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☆ EU aspirant Montenegro must adjust its growth strategy, says World Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SARAJEVO, June 26 (Reuters) - Unless EU aspirant Montenegro adopts a new economic growth strategy that would boost productivity and human capital, its incomes will not converge with average EU levels in the next 40 years, the World Bank warned on Tuesday. The bank said that stagnant productivity growth was caused by market inefficiencies in the service sector which represents over 70% of GDP, and that Montenegro needed to remove regulatory barriers for firms to enter markets and grow. Most companies lack innovation and invest little in green technology which is needed to sustain tourism growth and develop Montenegro's comparative advantage in clean energy. In addition, Montenegro must tackle its income inequality which shrinks the pool of future skilled workers and entrepreneurs and limits its labour productivity growth potential, the bank said. "By implementing these reforms, Montenegro can expect a thriving private sector, significant job opportunities and ultimately improved wages and benefits for all its citizens," said Christopher Sheldon, World Bank Country Manager for Bosnia and Montenegro.

Persons: Christopher Sheldon, Daria Sito, Christina Fincher Organizations: World Bank, European Union, Thomson Locations: SARAJEVO, Montenegro, Bosnia

☆ Montenegro court jails 'cryptocurrency king' Do Kwon for four months -media
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A South Korean national, Kwon is the former CEO of South Korea-based Terraform Labs, the company behind the stablecoin TerraUSD that collapsed in May 2022, roiling cryptocurrency markets. Police said after arresting them they had found doctored Costa Rican passports, a separate set of Belgian passports, laptop computers and other devices in their luggage. The sentence follows a court hearing last week at which Do Kwon dropped his request for checking authenticity of the Costa Rican passports after Interpol's confirmation they were fake. South Korean and U.S. authorities have sought the extradition of Kwon and Han and the handover of the computers. Following Kwon's arrest, the U.S. District Court in Manhattan made public an eight-count indictment against him for securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy.

Persons: Do Kwon, Kwon, Han Chang, joon, Han, Daria Sito, Gareth Jones, Jason Neely Organizations: Korean, Labs, Police, Costa, U.S, Thomson Locations: SARAJEVO, Montenegro, U.S, South Korea, Dubai, Podgorica, Montenegro's, Rican, Costa Rican, Manhattan

☆ Western Balkans states discuss how to improve migration governance
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Daria Sito-Sucic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JAHORINA MOUNTAIN, Bosnia June 8 (Reuters) - Security and migration officials from six Western Balkans countries, all of which aspire to join the European Union, on Thursday pledged to work together with the EU and United Nations agencies to improve sustainable migration governance. "When it comes to the migrant crisis, we from the Western Balkans face not only humanitarian challenges but also security and political challenges," said Bosnia's Security Minister Nenad Nesic, who hosted the meeting at a mountain resort near the capital Sarajevo. "Trends in migration are very dynamic and the Western Balkans is a major transitory route," Ugochi Florence Daniels, the IOM Deputy Director General for Operations, told Reuters. "The action plan is an opportunity to deal with the immediate issues - trafficking and smuggling and sustainable returns," Daniels said. "It is also an opportunity to look at the longer-term opportunities that migration is bringing - remittances to the Western Balkans are $10 billion or 10% of GDP - that is a significant contribution to development," she added.

Persons: Nenad Nesic, Oliver Spasovski, Ugochi Florence Daniels, Daniels, Daria Sito, Angus MacSwan Organizations: European Union, EU, United Nations, Bosnia's, International Organisation for Migration, Operations, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Bosnia, Balkans, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, East, Afghanistan, Asia, Africa, Sarajevo, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia's

☆ Plane crashes in Croatia, rescuers search for crew
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

SARAJEVO, May 20 (Reuters) - Rescuers found the remains of a light aircraft that crashed on Saturday in the mountainous region of the northwestern Croatia but could not confirm if any crew members were found, the HINA state news agency reported. The search for the "Cirrus 20" aircraft that went off radar after noon during a flight from the Slovenian town of Maribor to the Adriatic city of Pula was conducted by a 120-strong rescue team in the forests of Lika-Senj. Army helicopters and drones were sent to search the area suspected of being mined during the war of the 1990s, local media reported. Rescuers said they did not know how many persons were on board of the Dutch-registered aircraft. Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Hobbit houses spring up in Bosnia hills
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Daria Sito-Sucic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KRESEVO, Bosnia, May 11 (Reuters) - Four sisters are building the first Hobbit-style village in southeast Europe in the green hills of central Bosnia, hoping to attract fans of "The Lord of the Rings" books and movies as well as sharing their childhood memories. Last year Marija, a 28-year-old geology engineer, proposed to her sisters Milijana, Vedrana and Valentina that they build house in the style of the Hobbit homes in J.R.R. The sisters decided that their houses must include characteristics of the area where they live and that each sister would decorate one dwelling as she likes. [1/5] Milijana Milicevic stands in front of the hobbit house named "Lipa", in the Bosnian Hobbiton village, Rakova Noga, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 9, 2023. The other three houses, which should be completed soon, will also be named after local attractions.

