Eurasia

At the trial of Radovan Karadzic, a witness says that Bosniak civilians were deported from Grbavica, Sarajevo in 1992, while Karadzic maintains that the crimes committed there were not organised. Prosecution witness Radomir Neskovic, former Vice President of the Executive Board with the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, explained that members …

Bulgarian president Georgi Purvanov said that Bulgaria would support any compromise in Macedonia’s name dispute but the search for a “geographic” name – acceptable to all sides – might cause tension in Bulgaria.

Russia and Ukraine are strongly determined to resume the full-scale process of political settlement of the Transnistrian problem, Russian Federation’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov stated at a news conference following his meeting with his Ukrainian colleague, Minister of Foreign Affairs Konstantin Grishenko, in Odessa (Ukraine) this past weekend.

Serbian PM Mirko Cvetković met in Nicosia today with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias during a visit “intended to improve relations between the two counties”. Cvetković laid a wreath at the statue of former Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III.

Turkey says it opposes the candidacy of Austria’s former foreign minister to become the next secretary general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Turkey’s foreign ministry said Saturday it can’t support Ursula Plassnik because she opposes Turkey’s bid to become a full member of the European Union. …

The U.S. Congress representatives will today hold several meetings in the Georgian parliament during their visit to Georgia. A group of the U.S. congressmen consisting of 8 people, who represent the Republican and Democratic parties, is on visit to Tbilisi. They are scheduled to meet with representatives of the Constitutional …

Macedonia’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party has declared victory in Sunday’s general elections, claiming they have won almost half of the seats in the parliament. “The VMRO DPMNE-led coalition has won these elections,” Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski told supporters late on Sunday.

Political deadlock and economic hardship appear to have steered Moldovans towards the opposition Communists in local elections on Sunday. Communist Igor Dodon is leading the mayoral race in the Moldovan capital Chisinau with around 52 percent of the vote, while incumbent mayor Dorin Chirtoaca holds 43 percent, according to

Albania’s Minister of Education announced in a meeting with his Kosovo counterpart on Friday that both countries would work on producing joint textbooks for first-graders. “We will soon have textbooks on the market for children abroad [outside Albania], based on a common programme,” the Albanian Education Minister, Myqerem Tafaj, said. …

Serbian President Boris Tadić will begin a two-day visit to Brussels on Monday by meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. His office said that Tadić is going to hold a lecture on Serbia’s EU integration at the European Policy Center on Tuesday.