Catastrophe has again struck the former Yugoslavia but this time we are not killing each other but helping each other The floods came like a thief in the night, just as the Red Death did in Edgar Allan Poe's story. They hit hard, as if their aim was to establish an "illimitable dominion over all". The flooded territory in the former Yugoslavia is currently larger than the state of Israel,...
As Balkan countries prepare to mark the start of the first world war, history books show widely different interpretations "Those people were terrorists Gavrilo Princip and the rest of them," said Salih Mehmedovic, standing at the spot by the Latin Bridge in central Sarajevo where the young Bosnian Serb shot dead Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary 100 years ago. Mehmedovic, a Bosniak,...
Amid volatility, governments in south-east Europe are starting to use technology to involve people in policymaking One of the biggest problems with government communications as a profession in general and especially in the so-called young democracies of south-east Europe is that more often than not it's not really about communication. Getting one's message across is still widely seen as the holy grail...
Milo Djukanovic's governing coalition was given 41 seats in the 81-seat assembly on a turnout of around 70%, according to initial projections quoted on state television. It was the second national ballot since May 21 when Montenegro voted in a referendum to end nearly a century of partnership with Serbia. Djukanovic, 44, has been either president or prime minister of the mountainous Adriatic coast...
Official results were expected later today, but the pro-Serb opposition has conceded defeat in Sunday's vote. According to the independent Centre for Democratic Transition, the prime minister, Milo Djukanovic's centre-left coalition, which led the country to independence, will take 41 seats in Montenegro's 81-seat assembly. ...
Millionaires, tycoons and celebrities are bringing glamour to Montenegro's shores Radulovic's 10 floors of glass and pale stone, topped by a helicopter pad, shimmer between mountains and the Adriatic. Yet in 2005 three explosions rocked the building site and the investigator was shot dead. 'The local mafia did it because this was the first big investment here by people who were not part of any lobby...
The World Association of Newspapers has written to the president of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic, to express its concern at the country's deteriorating press freedom in general and the specific attack on Zeljko Ivanovic , founder and editor of the leading independent daily Vijesti . He was beaten up while returning from the celebration of the 10th anniversary of his newspaper. Two legal cases have...
"And this will be a hotel", said Oliver Corlette, as he pointed out a wasteland of brambles and rubble with a sweep of the hand. In the distance, beyond a portable lavatory tilted alarmingly to one side, a Soviet submarine had been taken out of the water and put up on blocks. Corlette is the managing director of Porto Montenegro, an extravagantly ambitious project that links two of the figures...
Police in Podgorica fire teargas to repel anti-gay extremists who threw stones and firebombs in attempt to disrupt march Police in Montenegro fired teargas to repel anti-gay extremists who threw stones and firebombs at officers protecting a gay pride march on Sunday. As many as 60 people were injured in the clashes. The violence occurred when the attackers tried to break through police lines to reach...
s journalists, plus its founder, Zeljko Ivanovic, received death threats in the mail. In September 2007, Ivanovic was injured when several men attacked him near a restaurant where Vijesti was celebrating its 10th anniversary. Vijesti is co-owned by a Montenegrin group, an Austrian media company and an American fund started by George Soros. The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate...
s team have enough incentive to win without using Branko Brnovic's 'mind games' as a source of motivation Perhaps it was a deliberate ploy by Branko Brnovic to get under the skin of Roy Hodgson's players. If so, it was not one of the more original attempts at staring down the opposition or even particularly accurate once a little bit of research had been undertaken. Montenegro, it turns out, are partial...
Uefa is considering a Balkan league to improve the quality of club football in the region. Croatian football manager Ivan Cvjetkovic gives his reaction ...
s group will not be able to govern alone and will need support from minority groups in parliament Montenegro's governing coalition won the most votes in a parliamentary election on Sunday and is set to stay in power after having ruled the Balkan country for more than two decades amid economic troubles and allegations of crime and corruption. Sunday's vote – the third since Montenegro gained independence...
s Le Monde as "contaminated publications", which he blamed for the country's deteriorating international image. A week earlier, a senior politician accused the Brussels correspondent of the Romania's public radio of "intoxicating the international public opinion and foreign officials by transmitting false information." In Bulgaria , the prime minister, Boyko Borisov, attacked the media for sceptical...
s capital Podgorica. In Poland, where temperatures have dropped to -22C, officials have been trying to direct homeless people away from derelict unheated buildings and into crammed shelters. Eleven people around the country have died since Friday from carbon monoxide poisoning after using charcoal heaters in sealed rooms. In Bulgaria, more than 1,000 schools are closed after some areas saw the lowest...
playground in Montenegro, one of Europe's poorest countries, to celebrate the 40th birthday of the rising star of their firmament, Nat Rothschild. The £1m party started on Thursday and will run over three nights, with guests moving from five-star hotel to poolside disco to the deck of a superyacht. It is part of an attempt to establish an Adriatic St Tropez at Porto Montenegro, a new marina in a former...
s reform-minded president, was understandably cheerful when I met him last week. As my plane landed in Belgrade, the world learned that Ratko Mladic had just been arrested . Europe's most wanted fugitive was behind bars and now faces trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity. Tadic told me that, by capturing Mladic, he had moved his country closer to playing its full part in today's Europe. I...
s (rather brief) EU Western Balkans Summit in Sarajevo. It is, after all, only one of a number of options being considered by Lady Ashton, the EU's foreign and security policy chief. But it is an option that should be given very serious consideration. In principle, the idea is sound and would represent a step in the right direction for both the EU and the applicant states of the western Balkans. The...
s most dangerous species. Nikica escaped when heavy rains raised the floodwater level in her pen, allowing her to swim out. A spokesman for Montenegro's natural disasters commission, which responds to floods, said the law required they destroy animals that can endanger human lives. But state veterinary authorities said they were not entitled to kill animals. Zoo owner Dragan Pejovic insisted Nikica...
s hopes for closer ties with the 27-nation bloc. The three western Balkan nations celebrated the lifting of visas with fireworks, concerts and all-night festivities, marking a significant milestone for citizens who have long felt shunned by the rest of Europe. "We should all remember this day," said Serbia's foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic. "Finally, the same rules that apply for others apply for us...