South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Friday, February 10, 2012

Latest Balkan News

The Danube River has frozen over in the Serbian city of Smederevo.

More Cold Deaths Reported Across Europe

An ongoing cold wave has caused more deaths in parts of Europe as heavy snowfalls left hundreds of people isolated and experiencing electricity and food shortages. More

Serb Convicted In Djindjic Assassination Arrested In Spain

Police in Spain say they have arrested a man convicted in Serbia for involvement in the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. More

Arid Uka (right) arrives with his lawyer for sentencing during his trial at the higher regional court in Frankfurt.

Kosovar Gets Life For U.S. Airmen Murder

A court in Frankfurt has sentenced an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo to life in prison for killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding two others in a gun attack in March 2011. More

Ex-Croat Official Tried For War Crimes

A former senior Croatian official has pleaded not guilty to charges that he ordered the torture and killing of Serbian civilians during the 1991-95 war. More

Serbia 'Must Revise' Budget For IMF

Serbia's government says it will have to revise its 2012 budget to qualify for the first installment of a 1.1-billion-euro ($1.4 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund. More

More Balkan News

Blogging The Balkans

Serbian President Boris Tadic (left) shakes hands with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (right) in Stockholm after he submitted his country

Tadic's 'Kosovo and EU' Policy At Risk

Serbian President Boris Tadic's unprecedented criticism of the EU after the postponement of a candidate-status decision for Serbia because of a lack of cooperation with Kosovo could signal a change in his position toward the territory. More

Features & Commentary

"The main impression...after being 15 minutes in her presence is that she is not frightened," a colleague says of Natasa Kandic (above).

The Truth-Teller: Natasa Kandic, Urging Serbs To Face The Past

More than a decade has passed since the end of the Balkan wars, where international observers say ethnic Serb fighters were responsible for the bulk of atrocities in the region, particularly Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. But despite the handover of major war-crimes suspects like Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, Belgrade remains reluctant to face the sins of the past. Lawyer Natasa Kandic has built an unpopular and often dangerous career out of pushing her country to face the truth about its history.

Zoran Laketa lost his father and brother in the war

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, One Family, Three Armies, And A Lost Generation

Zoran Laketa knows what it's like to fire a gun and wonder if the soldier on the other side of the front line just might be his brother. Or his father.

Angelina Jolie at the premiere of "In the Land of Blood and Honey" in Los Angeles in December

Jolie Earns Serbian Scorn For War Film

She’s known internationally as one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses; she’s won praise from governments and NGOs across the globe for her work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations; and she’s often reckoned to be the world’s most beautiful woman. But Angelina Jolie has been going by a few other titles lately in the Balkans nation of Serbia, where prominent media outlets have taken to describing her as an American propagandist and all-around "jerk."

Did the U.S. space program get a boost from Yugoslavia in the 1960s?

Experts Unconvinced By Trailer Claiming Secret U.S.-Yugoslav Space Pact

A provocative trailer for a new film appeared on the Internet recently, claiming that Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito secretly tried to bring his country into the space race during the 1950s and '60s and even sold research to the United States that helped it send a man to the moon.

Ukraine and its President Viktor Yanukovych can likely expect to be put on the back burner for the extent of the Danish time at the EU helm.

Euro Crisis In Focus As Denmark Takes EU Presidency

On January 1, Denmark takes over the rotating EU presidency for a six-month stint likely to focus on the continuing economic crisis in the teetering eurozone.

RFE/RL's Balkan Service promotes the values of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in a region where genuine media freedom remains elusive and where many media outlets remain divided along ethnic lines.