☆ Arman Soldin: AFP journalist killed in rocket fire near eastern Ukraine's Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A French journalist working for the international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) was killed by rocket fire near the embattled city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. “We are devastated to learn of the death of AFP video journalist Arman Soldin in eastern Ukraine today,” AFP said. Their reporting team was with Ukrainian soldiers when they came under fire around 4:30pm local time on Tuesday, according to AFP. “The whole agency is devastated by the loss of Arman,” said Fabrice Fries, CEO of AFP, according to the news agency. In their obituary, AFP wrote that Soldin celebrated his 32nd birthday on March 21 from Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.

☆ Montenegro's long-ruling Djukanovic launches bid for third presidential term
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SARAJEVO, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Milo Djukanovic, Montenegro's incumbent president who has held high-ranking political posts in the Adriatic country for the last 30 years, launched his bid on Saturday to run for a third term in a presidential election next month. The office of president is largely ceremonial in Montenegro, but a Djukanovic victory could trigger an early parliamentary election after the presidential vote because he has so far rejected proposed candidates for the prime minister's job. "I am entering the election race with the intention to win quickly and convincingly," Djukanovic, who heads the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), said on Saturday as he submitted his bid with electoral authorities. Opponents accuse Djukanovic and the DPS of corruption, links to organised crime and of running the country of some 620,000 people as their personal fiefdom - charges Djukanovic and his party deny. The state election commission has already approved two other presidential candidates - Andrija Mandic from the ethnic Serb party New Serb Democracy and Draginja Vuksanovic Stankovic of the Social Democratic Party.

☆ Chinese consortium seals highway deal with Bosnia's Serb Republic
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SARAJEVO, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A consortium of Chinese companies and the government of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic on Thursday sealed a 350 million marka ($190.5 million) loan deal for the construction of a section of a northern highway connecting the region with Serbia. China Overseas Engineering Group Co Ltd. and China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Co Ltd., with help of the China Construction Bank, will plan, build and finance the 17-kilometre-long Brcko-Bijeljina section, Serb Republic Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic said at the signing ceremony. The Serb Republic wants to build a modern highway connecting most of its territory with Serbia, its political ally and largest trade partner. It turned to Chinese investors after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) declined to support the project, which it said was not vital. In August, the regional government signed a 650 million marka deal with China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd. (601668.SS) to build a 33-kilometre-long section of the same highway in northern Bosnia.

[1/2] A man is silhouetted near logos of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and Wikipedia in this photo illustration taken in Sarajevo March 11, 2015. REUTERS/Dado RuvicWASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a bid by the operator of the popular Wikipedia internet encyclopedia to resurrect its lawsuit against the National Security Agency challenging mass online surveillance. The NSA, part of the Defense Department, is the agency responsible for U.S. cryptographic and communications intelligence and security. The U.S. government has said the NSA's surveillance targeting is authorized by a 2008 amendment to a federal law called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Wikimedia compared the interception by the NSA of its communications to the "seizing and searching the patron records of the largest library in the world."

☆ Helen Mirren: Starring in 'Golda' like playing British monarch
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Miranda Murray | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Feb 20 (Reuters) - For Helen Mirren, playing Israel's only female prime minister, Golda Meir, was not unlike a role as a British monarch. "Golda," which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on Monday, focuses on Meir's leadership during the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states in October 1973. "It's not a biopic, it's not her whole life, it's just a little section where she's most challenged," said Mirren. Mirren is nearly unrecognizable as Meir thanks to prosthetics and a make-up regimen that took hours, re-creating the Israeli leader's nicotine-stained fingers and swollen ankles. Nattiv also explained his decision to cast Mirren even though she is not Jewish, saying that besides being an excellent actor, she felt like a family member.

