Balkaninsight.com

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara to again confirm the strong ties between Pristina and Ankara.

After rejecting the party's first candidate, Romania's President has given Social Democrat former minister Sorin Grindeanu a mandate to form a new government.

After a decade dodging arrest for alleged fraud, media and telecoms tycoon Bogoljub Karic returned from self-imposed exile in Russia as the investigation was cancelled, bringing promises of major investments in Serbia.

Heads of three of the four parties representing Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian community met in Tirana and expressed the need to seize the moment in Macedonia and agree on demands.

Nine former Croatian Defence Council fighters have been charged with committing crimes against Serbs in the town of Orasje during wartime - a case that has angered Zagreb and Croats in Bosnia.

Two Croatian citizens, one of them a defence ministry employee, were indicted over alleged bribery during a deal to repair and buy MiG fighter jets from the Ukrainian company Ukrspecexport.

Dragan Vikic, the wartime commander of Bosnian interior ministry special police units, was charged alongside three other ex-officers with killing eight Yugoslav People’s Army prisoners of war in 1992.

Kosovo's newly-appointed ethnic Serbian Minister for Local Government, Mirjana Jevtic, resigned on Thursday after Belgrade demanded her removal because it had not endorsed her appointment.

For the second year running, the deep political crisis in the country has largely set aside divisions between country’s ethnic Macedonians and Albanians, although several incidents put cohesion to the test.

Global challenges and political turmoil at home proved too much for Boyko Borissov’s wobbly coalition - and the year ended on a note of uncertainty. 

Croatia and Serbia may sound as if they are rushing into an arms race - but Croatia's announced purchase of new fighter jets has yet to be concluded while Russia's donation of jets to Serbia is less 'sensational' than it sounds, an analyst cautioned.

If you haven't yet decided what to do for the 'craziest night of the year’ in Belgrade, then plan to head to the square in front of the National Parliament for a night of festivities, fun and fireworks.

In a landmark decision, Albania's Central Election Commission has voted to dismiss two MPs and one mayor for hiding their past crime convictions - thereby breaking a law that bans officials with criminal records from holding office.

Police questioned youth activists who covered up a controversial plaque which includes a fascist slogan near the Croatian WWII concentration camp in Jasenovac.

Prosecutors are investigating whether a local arms company broke the embargo on exporting weapons to Syria, following Russian claims that Bulgaria-made arms were found in Aleppo.

Montenegro’s government dropped plans to declare the birthday of Petar II Petrovic Njegos a national holiday after opposition from Bosniaks who accuse the poet-prince of glorifying the killing of Muslims.

The outgoing government has designated February 21 as a day of thanks to the people who resisted Nazism in Bulgaria during the Second World War - partly in order to strengthen 'democratic values'.

After a journalist involved in the campaign against BIRN in Kosovo in 2009 said the ruling party had been behind the whole affair, the party has hit back calling the claim 'a fairytale'.

Sunday's election re-run in the village has not changed the final results in Macedonia's election as the verbal fight continues between the ruling and opposition party about who will form the next government.

Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic, who has crossed swords on many occasions with the Serbian authorities, has announced that he will run for the post of President in elections next year.