Balkans

Kosovo’s government is preparing to issue biometric passports in 2010. Kosovo has issued non-biometric passports since declaring independence in February 2008.The use of biometric passports is a key criterion for visa liberalisation, which would allow Kosovo citizens to travel freely in the EU Schengen zone. Kosovo’s government is working on …

BELGRADE, Serbia Police arrested Stanko Ristic, a close associate of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, local media reported on Tuesday (August 3rd). Ristic’s lawyer vowed to appeal the arrest. This is not his first. The retired military pilot was jailed for 162 days in 2006 during an investigation …

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) The Bosniak Party of Democratic Action (SDA) nominated its deputy leader, Sadik Ahmetovic, as security minister Monday (August 3rd). The previous two nominees — Halid Genjac and Senad Sepic — had dropped out of contention. The position became vacant after incumbent Tarik Sadovic was dismissed …

ZAGREB, Croatia Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Monday (August 3rd) that she expects Slovenia to stop blocking Zagreb’s EU accession talks soon. She added that she hopes discussions she had on Friday with Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor will lead to results. The two prime ministers agreed on a framework …

Residents of Strpce, Kosovo are receiving electricity for the first time in 34 days, the head of Strpce municipality, Zvonko Mihajlovic, told the Tanjug news agency on Monday. The power supply has yet to resumed for several major customers, including the post office, Raiffeisen bank and Serbian telecommunications company Telekom, …

Albanians from southern Serbia have started an initiative for the forming of a special region Presevo Valley. But the Belgrade political public sees this as an unacceptable act of separatism, Serbia’s Kurir reported. Albanian parties forwarded to the Serbian government a request for the formation of Albanian regional institutions and …

ZAGREB Croatia this Tuesday celebrates the anniversary of a military operation as Victory Day and Homeland Gratitude Day and Day of Croatian Defenders. This despite the fact that the August, 1995 military attack, known as Operation Storm, on Serb areas of that country killed over 2,000 and drove more than …

BELGRADE Chairman of the Coordination Body for Southern Serbia Milan Marković says the recent ethnic Albanian declaration “will not solve any problems”. The body deals with issues in the southern municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa, where Serbia’s largest population of ethnic Albanians outside of Kosovo itself lives.

SOFIA, Bulgaria The ministers of the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB) dealing with EU programs will make an evaluation on all projects with signed contracts for financing. EU Affairs and EU Funds Control Committee chairperson Svetlin Tanchev announced the news.

The new head of NATO has said that its Kosovo force could be completely withdrawn within four years. Anders Rasmussen, NATO’s new secretary general, said he wanted to see Kosovo Force, KFOR, “reduced to just a small reaction force, or out altogether” within his four-year term.