Banja Luka

In an abandoned building near a train station in the north Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 25-year-old Afghan Mohammed is trying to keep himself warm.

It's mid-November, and the temperature is just a few degrees above freezing. Mohammed's jacket does not look like it was made for the cold Bosnian winter.

The European Travel Information and Authorisation System, ETIAS, is a visa waiver programme that aims "to strengthen the borders of the Schengen Area by pre-checking the data of travellers before they enter the zone", according to the ETIAS website.

Marinko Umicevic, the technical director of the Bema shoe factory, who gained widespread publicity when he sent two pairs of shoes to Melania Trump four years ago, has now sent the US first lady a pair of white lacquered house slippers as a sign of support for her husband's upcoming campaign for re-election.

Today, she works in a local betting shop in Tuzla. In hindsight, she regrets that her parents came back to their Bosnian homeland. "I believe that if they'd known in the mid-1990s that they would be worse off today, they wouldn't have done it," she says.

A medieval hand-and-a-half-long sword rammed into stone, discovered this summer at the bottom of the river Vrbas in Bosnia, has been hailed by experts as a significant archaeological find.

As the sword was literally plunged into stone, it has been necessary to slowly separate the stone from the sword under water, as the sword had to be recovered together with a part of the rock.

Bosnia's Intelligence-Security Agency, OSA, has dismissed reports that the university degree of General Director Osman Mehmedagic could be annulled.

In a first-instance verdict that can be appealed, the court found that Colic attacked Kovacevic, a journalist at BN TV, one of the main channels in Republika Srpska, in front of his home in Banja Luka in August 2018.

Viktor Orban told a news conference on Tuesday after talks in Budapest with the chairman of the Bosnian presidency, Milorad Dodik, that he wants to boost ties with the Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska, where Dodik has been the most powerful politician for many years.

The talks covered relations between Hungary and Bosnia and Herzegovina and with Republika Srpska, Orban said.

Zagreb County Court on Tuesday handed down a first-instance verdict convicting former Bosnian Serb Army officer Dane Lukajic of physically abusing prisoners at the Manjaca camp during wartime, and sentenced him to six years in prison, local media reported.

The verdict was made public on Thursday after the prosecution and defence issued their closing statements on Monday.

Banja Luka-based ATV broadcaster is reporting that Dodik last night commented on Bosniak (Muslim) member of the BiH Presidency Sefik Dzaferovic, saying that he was not visiting the Vatican on behalf of the Presidency, "as he wants to present it publicly."