Balkan News

Kosovo's Karate Federation told BIRN that it will complain to the International Olympic Committee about Serbia's ban on the team entering the country to compete in Novi Sad.

Testifying at the Hague trial of former Serbian State Security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, a Serbian ex-policeman admitted personally setting houses on fire in a Bosniak village in 1993.

The OSCE South East Europe Media Conference in Macedonia adopted a declaration deploring the attack on the Montenegrin investigative journalist, Olivera Lakic, who was shot in the leg outside her home earlier this week.

Romania’s Supreme Court on Thursday acquitted former Prime Minister Victor Ponta of corruption charges after postponing the ruling five times. 

The grandparents of controversial Croatian right-wing politician Zlatko Hasanbegovic will be posthumously honoured by Israel for shielding a young Jewish girl from the fascist regime during World War II.

Albanian gangs are moving up fast in the rankings of the UK police’s mapping of foreign crime groups, ‘Times’ reports.

From “The Waldheim Waltz” to “In Praise of Nothing,” this year’s Beldocs will feature more than 100 documentaries, including many of last year’s standouts.

London police have named Vinko Osmakcic, one of the infamous Pink Panthers, as the likely suspect behind a major art fair heist last year.

Migrants and refugees have set up camp in a Sarajevo park, highlighting a recent rise in people using Bosnia as a transit route as the authorities try to find a strategy to deal with them.

With the Prime Minister’s own relatives involved in the business, marijuana growers in Macedonia are eying big profits from what many around the world see as a health wonder drug.

The closure of the Hungarian border to keep migrants out has pushed some of those who are desperate to leave Kosovo or Albania to find new routes to Western Europe via Romania.

Temporary General Prosecutor Arta Marku on Wednesday dismissed Besim Hajdarmataj, who was working on a drug-smuggling case against former interior minister and ruling party MP Saimir Tahiri, from his position as head of the Serious Crime Prosecution office.

Some Balkan and Eastern European countries celebrate May 9 as Victory Day over Nazi Germany, while others mark the EU's Europe Day - although several chose to celebrate both.

Vetevendosje defector and Pristina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti has been elected the new leader of the Social Democratic Party – a party formed back in the 1990s, which has enjoyed little success since then.

Croatia’s Vice-Prime Minister Martina Dalic rejected allegations that leaked emails show that she used her position to help friends and associates benefit from the ailing Agrokor company.

The opposition Democratic Party claims Edi Rama's government is collecting data from schools and health centres for political purposes – a claim the government has denied.

The EU ambassador to Macedonia talks to BIRN about the challenges to the EU’s values, its future – and about Macedonia’s welcome return to the path of reform.

A Serb who was arrested at a border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia on suspicion of having committed war crimes against civilians has been remanded in custody for a month by a Pristina court.

The Sarajevo Canton assembly condemned the arrest of 1990s general Atif Dudakovic and other members of the Fifth Corps of the Bosnian Army on suspicion of war crimes.

US lawyer Jack Smith has been appointed as the new Specialist Prosecutor at the The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers after the departure of his predecessor raised concerns that cases could be delayed.