Balkans

PODGORICA, Montenegro — Prosecutors in the Italian town of Bari reportedly have completed a preliminary probe into cigarette smuggling and will seek court proceedings against former Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, former Finance Minister Miroslav Ivanisevic and Montenegro’s former trade attaché to Italy, Dusanka Pesic-Jeknic.

The four Balkan members of the EU — Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Romania — issued separate statements welcoming Saturday’s (June 23rd) draft agreement on the outline of a new EU treaty.

European Parliament (EP) President Hans-Gert Poettering said Friday (June 22nd) that the EU remains committed to resolving the case of six medics – five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who has been granted Bulgarian citizenship – who face death sentences in Libya for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with …

The ambassadors of countries on the UN Security Council failed to agree on a new draft resolution on Kosovo, presented by the EU members and the United States, during closed-door talks Friday (June 22nd).

A dispute over compensation is holding up a deal in the case of six foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with the AIDS virus, the children’s families said Friday.

PRISTINA, Kosovo, Serbia — Parliament passed a law Thursday (June 21st) on travel documents, which aims to provide the public with highly secure passports, similar to those in Western European countries. Interior Minister Blerim Kuci says the law includes stiff fines for forgery or misuse.

LONDON, United Kingdom — The government announced on Thursday (June 21st) that it is planning to review rules restricting the hiring of Bulgarian and Romanian workers. Under current regulations, Britain admits no more than 20,000 unskilled workers from both countries as well as a limited number of skilled professionals and …

BRUSSELS, Belgium — EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner denied on Thursday (June 21st) that a deal on freeing five Bulgarian nurses on death row in Libya was imminent.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) — An independent study has established that at least 97,000 people died in the Bosnian conflict from 1992 to 1995. The majority of victims, 64,036 of them, were Bosniaks.

BELGRADE, Serbia — Special prosecutor Slobodan Radovanovic announced on Thursday (June 21st) that his office plans to investigate possible political involvement in the March 2003 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.