Republika Srpska

MPs in the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, delivered a stunning blow to Milorad Dodik's government on Wednesday when they failed to back a plan to sell a key iron ore mine to Israeli purchasers.

Of 80 MPs present in the chamber, only 39 backed the sale of the Ljubija mine to the Israelis, while 34 MPs were opposed and seven abstained.

The authorities in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska said a commemoration of the 1992 killings of Yugoslav People’s Army troops will not be held in Tuzla this year, claiming it was unsafe.

Bosnian Croat lawmakers say they expect the House of Peoples to discuss the changes they submitted to the election law on Thursday, under which only Bosnian Croats would elect their own representative to the country's three-member Presidency.

Bosnian parliamentarians, under urgent procedure, are due to vote on Thursday on a disputed set of laws which would raise excise taxes for fuel - and pave the way toward another instalment of a much-needed IMF loan.

The IMF said the first review of the program in Bosnia, agreed in September 2016, would now be delayed "significantly", after the country's parliament failed to vote through changes to finance laws.

GRDELICA - A Remembrance Day ceremony marking the 18th anniversary of the NATO aggression on Serbia was held Friday at the railway bridge in the Grdelica Gorge, southeastern Serbia, hit by NATO missiles on April 12, 1999 as a train full of passengers was crossing it.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned the United States that there would be "war in the Balkans" if the EU collapses.

The website euractiv.com is reporting this, citing Juncker's exclusive interview to the Financial Times during which he revealed details of his conversation with US Vice President Mike Pence, that took place in Brussels on February 20.

A court in Bosnia has confirmed an indictment against 16 people in relation to a scam in which a now-defunct bank in Republika Srpska, RS, issued nearly 123 million KM [63 million euros] in fraudulent loans and guarantees, according to Bosnia's prosecution. 

Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic claimed Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic only met Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik "out of pity", after Vucic came to Sarajevo to attend a summit of Western Balkan leaders on Thursday.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, is starting a Balkan tour of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia, which ends on March 4.