News archive of October 2016

Croatia's centre-right Prime Minister concluded a two-day visit on Friday and Saturday to Bosnia aimed to calming tensions over the status of Bosnian Croats, many of whom are demanding greater autonomy or the creation of a third entity.

Plenkovic came first to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo - something that Bosniak [Muslim] leaders insist on and are sensitive about.

The Bulgarian cabinet has approved the central budget and health and social insurance expenditure for next year in an emergency cabinet meeting.

Government sessions are usually held on Wednesday, but ministers have to submit the budget drafts to Parliament by Monday, October 31.

Some of the files of Albania's once-feared Communist secret police, the Sigurimi, may have been destroyed or falsified, 25 years on from the fall of the Communist regime, a German expert told BIRN.

With less than a week to go before the presidential elections in Bulgaria on November 6, the likely winner is proving difficult to predict.

Latest polls have shown that the successor to President Rossen Plevneliev, backed in 2011 by Bulgaria's governing centre-right GERB party, will not be elected in the first round on Sunday.

Eleven people, including executives and columnists of the critical daily Cumhuriyet newspaper, were detained in a series of raids on their homes early on Oct. 31, after prosecutors initiated a probe against them on "terrorism" charges. 

Turkish police have detained the editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet and at least four other journalists, the newspaper reported early on Oct. 31, while CNN Türk reported that at least 13 warrants have been issued for the newspaper's journalists and executives.  

Turkish police have detained the editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet, state media reported early on Oct. 31, while CNN Türk reported that 13 warrants have been issued for the newspaper's journalists and executives.  

BRUSSELS - EU foreign policy and security chief Federica Mogherini spoke on the phone to Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic Thursday "to discuss the way forward in the implementation of the agreements reached in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue," said a statement released by the European External Action Service.

JAGODINA - The Serbian government's new policy will be one of growth and incentives for investment and development, PM Aleksandar Vucic said in Jagodina, central Serbia, at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new plant of Italian auto parts maker Aunde.

BELGRADE - The cooperation between the Serbian Interior Ministry and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is good and there is room to improve it, Serbian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz agreed on Friday.