Montenegro

A last-gasp header from Mehmet Topal gave Turkey a 1-0 victory over Montenegro on May 29, as well as a boost to the team's morale ahead of Euro 2016. 

Midfielder Arda Turan, likely to be key to Turkey's prospects in France, set up the goal with a cross in the fourth minute of stoppage time and Topal charged into the area to head it past the diving Montenegro keeper. 

BELGRADE - The United States apparently has big plans for Kosovo and the Balkans in general, political analyst Petr Iskenderov told Radio Sputnik. These include increasing Washington's political influence and military presence in the territory that was carved out of Serbia following NATO's military intervention.

Women's rights organizations protested in Podgorica on Wednesday against the Western Balkans "She is Here" convention, claiming it was linked to the former Serbian politican Vladimir Beba Popovic - who they accuse of running campaigns against civil society activists in Montenegro.

The ex-president of the former state union of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic, was released from custody on Tuesday after he signed a plea bargain with the special prosecution for organised crime and corruption and agreed to serve three years and eight months in prison.

BELGRADE - Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Seselj was on Sunday named the party's candidate in the 2017 presidential elections in Serbia.

The decision was taken unanimously by the SRS Central Fatherland Administration at a session in the party's Belgrade headquarters, chaired by Seselj.

STRASBOURG - Member of the European Parliament (EP) and Vice President of the 'Friends of Serbia' EP group Franc Bogovic Monday expressed the hope that current candidates for membership in the European Union - Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo - would all be admitted to the European family by the end of 2020.
    

Although Montenegro has been invited to join NATO, the government signed a new contract with a Washington-based firm to lobby for its membership to avoid any potential obstacles during ratification.

MADRID - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic was ousted in the opening round of the Madrid Open by Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday.
    
World number 131 Cirstea will next play Montenegro's Danka Kovinic.
    
The total prize money for the tournament in Madrid is USD 4,771,360

Photo Tanjug/T. Valic, Archive

Regional cooperation is key to attracting more foreign investment money into the Balkans, stressed participants at the seventh Sarajevo Business Forum in the Bosnian capital on Wednesday.

"There is no country which is able to stand alone, especially in our region," Montenegro's economy minister Vladimir Kavaric told the forum.

The European Commission on Wednesday recommended to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament that Kosovo should be transferred to the visa-free list for short stays in the Schengen zone.

It said that Kosovo has fulfilled the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap.