Serbia, and especially its northern province of Vojvodina, has the highest rate of suicides in Europe, with 19 out of 100,000 people opting to kill themselves compared to a European average of 13 per 100,000. In Vojvodina the rate is the highest – 28.5 per 100,000. Between 1,300 and 1,400 …

The Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal is due to pronounce a second-instance verdict in the case of Momcilo Krajisnik, a former Republika Srpska senior official, in mid March. In September 2006 Krajisnik, former President of the Republika Srpska Assembly, was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity, …

The United Nations war crimes court in The Hague found five senior Serb officials guilty on Thursday of orchestrating the murder, torture and deportation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, acquitting former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic. This is the first verdict on atrocities committed by Serb forces in the 1998-99 crackdown …

Albania’s Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha appeared in front of the Supreme Court in Tirana on Friday on charges of abuse of power related to a mammoth highway project linking Albania’s Adriatic coast with Kosovo. The charges relate to the time when Basha served as Albania’s Minister of Transportation and Public …

Albania’s Minister of Finance accused the World Bank on Friday of damaging their excellent relations with a probe by an independent investigative panel on a coastal management project that has embarrassed the conservative government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha. “We regret to note that Bank’s internal issues are being transposed …

International human rights group Front Line accused Kosovo’s public telecoms company of harrassing civil society group COHU!, and called for a prompt investigation into the matter. The managing director of Kosovo’s Post and Telecommunications Kosovo, PTK, Shyqyri Haxhaj, accused the wife of COHU! director Avni Zogjani, a PTK employee, of …

Macroeconomic indicators over the past three months confirm that the global financial and economic crisis is spreading to the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the World Bank said, suggesting a list of immediate and medium-term countermeasures. This World Bank statement, carried out by local media on Friday, came only a …

Macedonia has problems organizing transparent public procurements tenders and is ending up with many of them getting scrapped , shows the latest research by the local Centre for Civil Communications. Having monitored public procurements and tenders in the last year , the Centre noted that only 60 percent of the …

Macedonia’s industrial output dropped a staggering 16.7 percent in January 2009 compared with the same month last year, the State Statistical Office said. The industry has been marking a steady decline over the past few months due to the global financial downturn. The latest figures show that the situation in …

Afghanistan’s defense minister warned Thursday that the Obama administration’s proposed changes in U.S. war strategy risk undermining Kabul’s civilian government because they appear to scale back U.S. goals in the country.Abdul Rahim Wardak said he was troubled by recent comments from senior U.S. officials that they were “lowering expectations” in …