"We started making a film on the last war in Europe and then a new war broke out," Sicin-Sain told reporters. "It's about the resilience of all of us and that's a wonderful thing to put out into the world, particularly now," Damon told Reuters. His production company is in the early stages of researching a film about the war in Ukraine, he added. Footage of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic - now serving a life sentence for genocide - denying war crimes makes the parallels with today's war inescapable. Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Additional reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by David HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Snow and winter storms cut power, disrupt traffic across the Balkans
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SARAJEVO, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Gale-force winds and snow storms closed roads and left more than 25,000 households in Serbia without power on Sunday, while fallen trees disrupted traffic in neighbouring Croatia and Montenegro. In Croatia, a red alert was issued for the regions along the Adriatic coast due to north winds estimated to reach 130 km per hour. More than 250 km of local roads in mountainous southeastern Serbia were closed due to snowdrifts reaching two metres, local media reported. Bosnian authorities banned the use of heavy lorries in mountainous regions due to snowdrifts and icy roads. Meteorologists have announced freezing temperatures and snow storms across the Balkans will continue in the days to come.

☆ Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine - Croatian president
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SARAJEVO, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, will never again be part of Ukraine, Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Monday in remarks detailing his objection to Zagreb providing military aid to Kyiv. read moreA vocal critic of Western policy in Ukraine, Milanovic has said he does not want his country, the EU's newest member state, to face what he has called potentially disastrous consequences over the 11-month-old war in Ukraine. He added that the arrival of German tanks in Ukraine would only serve to drive Russia closer to China. "It is clear that Crimea will never again be part of Ukraine," Milanovic added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed to restore Ukrainian rule over Crimea, seized and annexed by Russia in 2014 in a move not recognised by most other countries.

☆ Column: Europe's mild weather reprieve this winter may come to bite by summer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Gavin Maguire | Thomson Reuters | Gavin Maguire Is The Global Energy Transition Columnist. He Was Previously Asia Commodities | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

In Switzerland - one of Europe's top winter sports destinations - many ski resorts have been forced to close due to a lack of snow. KINDLINGBeyond lost tourism revenues, the unusually low snow totals and warm temperatures pose a potential threat to several European sectors later this year. For power producers, the low snow totals come on the back of a drier-than-normal 2022, and leave hydro power production potential sharply below normal in several key countries. Last July, a prolonged heat wave pushed river temperatures above the level that can help cool reactors, and forced power producers in France to curb nuclear output. If snow totals remain well below usual, river temperatures may stay warmer than normal in 2023 and pose a fresh risk to nuclear operators.

☆ Bosnian Serbs celebrate holiday banned by court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Daria Sito-Sucic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/8] Members of Special police march during parade celebrations to mark their autonomous Serb Republic's national holiday, banned by the constitutional court, in East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, January 9, 2023. Fourteen war veterans' organisations filed criminal charges on Monday at a Sarajevo court against the Serb Republic leadership over violations of the constitutional court's ruling. Last week, Sarajevo war veterans announced protests against the holiday's celebration, but the police banned the gatherings saying it would step up their presence at the city borders. His role is not recognised by Serb Republic separatist President Milorad Dodik. Dodik, who addressed the parade and joined a ceremony in Banja Luka on Sunday, said no court would rule when Serbs celebrate their holidays, and said Serbs did not want to live in a multi-ethnic state.

☆ NATO declines Serbia's request to deploy its troops in Kosovo
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Fatos Bytyci | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Serbia's former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008 following the 1998-1999 war during which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo. Last month, for the first time since the end of the war, Serbia requested to deploy troops in Kosovo in response to clashes between Kosovo authorities and Serbs in the northern region where they constitute a majority. Kosovo authorities condemned the incident, which has inflamed tensions. Goran Rakic, the head of the Serb List, which is the main Serb party in Kosovo, accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of trying to drive out Serbs. International organisations condemned the attacks, expected to deepen mistrust between majority ethnic Albanians and around 100,000 ethnic Serbs that live in Kosovo.

☆ U.K. saw hottest-ever year in 2022 as Europe’s climate warms
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON — Britain had its warmest year on record in 2022, official figures showed Thursday, the latest evidence that climate change is transforming Europe’s weather. The Met Office weather agency said the provisional annual average temperature in the U.K. was 10.03 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), the highest since comparable records began in 1884. The previous record was 9.88 Celsius (49.8 Fahrenheit) set in 2014. France’s average temperature was above 14 Celsius (57.2 Fahrenheit) in 2022, making it the hottest year since weather readings began in 1900. The archipelago’s average temperature for June, July and August was 7.4 Celsius (45.3 Fahrenheit), the Norwegian Meteorological Institute said.

"It always rains a lot here, it's very cold and it's January and it feels like summer," said Bilbao resident Eusebio Folgeira, 81. French tourist Joana Host said: "It's like nice weather for biking but we know it's like the planet is burning. Scientists have not yet analysed the specific ways in which climate change affected the recent high temperatures, but January's warm weather spell fits into the longer-term trend of rising temperatures due to human-caused climate change. "The record-breaking heat across Europe over the new year was made more likely to happen by human-caused climate change, just as climate change is now making every heatwave more likely and hotter," said Dr Friederike Otto, climate scientist at Imperial College London. French national weather agency Meteo France attributed the anomalous temperatures to a mass of warm air moving to Europe from subtropical zones.

