Balkans

EC Hails Meeting of Croatian, Slovene PMs

The European Commission applauded Tuesday’s meeting between Croatian and Slovene prime ministers Ivo Sanader and Borut Pahor, saying it was a “positive step”, but stressed it could notcomment on the meeting’s outcome because it did not have the details available. Wishes for an agreement A source from the European Commission …

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Hague Renegade Mladic Vacationed In Montenegro

Serbian security services are still on the hunt for The Hague defendant Ratko Mladic. They came across information that he vacationed in Montenegro and are looking into the details, the Vecernje novosti daily writes. – The renegade general spent 15 days at the Montenegrin coast, in Rezevici in 1997. He …

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Romania Okays Penal Codes,Wants EU Scrutiny Lifted

Romania’s centre-left government approved new judicial codes on Wednesday, hoping to align its criminal and civil proceedings to European standards and end anti-corruption monitoring by Brussels. Earlier this month, the European Commission said Romania had taken “backward steps” in fighting corruption over the last year, urging it to amend the …

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Bosnia Faces Social Unrest, Political Crisis Looms

Protests against economic hardship are spreading in Bosnia and the war-scarred and divided country is finding it hard to cope. Bosnia’s Muslim-Croat parliament cancelled a session on Thursday rather than confront protesters complaining about its plans to pass a law cutting benefits to narrow a big budget gap. Earlier in …

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Greek Court Gives Suspended Sentence Over Escape

A Greek court gave a prison guard a three-year suspended sentence for assisting a high-profile prisoner to escape by helicopter for the second time in three years, court officials said on Thursday. The Hollywood-style getaway of Vassilis Palaiokostas, 44, and his Albanian accomplice Alket Rijai, who had escaped from the …

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Five Guilty Of Kosovo Crimes, Milutinovic Acquitted

The United Nations war crimes court in The Hague found five senior Serb officials guilty on Thursday of orchestrating the murder, torture and deportation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, acquitting former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic. This is the first verdict on atrocities committed by Serb forces in the 1998-99 crackdown …

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Macedonia Archeology Dig To Welcome Greeks

Despite the burning Skopje-Athens dispute over the name Macedonia and its historical and cultural heritage, Macedonia plans to ask Greek scientists for help in a project to excavate four major archeological sites, local media said on Wednesday. The country will spend a record 20 million euros in the next three …

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Paedophile MP Booted From Bulgaria Assembly

Bulgarian MPs on Wednesday passed a near-unanimous decision to to expel independent MP Vladmir Kouzovc from parliament after his conviction for sexual relations with a 13-year old boy. Kouzov was elected to Parliament in June 2005 on the ticket of the ultra-nationalist Ataka party. In 2006, once it turned out …

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UK To Cut Its EULEX Staff Numbers In Kosovo

The UK government has announced plans to reduce its staff in Kosovo’s EULEX mission as part of a cost-cutting drive resulting from the global financial crisis. “We have received some signals that the UK government is planning to reduce its staff under the law and order mission in Kosovo”, said …

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Investigation Into Trajkovski Death Still Ongoing

Macedonia on Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of the death of President Boris Trajkovski in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a case that is still open and under investigation. The lack of an official conclusion on the causes of the crash has over the years led many in …

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