Balkan News

In an interview with BIRN, the UN mediator between Greece and Macedonia recalls his years-long role in the negotiations – and warns of the huge risks, if the agreement is not approved.

An Iraqi suspected of killing a German in the city of Chemnitz, where anti-migrant protests have erupted, was one of several hundred asylum-seekers who were selected for deportation from other EU countries to Bulgaria.

Croatia’s leading anti-corruption investigator, Dalija Oreskovic, told BIRN that she decided to enter politics to continue her struggle to uphold the rule of law and channel public disaffection with current party politics.

The German and Austrian Chancellors and NATO Secretary-General all visit Macedonia this week to support government efforts to ensure a successful referendum on the historic ‘name’ agreement with Greece.

The Croatian president’s special adviser on missing persons met his Serbian counterpart for the first time and vowed joint action to find the remaining Serbs and Croats who disappeared during the 1990s war.

Marijan Benes, who won a series of boxing titles in the former Yugoslavia, has died at the age of 67.

Serbian-American right-wing diaspora organisations and clergymen wrote a letter to the US Congress and administration opposing any exchange of territories between Serbia and Kosovo.

The Bosnian armed forces reprimanded a soldier for saying that former Bosnian Serb military chief and war crimes defendant Ratko Mladic “fought against terrorism”.

Mrike Gjikola, a former prisoner whose long struggle to find her daughter’s grave highlighted the suffering of people interned in Communist-era detention camps, has died at the age of 97.

A shooting incident inside the Kosovo Intelligence Agency building in Pristina on Tuesday morning has left one person dead, officials said.

After criticising the PM and threatening to withdraw from the coalition government, Valeri Simeonov of the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria instead demanded concessions from the ruling party.

Although most politicians remain wary – and Brussels remains opposed – activists in Moldova and Romania who support reunion insist that history is on their side.

Ahead of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s Kosovo visit, there are reports of Kosovo Serbs who work for Belgrade-funded institutions being compelled to attend his rally.

A new book about Croatia’s WWII Jasenovac concentration camp distorts historical facts to suggest that inmates weren’t interned because they were Jews, Serbs or Roma, and that they weren’t systematically killed.

The survival of the country’s ancient script is not being helped by the politically motivated campaigns being mounted now in its defence.

President Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj may strongly disagree on ‘border correction’ – but both leaders are using the issue for their own benefits, a former adviser to Thaci says.

Bosnian state prosecutor Miroslav Janjic said he received death threats from a witness who testified in the war crimes case against the former Bosniak commander in Srebrenica, Naser Oric.

The Bosnian Serb leader has condemned the visit this week to Bosnia of Behgjet Pacolli, Kosovo's Foreign Minister, for a regional cooperation meeting.

Pro-Serbian parties in Montenegro have announced the launch of a petition demanding that the government withdraw its recognition of Kosovo's independence.

Croatia has sent a warship from Split to join a NATO operation in the Mediterranean, where Russia will be staging its own drills at the same time.