Bosnia

The US embassy in Bosnia told BIRN on Monday that American sanctions on Milorad Dodik could not be removed easily, despite local media reports that the US would soon lift a travel and property embargo against the Bosnian Serb leader.

Turkey's election authority has confirmed Turkey's strongman for 16 years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections, with 99.7 per cent of the votes counted.

Democracy was the winner of Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan said on June 25.

The UN court in The Hague is to hand down its verdict on Serbian Radical Party leader Seselj, accused of wartime crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, after a prosecution appeal against his initial acquittal.

Former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic has turned down an offer to be made an Honorary Citizen of Sarajevo - after the Bosnian capital rescinded an earlier decision to award the Turkish Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk.

Georgia has sent a protest note to Bosnia and Herzegovina over the visit of the head of the breakaway South Ossetia region to Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska.

South Ossetia is a breakaway state from Georgia - financed, defended and effectively controlled by Moscow, while the Republika Srpska is an autonomous entity of Bosnia.

The Council of Europe may introduce sanctions against Bosnia and Herzegovina for failing to comply with a European Court of Human Rights ruling, MIA said.

This is the case of Sejdic and Finzi.

BANJALUKA - Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who is on an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), met with Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik in Banjaluka Thursday.

Bakir Izetbegovic, the member of the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Monday criticized Czech President Milos Zeman's statement that terrorists could create a base in the Balkan country, stressing that it was a "dangerous lie."

Bosnia's Klepsidra academic association has been criticised after announcing that Ilham Aliyev will be this year's recipient of the annual award it gives to presidents and prime ministers.

Critics cited Aliyev's poor human rights record in energy-rich Azerbaijan, which has jailed journalists and political opponents.

Bosnian-born artist Aida Sehovic placed thousands of cups of coffee on a Chicago square to mark the anniversary of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, creating a unique memorial that tells the public how the victims died.