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Nationalists with little shared vision of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s future were in the lead in an election for the three-person presidency yesterday (12 October), likely portending more dysfunction in a country still haunted by the divisions of a 1992-95 war. Based on a partial vote-count, authorities said Bakir Izetbegović, Dragan Čović and Željka Cvijanović were out in front in the race for the tri-partite state presidency, as the Bosniak, Croat and Serb representatives respectively. […] Izetbegovic campaigned on the need for a strong, unified state, Čović on the creation of a Croat entity within Bosnia, while Cvijanović is part of...

Turkey's energy minister has declared a gas pipeline a "peace corridor" linking the Caucasus with the Balkans. "We open the project as a peace corridor that is the result of 15 years hard work by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Through the South Caucasus pipeline and its backbone, the Trans-Anatolia pipeline, we connect the Caucasus with the Balkans. I wish every country could understand the true value of these projects and contribute with us," Taner Yıldız said while speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of the South Caucasus pipeline in Baku on Sept. 20. The minister said energy security "ranks as one of...

WASHINGTON — The international effort to help Iraqis fight Islamic militants is heating up, with seven additional countries agreeing to provide arms to the Kurdish peshmerga forces. Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy and the U.K. have committed to giving weapons and equipment to the embattled Kurds, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The announcement comes about two weeks after Hagel set up a working group to find ways to accelerate arms deliveries to the Kurds. The Defense Department said the materiel is “urgently needed” as the Kurds take on the militant group known as the Islamic State, which has taken over...

The 19th anniversary of Serb exodus from Croatia in Operation Storm was marked in Serbia and the Serb Republic (RS) in Bosnia on Monday [August 4, 2014].The victims of the continuation of the military operation that took place in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, known as Operation Mistral, were also remembered. In St. Marko's Church in Belgrade, Bishop Jovan of Slavonia headed the memorial service honoring slaughtered Serb civilians and soldiers. The memorial was co-served by priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In the speech delivered after the service, Bishop Jovan said that nobody can say that they seized Lika, Banija...

“Jesus” is not only the answer to just about every question in Sunday school. He’s also the answer to the question, “Who’s the best news commentator ever?” For example here’s a headline: “Tower in Siloam Falls, Kills 18.” And here’s the news analysis from Jesus: “Do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13). I’ve just returned to America after visiting five countries that used to be part of Yugoslavia. One commonality was evident: Communism’s slow dying a quarter-century...

Twelve EU countries have warned investors not to do business with Israeli settler entities, amid a security crisis in Israel and Palestine. The group includes: Austria; Belgium; Croatia; Denmark; Finland; Greece; Ireland; Luxembourg; Malta; Portugal; Slovakia; and Slovenia. Portugal published its statement on Wednesday (2 July) and the others came out on Thursday. France, Italy, and Spain put out similar communiques earlier this week. Germany and the UK already did it months ago. Poland is expected to publish a warning shortly. The Irish foreign ministry said the action “has been coordinated at EU level”. …

World Cup nations Mexico, Brazil, Croatia and Russia are currently under investigation by FIFA. The international governing body of association football are reportedly looking into the fan behavior of these four national football teams regarding recent actions at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Fans of “El Tri,” the Mexican national football team currently competing in the international tournament are allegedly set to receive disciplinary actions, according to NBC the penalizing procedures have already begun for Mexico’s loyal fans. FIFA’s response comes in the wake of fans seemingly obvious, though still at this point “alleged” racist and homophobic remarks and...

With two weeks to go before the World Cup, it’s time to get acquainted with who’s going to Brazil. Slate’s team-by-team previews will run in reverse order of the countries’ predicted finish at the World Cup. Team No. 24: Croatia. There’s a famous Twilight Zone episode, “The Odyssey of Flight 33,” in which an airplane gets lost in the clouds. As the crew emerges from the fog, they find that they’re millions of years in the past. Looking out the airplane window at the dinosaurs below, the co-pilot, quaking with fear, addresses his passengers: “We’re in trouble.” Feeling trapped in...

Muslims in Syria crucified two Christian teenagers for refusing to convert to Islam. The story was reported on a Croatian Catholic website. According to Sister Raghida, former head of the Christian school in Damascus, the Muslims came to the two youths and said: So you want to die as a teacher in whom you trust? Please choose: either to renounce ( faith ) or you will be crucified! One of them was crucified in front of his father, who was afterwards killed. The jihadists entered the city of Maaloula and started killing men, women, and children. They did not just...