☆ Explainer: When are attacks on civilian infrastructure war crimes?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Stephanie Van Den Berg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Gleb GaranichTHE HAGUE, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Russia's attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, including energy facilities, have been described as possible war crimes by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International. The Geneva conventions and additional protocols shaped by international courts say that parties involved in a military conflict must distinguish between "civilian objects and military objectives" and that attacks on civilian objects are forbidden. IS ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE MILITARY OR CIVILIAN? "Simply put, Russian forces are almost certainly striking many targets that do not qualify as military objectives," Schmitt argues. Russia says it attacks military targets including energy infrastructure.

☆ From bloody Balkan war to World Cup heavyweight: the making of Croatia as a soccer nation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Croatia’s World Cup pedigree is an altogether different story. Štimac challenges Clarence Seedorf of the Netherlands during the 1998 World Cup third place playoff match, which Croatia won 2-1. The Croatia players celebrate a goal against France in the 1998 World Cup semifinals. Having been appointed after the team’s qualification for the 2018 World Cup, Dalić came with pressure on his shoulders. Antonio Bronic/Reuters“There is no place in the national team dressing room of Croatia for big egos, and everyone knows that.

☆ Croatia, heading to enter euro zone, adopts first budget in euros
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SARAJEVO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Croatia, which will enter the euro zone on Jan. 1, passed its first budget in euros on Tuesday, targeting a general deficit of 2.3% of gross domestic product based on the projection of 0.7% economic growth for 2023. The budget was adopted with 77 votes in favour and 50 against in the 151-seat parliament. "This is Croatia's first budget denominated in the euro," Finance Minister Marko Primorac said as he presented the budgetary plans. The total budget revenue is forecast at 24.9 billion euros ($25.86 billion), up 9% from this year and fuelled primarily by direct and indirect taxes projected at 13.3 billion euros. Expenditures are set at 26.7 billion euros, up 2.1 billion euros from this year, due to an increase in government social and development programmes.

☆ Croatia's Fortenova says it was not notified of Sberbank's stake sale - media
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( David French | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

SARAJEVO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Croatian food producer and retailer Fortenova Grupa said it had not been officially notified of a deal that Russian state bank Sberbank Rossii PAO (SBER.MM) reached to sell its 43% stake in the company, local media reported on Thursday. In a brief statement on Wednesday, Sberbank said the stake had been bought by Saif Bin Markhan Alketbi, an investor from the United Arab Emirates. Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ World Bank sees Western Balkans economy growing 3.4% in'22, 2.8% in '23
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"While growth in the first half of 2022 proved to be relatively robust, it is clear that the region is now heading into another storm," said Sanja Madzarevic-Sujster, the World Bank Senior Economist. Higher energy and food prices have pushed inflation to levels unseen for many years, eroding purchasing power and business confidence. Food inflation reached as much as 25% in Bosnia, Montenegro and North Macedonia, the report said. Also, the labour market is beginning to cool, with employment slowing amid the high inflation and increased uncertainty. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Election commission confirms preliminary results of Bosnia general vote
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SARAJEVO, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Bosnia's election commission (CIK) confirmed preliminary results of Oct. 2 presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, showing the dominance of nationalist parties in parliaments at various levels of the Balkan country's governance. Bosnia remains a dysfunctional and unstable state almost three decades since the devastating conflict between its Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks as former Socialist Yugoslavia collapsed. The opposition parties that had accused him of rigging the vote have held two big rallies in Banja Luka after the vote. They asked the CIK to repeat the election in the Serb Republic but the commission rejected their request. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Daniel WallisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Amnesty urges dropping of defamation charges against Bosnia environment activists
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SARAJEVO, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Amnesty International has urged a Belgian-owned hydro-power company to drop defamation charges against young Bosnian activists who publicly criticised the environmental impact of their projects in Bosnia, saying they were baseless. Kovacevic and Tusevljak are part of a larger movement in Bosnia protesting against small hydro-power plants as authorities embrace the technology in an effort to replace aging coal-fired power stations. Activists were successful in getting legislation to ban the construction of small hydro-power plants through the country's Bosniak-Croat Federation parliament last July. The Serb Republic, the other Bosnian region where East Sarajevo is located, also passed legislation in February limiting the size of future small hydro-power plants. "People of Bosnia-Herzegovina have the right to oppose to small hydro-power plants but you cannot attack existing permits," Green Invest's Delacroix said.

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