Bosnia and Herzegovina

Montenegrin government and Shandong International Economic & Technical Cooperation Group representatives in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro

According to the government, the company will build 16 kilometers of a new highway between the coastal towns of Budva and Tivat, and the 53-million-euros' worth project should be finished in two years.

The Sarajevo Cantonal Assembly, one of ten cantons in Bosnia's mainly Bosniak and Croat-dominated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity, has voted to shorten school classes in the Muslim Ramadan to give extra time to observant pupils and teachers to break the religious fast. 

Croatia's High Criminal Court on Monday increased the sentence handed down to Lora military prison commander Tomislav Duic from eight-and-a-half to ten years in prison for war crimes against civilian detainees at the Lora military prison.

The court also increased the sentence handed down to guard Emilio Bungur from four-and-a-half to eight years in prison.

The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre on Monday criticised the Belgrade Court of Appeals' decision to reduce former police inspector Osman Osmanovic's war crimes sentence for prisoner abuse from five to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Vinko Pandurevic, wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army's Zvornik Brigade, told Belgrade Higher Court on Monday that Milenko Zivanovic, who commanded the Bosnian Serb Army's Drina Corps, did not run the Krivaja 95 operation in July 1995 which ended in the massacres of thousands of Bosniaks from Srebrenica.

Serbia's customs authorities said Friday they discovered nine migrants hiding among aluminum rolls in a truck headed to Poland from Greece.

Customs officers on Serbia's border with North Macedonia spotted the migrants on Wednesday during a scan that showed human silhouettes in the back of the truck, a statement said.

The government of Republika Srpska, one of two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said it would "end cooperation" with US and UK embassies in the country from Thursday, in reaction to recently imposed US sanctions on the director of the Administration for Geodetic and Property Affairs of Republika Srpska, RUGIPP, Dragan Stankovic.

The Labour Inspectorate has filed criminal complaints in a case involving two temp agencies from Slovakia and retailer Engrotuš where a number of shelf fillers from abroad reportedly worked massive overtime.

The meals are intended for "Iftar" suppers, eaten at the end of the day-long fast in Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise until sundown for one month. 

"The meals are intended for Iftar, but will be provided for [all] people, no matter their religious or national identity," Saliha Roksa, spokeswoman of Pomozi.ba, told BIRN. 

Despite harsh criticism from rights groups, international organisations and the media, the assembly of Republika Srpska, one of two entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Thursday adopted draft amendments to the criminal code, making defamation a crime. 

With 48 votes in favour and 21 against, the law will go to a 60-day public consultation period before its final adoption.