Balkans

Croatian President Stjepan Mesic has mandated former Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor to form a new centre-right coalition government following the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader last week. “Jadranka Kosor has shown evidence that states that she has the needed majority support in the current assembly,” news agencies …

Matthew Nimetz, the UN mediator in the Greek-Macedonia “name” talks, arrives in Skopje today to commence a fresh round of consultations on a dispute that has kept the country from NATO membership. Media speculate that the UN mediator will not bring any new name proposals for Macedonia to the table.

Milorad Dodik, prime minister of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska, has told Serbian media that Bosnian Serbs are hoping to play an active role in Serbia’s next parliamentary elections. “We are not seeking integration that would mean major participation in Serbia’s political life, but we’d like for our people …

Macedonia’s ruling VMRO-DPMNE party and the country’s largest opposition movement, the Social Democrats, have ruled out the formation of a government of national unity. The unity administration proposal was raised Friday by a smaller opposition movement, the New Social Democrats, NSDP. 

The Opposition Serb Progressive Party, SNS, will open a Council for EU Integration, Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the party, announced on Thursday in Brussels. Nikolic met in the EU capital with European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and EC Director for Western Balkans Pierre Mirel to discuss ways in which the …

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will help Serbia ship tonnes of spent nuclear fuel to Russia and decommission its research reactor, IAEA’s outgoing chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Friday. The Vinca Nuclear Institute, 17 km (11 miles) southeast of Belgrade, will ship 2.5 tonnes of spent fuel rods and …

Bosnia’s war crimes court jailed a Bosnian Serb wartime army commander on Friday for 18 years for the killing, rape and torture of Muslims in eastern Bosnia early in the 1992-95 war. “Momir Savic was found guilty of persecution, murder, imprisonment, rape, torture and other inhuman acts against Bosnian Muslim …

TIRANA, Albania’s opposition Socialists charged yesterday that the ruling Democrats were improperly trying to influence the country’s lengthy vote count by declaring victory before all ballots from last week’s national election were tallied. 

TIRANA, Albania nearly a week after parliamentary elections, Albania’s governing Democratic Party began to assemble a coalition government on Saturday, even as the opposition Socialists decried the move as premature.

TIRANA, Albania’s opposition Socialists are threatening to hold street protests after election authorities declared Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s Democrats had won enough seats in last weekend’s election to form a government.