Balkan News

Protesters rallied in front of the Council of Ministers in Sofia, calling for vice-premier Valeri Simeonov's dismissal over comments denigrating campaigning mothers of children with disabilities.

Zagreb County Court convicted former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader of war profiteering and sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in jail, but acquitted him of abuse of office in a separate case.

More than 1,500 Albanian police officers were deployed in several major operations against four suspected organised crime groups, including international drug smugglers.

Macedonian police are giving protection to MPs who received threats after voting for the implementation of the historic 'name' agreement with Greece, the interior minister said.

The Bosnian court sentenced former Federation entity MP and agriculture minister Jerko Ivankovic Lijanovic to 12 years in prison for organised crime, money laundering and tax fraud.

Leading politicians in Pristina and Belgrade condemned an attack on two buses carrying Serb pilgrims to an Orthodox Christian monastery in eastern Kosovo.

Zagreb county court has rejected an indictment accusing 29 Serbs of war crimes over dozens of killings in the Croatian village of Vocin in 1991, ruling that it needs to be clarified.

Albanian authorities arrested two former MPs from the governing Socialist Party over accusations of corruption and organised crime amid a major crackdown on alleged drug traffickers.

The response of authorities to an attack on a black British man in the Bulgarian capital demonstrates Sofia’s reluctance to tackle hate crime head on.

Having done nothing to implement its new defence strategy, Moldova seems bent on turning a blind eye to growing threats to its security.

An explosion shook Brod oil refinery in northern Bosnia, local police announced on Tuesday night.

Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, warned that cooperation between ex-Yugoslav states on prosecuting suspects from the Balkan wars was “regressing”.

A Romanian citizen detained as part of an investigation into the murder of Bulgarian TV journalist Viktoria Marinova was released without charge on Tuesday night. 

The leader of a minority Bosniak party and MP in the Serbian parliament, Muamer Zukorlic, has been given police protection after receiving threats from ISIS.

The Ukrainian Security Service named over 200 people, including three Moldovans, who it alleged were mercenaries who have served with private military company Wagner in Syria and eastern Ukraine.

Serbian police arrested four people on suspicion of attacking two young Kosovo Albanian men in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad.

Milorad Dodik, the newly-elected Serb member of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s tripartite presidency, said he will launch an initiative for the country to recognise annexed Crimea as part of Russia.

Kosovo’s foreign minister confirmed that the Serbian authorities have released dentist Ibrahim Matoshi, who was detained in August on an indictment reportedly connected to the 1998-99 war.

Bulgarians across the country mourned the brutal killing of journalist and TV station administrator Victoria Marinova with candle-lit vigils on Monday evening.

The hard-line nationalist victories in Sunday’s election – and the dismal defeat of most opposition parties – has created all the ingredients for what some fear is ‘the start of Bosnia’s breakup’.