Balkans

Thousands of pro-lifers in Croatia took to the streets on Saturday to protest against a potential loosening of abortion laws in the country.

The EU has the Western Balkans in its sights according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who declared the region “belongs” to the bloc. 

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has accused the secret services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union country of being behind a series of false bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Serbia is seeking explanations from NATO on why its jets have allegedly shadowed Serbian passenger planes flying back from Russia.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – A flight from Belgrade to Moscow was reverted and evacuated following a bomb alert, Serbian police said Friday.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Germany’s foreign minister has urged Serbia, which has not imposed sanctions on traditional ally Russia over the war in Ukraine, to align policies with the European Union if it wants to join the bloc.

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) – A drone that apparently flew undetected over several NATO countries all the way from the Ukrainian war zone crashed overnight on the outskirts of the Croatian capital, Zagreb, triggering a loud blast but causing no injuries, Croatian authorities said Friday.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) – The NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo said Saturday that a participating soldier from North Macedonia has died.

(AP) — Regardless of who made an error on the visa or the vaccination waiver or whatever, the reality Friday for tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic was spending one of his important religious holidays in an Australian detention hotel working on his challenge against deportation.

SIBIU, Romania (AP) – As the fast-spreading coronavirus variant omicron rages through Western Europe, officials and experts in low-vaccinated Eastern Europe anticipate a post-holiday explosion of COVID-19 cases in much of the region.

The Danish government is hammering out a deal to transfer hundreds of foreign criminals to a prison rented and run by the Danish authorities in Kosovo. 

Serb politicians have taken the first steps towards seceding from Muslim-majority Bosnia and Herzegovina in a move that could see the return of ethnic violence in the Balkans.

The British government is deporting a convicted people-trafficker from Albania for the third time in under two years, highlighting how ineffective its border control regime is even on those rare occasions when it actually removes people from the country.

Hints in British media that Channel migrants will be sent to Albania are “fake news”, according to the Albanian government.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) – The chief international representative in Bosnia is warning that the war-scarred Balkan nation could face the biggest “existential threat of the post-war period” if the international community does not curb threatened separatist actions by Bosnian Serbs.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) – Police say four Russian tourists were found dead at a beach resort in western Albania.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) – Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia increased Wednesday after police in Kosovo clashed with ethnic Serbs during a police operation against the smuggling of goods. At least seven people were injured.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) – North Macedonia’s government was holding an emergency meeting Thursday over an overnight fire that ripped through a field hospital set up to treat COVID-19 patients, leaving 14 people dead.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) – Two more planes have brought Afghans fearing the Taliban to Albania, bringing the total number of evacuees to 457

Two Pakistani nationals transporting a group of illegal immigrants were arrested by Greek police this week after a car chase in Thessaloniki.

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) – A bus swerved off a highway and crashed in Croatia early Sunday, killing 10 people and injuring at least 30 others, police said.

Spain has arrested 18 people in a strike against a criminal network smuggling hundreds of Albanian illegal migrants into the United Kingdom and the United States.

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) – Croatian police have detained several people over incidents during and after this weekend’s Pride march in the capital of Zagreb.

KRANJ, Slovenia (AP) – Tiny Slovenia took charge of the world’s largest trading bloc this week, and immediately shone a harsh spotlight on one of the European Union’s most vexing problems: How to accommodate increasingly vocal member countries with very different visions of Europe’s future.

(AP) — Bosnian authorities on Saturday demolished a Serbian Orthodox church that was illegally built on land owned by a Bosniak woman, a move that comes after a 20-year legal battle that saw the case reach the European Court of Human Rights.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) – Albania’s president has accused the U.S. ambassador of intervening in the small European country’s internal affairs by supporting its prime minister in an upcoming parliamentary election.

An Albanian double murderer has been at large in Britain for 24 years, falsely posing as a refugee from Kosovo.

An NGO boss is one of thirty people under investigation by Italian prosecutors for helping Kurdish illegal migrants into Italy from Bosnia. 

Bosnians have called for help from the European Union as tensions escalate between migrants and locals after a camp burned down near the border with EU member-state Croatia.

The EU warned Bulgaria that it risks undermining security in the Balkans if it continues to block EU membership talks for North Macedonia.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – The leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, who often criticized Western policies toward Serbia and urged close relations with Slavic ally Russia, has died after testing positive for the coronavirus, the church said Friday. He was 90.

Addressing an EU enlargement summit Tuesday, Bulgaria pledged support for Balkan countries on the path of being integrated into the EU.

Mustafa Ružnić, Prime Minister of the canton of Una Sana in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has called on Italy to help stop the flow of migrants in the Balkans as tens of thousands continue to pass through.

European liberals have demanded that Brussels “stop funding” countries in the EU which stand up to globalism.

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — North Macedonia has decided to extend a state of emergency for another two weeks because the coronavirus pandemic shows no sign of slowing down.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) – Kosovo prosecutors on Friday filed terrorism charges against two ethnic Albanian women for allegedly joining the Islamic State group in Syria.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia has sent its army to a town near the border with Croatia where hundreds of migrants remain stranded in hopes of reaching the European Union.

The number of Albanian criminals in British prisons has increased fourfold since 2013, to the point where they now account for the largest group of foreigners in the estate.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The Russian military has flown 11 planeloads of equipment and medical experts to Serbia to help it fight the coronavirus spread.

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) – A strong earthquake shook Croatia and its capital on Sunday, causing widespread damage and panic. A 15-year-old was killed and there were other injuries, media reported.