Austria

"Not Serbia's fault it was victorious in wars"

BELGRADE -- President Tomislav Nikolić has said that "some" are engaged in a campaign aimed at blaming Serbia "for organizing the Sarajevo assassination."

Greek 10-year bond yields fell to new four-year lows on Wednesday, with investor appetite increasing after its international lenders agreed to release the next tranche of its bailout programme.

Unemployment rates in Bulgaria recorded a minimal 0.1% drop in February to 12.1%, according to latest data published by Eurostat.

BiH cracks down on fan violence and nationalism

Increased security measures and bans are part of the BiH football federation's plan to curtail fan violence and nationalist rhetoric.

BiH football fans throw flares onto the field after Egypt scored a second goal during a friendly football match in Innsbruck, Austria, on March 5th. [AFP]

VIENNA - Little is known in Austria about war crimes committed by Austro-Hungarian soldiers during World War I (1914-1918), Austrian historian Robert Goeckel stated.

In a text issued by the Vienna-based daily Die Presse, Goeckel stated that the documentation of Swiss forensic scientist professor Archibald Rudolph Reiss on the crimes was never translated into German.

MAUTHAUSEN - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic ended a two-day working visit to Austria on Friday by visiting the Mauthausen Memorial, where where he laid a wreath at the memorial monument to Yugoslav victims.

Austrian "do-it-yourself" chain Baumax is mulling a pullback from Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, Austria's Die Presse newspaper reported.

Earlier, its founder Karl-Heinz Essl announced he was kicking off a sale of his artwork collection in a move aimed at raising funds to save his company.

MAUTHAUSEN - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, who is on a visit to Austria, on Friday laid a wreath at the military cemetery in Reiferdorf, where 8,000 Serbian WWI soldiers and internees are buried.

Nikolic laid the wreath at the memorial to Allied soldiers who lost their lives in the war and placed flowers at individual memorials to Serbian internees.

Bosnia's Foreign Minister, Zlatko Lagumdzija, met his British counterpart, William Hague, on March 28 to discuss the European Union's "new approach" to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which involves focusing on economic and social issues instead of on constitutional changes.

VIENNA - The ties between Austria and Serbia are better than ever and can only be expected to become stronger, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic has said.

"In many areas our cooperation has been exemplary," Mrkic told Tanjug on Thursday after a Serbian delegation headed by President Tomislav Nikolic ended the first day of its official visit to Vienna.