Republika Srpska

High Representative Valentin Inzko on Wednesday called on the Bosnian Serb leadership to accept a recent Constitutional Court ruling that the annual public holiday commemorating the founding of Republika Srpska is unconstitutional because it discriminates against other ethnicities.

Leaders of all Republika Srpska's main political parties agreed on Sunday to ask the Bosnian Serb National Assembly to initiate a referendum asking people if they support the recent decision by the Constitutional Court to abolish the annual Republic Day holiday celebrating the entity's foundation.

Bosniak delegates to the Council of Peoples in the Republika Srpska assembly on Thursday used their veto powers to block the assembly's decision last week to hold a referendum on the authority of the state judicial institutions and the Office of the High Representative.

Wednesday's visit of Bosnia's tripartite presidency to Serbia is a joint attempt of Bosnian and Serbian leaders to mend relations between the two countries, which suffered another blow with the recent attack on Serbian Premier Aleksandar Vucic in Srebrenica, Bosnian official told media.

The assembly of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, voted on Wednesday to hold a referendum on confidence in the country's state justice system and the authority of the international community's High Representative.

The assembly of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, has voted on Wednesday to hold a referendum on confidence in the country's state justice system and in the authority of High Representative to Bosnia.

Out of 76 deputies present, 45 voted in favor while 31 abstained. The referendum will be held in mid-September.

The government of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity has halted an announced increase in electricity prices at the last moment after coming under fierce pressure from consumers, experts, unions, the opposition and even some members of the ruling parties.

"As a single mother, I was outraged," a resident of the northwestern town of Prijedor told BIRN on Thursday, about the plan.

Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik proposed on Tuesday that a referendum challenging the authority of the state-level judiciary and Bosnia's top international official, the High Representative, should take place at the beginning of September. 

Petar Ivancov, the Russian ambassador to Sarajevo, told Bosnia's Dnevni avaz daily newspaper on Thursday that Russia does not deny that the crime committed in Srebrenica in 1995 was an act of genocide.

At the forum entitled "Contemporary US foreign policy in the Balkans and Eastern Europe," held in Belgrade on Tuesday, experts clashed over US interests in the Balkans and whether Belgrade should move closer to the Washington.

The forum follows Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's high-profile visit to Washington in early June.