Eurasia

All Montenegrin leaders and parties received the good news from Luxembourg about a start date for membership negotiations with joy, though they know negotiations won’t be easy.Officials in Podgorica have not disguised their joy following Tuesday’s decision of the EU General Affairs Council in Luxembourg to open membership talks with …

The ruling centre-right GERB party is pushing for amendments to electoral legislation that could stand it in good stead in the 2013 general elections.The ruling centre-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, is pushing for new amendments to the election law that may benefit in next year’s general election.

New parliamentary majority in the Federation entity, led by the Social Democrats, has voted to dismiss the President and Vice-President of the parliament and appoint new men.Deputies of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, the Alliance for a Better Future, SBB, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ and its sister party HDZ …

The High Representative for Bosnia has asked Bosniak and Croat victims associations and the Bosnian Serb mayor to find a compromise which would allow a “dignified commemoration” for the families of those killed 20 years ago.Valentin Inzko visited the northern town of Prijedor on Tuesday, where he met the town’s …

The head of the state government has dismissed two ministers and a deputy minister, acting on the demand of the ruling Social Democrats that the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, should leave government now that their coalition is over.Bosnia’s Prime Minister, Vjekoslav Bevanda, dismissed Sadik Ahmetovic, Security Minister, Muhamed Ibrahimovic, …

As the descendants of Milan Nedic, leader of a Nazi-backed puppet government, request restitution of his property, historians remain split over his role in history.Descendents of Milan Nedic, leader of a Nazi-backed puppet government in Serbia during World War II, have filed a claim to the Serbian agency for the …

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha has dismissed Dick Marty’s report on organ trafficking during the Kosovo war, saying it was influenced by Belgrade.“When I learned that the major part of the report was written [by Serb Prosecutor Vladimir] Vukcevic, I felt dismayed,” Berisha said, responding to MPs’ questions in the …

Civil society organizations have asked the Bosnian Statistics Agency to change the 2013 census form and remove what they see as discriminatory elements from questions about nationality, religion and language.Three questions in the upcoming census need to be changed in terms of the offered answers and the formulation of the …

Athens is failing to focus on meaningful regional issues, Foreign Minister says, referring to decision of Greek border staff to cover up the letters “MK” on any Macedonian cars entering Greece.Foreign Minister Nikola Popovski was the first senior Macedonian official to react, after Greek border guards last week begun covering …

After a dig recently uncovered several mammoths skeletons in eastern Serbia, archaeologists have now run into some human graves that contain golden objects.Only a week after uncovering the remains of five or six mammoth skeletons at a dig at Viminacium, a site in eastern Serbia, archaeologists have stumbled across human …