Balkan News

While the two would-be presidents of Moldova broadly represent pro-EU and pro-Moscow options, most ordinary people just want a leader they can trust and respect.

Some of the 150,000 Bosnians in the US say victorious presidential candidate Donald Trump’s tirades against migrants and Muslims have left them feeling nervous about their futures.

While the Sofia authorities insist that seven men deported to Turkey in October never sought asylum in Bulgaria, their families claim the opposite and vow to seek justice in Strasbourg. 

As Donald trumps Hillary in the race for the White House, there are mixed feelings in the Balkans which are, as ever, caught up in the region’s own high dramas. Read our Premium weekly roundup for November 3 - 10.

Custom-made shoes crafted from crocodile leather may be far beyond the wallets of most Serbs – but a handful of designers in Serbia say the market for it is growing.

The Cantonal Court in Bihac has sentenced Goran Sovilj and Petar Galic to a total of 17 years in prison for committing crimes in Kljuc, Bosnia.

Brussels reports say six countries made ‘no progress’ last year in meeting freedom of expression criteria for EU membership - while Turkey was described as ‘backsliding’.

The head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Michael Davenport, was unable to present the EU report on Serbia’s progress to the Serbian parliament following objections from right-wing opposition parties.

Despite the evidence, the Romanian government is still refusing to acknowledge that the CIA operated a covert detention centre in Bucharest where ‘War on Terror’ prisoners were tortured.

The Free Zone festival is in its 12th year, continuing its mission of not only getting people around Serbia to see great, contemporary films, but also to encourage conversations the topics contained within them.

Some Croats have started an online petition to re-open the infamous Communist-era prison camp on Goli Otok - and fill it with corrupt politicians.

Bulgaria's embattled centre-right presidential candidate, Tsetska Tsacheva, who came second in the first round of the elections on Sunday, has warned voters that they face a stark choice in the run-off.

A court in Sarajevo has denied Serbia's request to extradite a Bosnian allegedly linked to the weapons stash found near Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s home.

The Serbian pro-government Informer newspaper on Monday accused several investigative media outlets, including BIRN, of working as foreign mercenaries for the CIA and others.

[Campaign update] Independent monitoring shows massive air pollution near Bosnian lignite plant Ioana Ciuta, Energy coordinator October 28, 2016 Smog is a recurring problem in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where a lignite-fired power plant might soon get even bigger.(Image by Zlatko Babic – CC BY 2.0) Air pollution in the town of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina was above legally allowed limits on twelve of 20 consecutive days as measurements made by Bankwatch and the Tuzla-based environmental group Center for Ecology and Energy show. In an effort to provide independent data on air quality in different locations in the Balkans, Bankwatch and local partner organisations kick-started their own air quality measuring tour of […]

Prosecutors ruled that there is no evidence that former EU rule-of-law mission Francesco Florit demanded or took a bribe to acquit defendants in triple murder and bombing cases in Kosovo.

Montenegro's opposition bloc on Monday has accused the prosecution of fabricating claims that Russian and Serbian nationalists plotted a coup attempt on election day.

As Kosovo forensics experts on Monday started working on the autopsy of Astrit Dehari, the Vetevendosje activist who died on Saturday in prison, NGOs, lawyers, politicians and relatives of the deceased are demanding answers.

After a Bosnian link was made to the arms cache found close to the home of Serbian premier Aleksandar Vucic, experts said the quantity of unregistered firearms still floating around  Bosnia posed a serious risk.

David Schwendiman, chief prosecutor of the newly-established specialist court that aims to try former Kosovo Liberation Army members for 1990s crimes, will make his first official visit to Serbia and Kosovo this week.