Zenica

Journalists gathered on Tuesday in Sarajevo, Mostar and Zenica to demand an end to violence against reporters in Bosnia and Heregovina, two days after Vladimir Kovacevic, a journalist at BN TV, one of the main media outlets in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, was attacked in front of his home in Banja Luka.

As 2017 ended and 2018 began, Macedonia took emergency measures against dense smog enveloping its cities, an annual winter scourge in the Western Balkans blamed on a mix of coal burning, ageing industry and high-polluting emissions from older vehicles.

AP Photo / Militant Website

Wounded jihadists, returnees from the Syrian war zone, are treated in health care institutions unhindered in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), at the expense of local people, Telegraf reports.

Dejan Lovren, a defender at Liverpool football club, launches a biographical film about his refugee experience on Wednesday in an attempt to trigger sympathy and understanding for Syrian refugees who are trying to reach Europe.

Three Serb inmates, imprisoned for war crimes in a jail in Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, have been seriously injured.

They have been attacked by a group of Bosniaks (Muslims).

Food wastage in Bosnia and Herzegovina is common despite the country being one of the poorest in the region, with around 600,000 people living below the poverty line, earning under 120 euros a month.

Bosnian towns like Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica, Lukavac and Kakanj are suffering from serious problems with air pollution, experts from the Federal Hydro-Meteorological Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina [FHMZBiH] told BIRN.

"Sarajevo is definitely one of the most polluted cities in Europe when it comes to air pollution," said Enis Omercic, an air-quality expert for the FHMZBiH.

Bosnian officials have renewed calls for the dismissal of Goran Zubac, director of the State Investigative and Protection Agency, SIPA, after the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a first instance ruling sentenced him to a year's probation for neglecting his duties during the protests last February.

Bosnian police arrest Syria-bound suspects

A national security sweep apprehends alleged ISIL supporters, including two at the Sarajevo airport.

Bosnia launched Operation Damascus in 2014 to stem the flow of recruits to Syria. The latest security action on February 18th involved multiple cities. [AFP]

Bosnians are planning demonstrations across the country on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the start of protests of February 7 2014 - and remind local leaders of how little they have done to improve matters over the past year.