Podgorica

The first-ever Pride March passed off peacefully in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after starting Sunday at noon. After the participants gathered in front of the Eternal Flame, a well-known memorial dedicated to victims of World War II, a few hundred people marched through Tito Street, Sarajevo's main street, and ended in front of the state-level parliament.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia Matthew Palmer as his Special Representative for the Western Balkans, France's press and TASS reported, citing a statement from the State Department.

The president of the Atlas group, Dusko Knezevic, who is wanted for arrest in Montenegro, is taking the state to an international arbitration court, demanding 500 million euros in compensation, his company said on Friday.

The states that once formed part of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s experienced war, mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and humanitarian disaster. Economic growth was slow or negative and corruption was the rule, not the exception. The outflow of refugees was much greater than the migration of young people out of the Balkans today.

Protests have been organised in recent days by activists in Tirana, Belgrade and Podgorica against the damage done to the environment by the building of hydro-power plants.

They were staged under the umbrella name Action Weeks for Balkan Rivers, a joint project by various environmental NGOs, with the slogan "Our rivers - no damage!"

According to the company's website, the option is available for Air Serbia flights from Belgrade, Banjaluka, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Skopje, Tivat, Zagreb, Athens, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Tirana and Bucharest.

Milo Djukanovic in Podgorica, Montenegro, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/BORIS PEJOVIC

The President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the independent daily newspaper Vijesti and the businesman Dusko Knezevic over claims that he took bribes.

People protest against populist President Milo Djukanovic in Podgorica, Montenegro, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/BORIS PEJOVIC

Opponents of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic protested again in the capital on Saturday, accusing the country's long-time leader of presiding over poverty, a loss of human rights and media freedoms and corruption.

Knezevic, a wanted man in Montenegro for alleged financial misconduct, said he would file a criminal complaint on Thursday against Djukanovic, who is also the leader of the most influential party, the ruling DPS.