Eurasia

EU accession talks with Serbia should start without delay, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament said on Thursday.Voting on the European Commission’s 2012 progress report on Serbia, the committee said starting talks with Serbia as soon as June was achievable. “We acknowledged Serbian progress and send a message …

Presidents Atifete Jahjaga and Tomislav Nikolic pledged their commitment to the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and their respective European agendas after their historic meeting on Wednesday.Catherine Ashton, the EU Foreign Policy Chief, said after a three-hour meeting on Wednesday with the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia that the two leaders had vowed …

The trial started in Bari on Thursday of four Montenegrins accused of involvement in smuggling cigarettes in the 1990s.Three Montenegrin businessmen, Vesko Barovic, Branko Vujosevic, and Branislav Micunovic, and the former chief of Montenegro’s trade mission in Italy, Dusanka Jeknic, are standing trial in Bari, a Podgorica-based radio, Antena M, …

Tirana District Court ruled on Thursday that two former officers of the Republican Guard were not guilty for the deaths of three protestors in the January 21, 2011 riots.The court rejected murder charges against General Nrea Prendi, former head of the Republican Guard, and Agim Llupo, former chief of staff …

Former police commander Johan Tarculovski, the only Macedonian national convicted for war crimes by the Hague Tribunal, is appealing for early release after completing eight of his 12-year sentence.Tarculovski’s lawyer, Antonio Apostolski, said the German prison where Tarculovksi is serving a 12 year sentence had proceeded his appeal for early …

Federation entity Interior Minister Predrag Kurtes has denied responsibility for a car accident last week, though two witnesses claim he crashed his vehicle and ran away.Interior Minister Predrag Kurtes on February 6 said he was not to blame for a January 28 car accident in the Marijin Dvor area of …

A heritage commission has declined to loan the famous Sarajevo Haggadah to the New York Metropolitan Museum, although it currently lies locked up and unseen in a closed museum.Bosnia’s Commission on National Monuments on February 6 said that it had turned down a request from the Metropolitan Museum in New …

The OSCE head in Albania on Wednesday urged Albania’s Chief Prosecutor, Adriatik Llala, to redouble the fight against organized crime and corruption.“The fight against organized crime, including trans-border crime and corruption, is the key to ensuring stability in the country, the region and at the global level,” Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth …

There were tears and laughter at the launch of a book compiling the memories of more than 1,000 young people who grew up in Sarajevo during wartime.“Even though this is a book about the war, I believe it is an anti-war book,” said Jasminko Halilovic, the 24-year-old editor of ‘Childhood …

The Presidents of Kosovo and Serbia will sit down at the same table on Wednesday for the first time since Kosovo declared independence in 2008 in order to “normalise” relations.Atifete Jahjaga and Tomislav Nikolic are to meet Catherine Ashton, EU Foreign Policy Chief, in Brussels on Wednesday to symbolically back …