JASENOVAC -- A commemoration marking the 69th anniversary of the breakout of prisoners of the Ustasha death camp Jasenovac was held on Sunday [May 4, 2014.](Beta/Hina) Attending the event, Croatian President Ivo Josipović said genocide had occurred at that location and that it should never be forgotten. Josipović called on everyone to protect the memory of the people who had died in that camp, a place that would remain in collective memory forever, the Croatian electronic media reported. "Evil should be called by its real name, opposed and denied any opportunity to happen ever again," he stated. Evil is not...

On April 22, 1945, a group of surviving inmates broke out of Nazi Croatia’s main death camp, Jasenovac. Just fifty years later, their memories – and the grisly history of Jasenovac – had become prey to politics, propaganda, and historical revisionism more concerned with the 1990s Yugoslav wars than with the truth about “Independent Croatia” and its factory of death. South Gate of Jasenovac III “Brickworks” camp; (via Donja Gradina Memorial Association) On April 10, 1941, four days after armies of the German Reich and their allies attacked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Croat nationalists (Ustasha) allied with Hitler and Mussolini...

MLAKA -- Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) on Tuesday held a memorial service in Mlaka near Jasenovac, the site of Croatia's WW2 death camp.(Photo: Tanjug, file) April 22 is the anniversary of the Jasenovac breakthrough staged by the camp's prisoners. The day is also marked in Serbia as Holocaust Remembrance Day. After liturgy services lead by Patriarch Irinej, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral and Bishop Jovan of Lipljan and other clerical dignitaries, a commemoration was held to honor the Jasenovac victims. "The church in Mlaka is built on the land of the sufferers where hundreds...

Could the Balkans, rather than previously accepted areas such as the Strait of Gibralter, have been the entry point for the first men in Europe? ORESHETZ, Bulgaria (AFP) - A team of 20 Bulgarian and French archeologists are trying to prove this theory after 11 years of excavation and research in the Kozarnika cave in northwestern Bulgaria. The digging up at this mountainous site of traces of human activity dating back 1.4 to 1.6 million years throws into question theories about when and where man first set foot in Europe. According to current theories, the Europeans' prehistoric ancestors came into...

Representatives of the OSCE tried to drive away in Kharkiv. Dozens of pro-Russian activists demanded that the monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe did not intervene in the situation in Ukraine. Protesters called for even begin work. Required the guests to leave Ukraine because they, in their opinion, biased . We recall that yesterday came to Kharkov observers. ***OSCE observers, headed by the Chairman of the monitoring mission in Ukraine Ambassador Adam Koberatsky arrived in Kharkov. The members of the mission will conduct monitoring of the social and political developments in the region and ways...

Eighteen countries, including five of the world’s leading arms exporters, ratified a landmark treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade on Wednesday, giving a significant boost to the campaign for the treaty’s entry into force. […] Five of the world’s top 10 arms exporters—Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain—turned in their ratification documents at the ceremony. The other 13 were Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Among the hold-outs is the United States, the world’s largest weapons exporter. The Obama administration has signed the treaty but there is strong resistance in...

Voting begins Sunday on a referendum on whether Venice and its surrounding region should secede from the rest of Italy, in an attempt to restore its 1,000-year history as a sovereign republic. La Serenissima — or the Most Serene Republic of Venice — was an independent trading power for a millennium before its last leader was deposed by Napoleon in 1797.

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Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, born Garik Kimovich Weinstein, the head of a pro-democracy group in his native Russia, was granted Croatian citizenship. Kasparov reportedly became a Croatian citizen last week after applying for citizenship in early February. He owns a home in Croatia and speaks the language, according to reports. The founder and chairman of United Civil Front is a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kasparov was arrested and beaten by police in 2012, and spent several days in jail, according to The Guardian newspaper. Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/ex-russian-chess-champ-kasparov-granted-croatian-citizenship/2014/03/02/

The European Union said on Sunday it has postponed negotiations with Switzerland on its participation in multibillion-dollar research and educational schemes in the latest fallout from a shock Swiss vote in favor of immigration curbs. The decision follows Switzerland’s announcement that the result of last week’s referendum on immigration means that it will not be able to sign a labor market pact with new EU member Croatia on July 1 as planned. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has warned that the narrow Swiss vote to restore quotas for migrants from the EU in breach of an accord with Brussels,...

ZAGREB - Alen Budaj, an associate of the Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, has said that the coutries that are legal successors to the former Yugoslavia, Serbia in particular, must send a strong diplomatic protest to the Vatican over its intention declare Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac a saint. The Vatican has officially confirmed that Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac will soon be declared a saint. Immediately upon the entering of the Germans in Zagreb, on April 10, 1941, Stepinac supported the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC), which was declared a state by the Ustasha (Croatian fascist movement), and in 1945, he...