Balkaninsight.com

As people throughout Kosovo get ready to vote in Sunday's municipal elections, surveys show that most of them hope the result will bring about positive changes for their families and communities.

Dozens of Romanians demonstrated on Saturday in Bucharest to demand that the government legalize civil partnership, which might benefit as many as 800,000 people, organizers say.

Albania's parliament has postponed a decision on whether to allow the arrest of MP Saimir Tahiri on drugs smuggling charges until Saturday.

A report from Bosnia’s Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees on freedom of speech, which the government has adopted, notes threats, defamation lawsuits and self-censorship as some of the key problems in the media.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague is introducing a pilot project that will enable defendants held in the UN court’s detention centre to make video calls.

Our stories this week reveal some interesting strategic shifts and winds of change blowing across the region, along with disconcerting reflections on the state of democracy. 

Moldova's military forces could be the next collateral damage from the country’s growing internal political crisis, experts warn.

Serbian anti-war group Women in Black commemorated the 25th anniversary of the deaths of 16 Bosniaks from the Serbian town of Sjeverin who were kidnapped and killed by Serb forces in Bosnia.

After Macedonia's former ruling party called for all those involved in the April 27 storming of parliament to receive an amnesty - members of the current government and legal experts have condemned the proposal.

A new documentary about huge number of Croatian patriotic songs recorded during the 1990s conflict shows how musicians volunteered their talents to support the ‘Homeland War’ for independence.

The campaign for the local elections in Kosovo's 38 municipalities draws to a close on Friday at midnight as citizens get ready to vote on Sunday.

Events in Macedonia have powerfully confirmed the thesis that it is not parties or foreign governments that bring about democratic change in  authoritarian regimes, but grassroots popular mobilization.

Belgrade’s Museum of Contemporary Art is reopening its doors after a controversial ten-year closure for renovation work. 

Serbia is celebrating Belgrade's WWII Liberation Day on Friday with a military display featuring Russian jets, which Russia's defence minister will attend.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that a complaint against Serbia by Bosniaks who were imprisoned in Serbian detention camps during the Bosnian war was inadmissible.

The wife of the only Macedonian war crimes convict, Johan Tarculovski, confirmed receiving payments from the government of 5,000 euros a month during the eight years her husband spent in jail abroad.

Greek police have arrested two former senior Macedonian secret police employees whose testimonies might shed important light on Macedonia's mass illegal wiretapping scandal.

The Serious Crimes Prosecutor has asked Albania's parliament to lift MP and former minister Saimir Tahiri's immunity, so that he can be arrested in relation to drugs smuggling charges. 

Dragan Djilas, a former Mayor of Belgrade, says he has been threatened with arrest if he tries to run again in next year's local elections in the Serbian capital.

Security will be tight on Thursday in Elbasan when iconic Serbian football team Partizan  Belgrade play their first match in Albania in 30 years.