKA Chief of the EP’s Southeast Europe delegation, Doris Pack, said that the existence of the Republic of Srpska (RS) is not slowing down Bosnia’s progress. “The existence of RS is not an obstacle, political verbal attacks are, and that is present in both entities. RS is not a …

MACEDONIA Macedonia builds a professionally, well trained army as a guarantee of the territorial integrity and state sovereignty and therefore ARM is one of the greatest Ambassadors of our country, the President Gjorge Ivanov said. After 2001, Macedonia become security importer, but now it became security exporter, due to it …

ALBANIA Edi Rama, the current leader of the Socialists – the biggest opposition party in Albania, said he would run again for another term at the upcoming party’s congress scheduled for end of August. Despite facing numerous accusations from other parties and his Socialists as wells, Rama said he strongly …

ALBANIA The burial place of more than 4,000 political prisoners executed during the Albanian communist regime of Enver Xohxa, remains unknown up to this day. The secretary of the association for integration of political prisoners of Albania made public this information. This association accused all previous governments that held power …

BULGARIA Four of the nine last-minute diplomatic appointments made by Bulgaria’s former government would be cancelled, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Daragovest Goranov said as quoted by Bulgarian BTA news agency on August 18 2009. These were Boyan Choukov, who was supposed to take the post of Bulgaria’s ambassador in Macedonia; Atanas …

SOFIA, Bulgaria In August half of the respondents in a poll by National Center for Studying Public Opinion (NCSPO) describe as successful the first steps of the government of Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria /CEDB/. The respondents who label the government’s first steps as unsuccessful are five times less. …

SKOPJE, Macedonia A racially motivated scuffle involving ethnic Macedonian football fans and Albanian residents of Skopje’s Nerezi district has drawn strong condemnation from all sides. Women and children were reportedly among the seven people injured in the incident, which took place late on Sunday. A standoff ensued between groups of …

BiH Some Bosnian Serb officials and media organs have expressed concern that hidden intelligence and military motives lurk behind NATO’s decision to hold a major exercise in Bosnia this September. “There is no doubt that NATO is militarily and politically extremely powerful and that this Alliance carries out whatever it …

MACEDONIA Macedonia’s parliament adopted a new Law on Parliament after heated debate on Monday night, in a session boycotted by an opposition ethnic Albanian party. The Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA , kept its pledge to boycott parliament from this week, in lieu of the collapse of the ruling coalition. …

BELGRADE, Serbia Police have found two pistols in the vehicle of the leader of the Islamic Community in Serbia, Adem Zilkic, the Serbian Interior Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. Belgrade police discovered the weapons during a routine search. The pistols were confiscated by the Prosecutor’s Office since Zilkic and his driver, …