Montenegro

Police on Thursday arrested several leaders and officials in the scandal-hit municipality of Budva on suspicion of abuse of office and of damaging the local budget to the tune of several million euros, local media reported.

Several high ranking officials of the Budva municipality, including Mayor Lazar Radjenovic and city manager Milena Marovic-Bogdanovic, have been arrested.

On the orders of Montenegro's Special Organized Crime Prosecution, adviser to the prime minister Aleksandar Ticic and former municipal leaders Rajko Kuljaca and Dragan Marovic have also been detained.

Croatia's tourism ministry says tourists from former Yugoslavia are coming to Croatia for their summer holidays in ever greater numbers, despite the recent political spats between politicians and states.

Montenegro MPs have submitted to Parliament a resolution voicing support for the country's accession into NATO, regional news outlets have reported.

Debates on the document are to begin at an extraordinary session scheduled for September, according to Serbian agency Tanjug.

A group of regional NGOs on Tuesday welcomed the decision of Brussels not to fund a project on women's rights run by the Montenegro-based Institute for Public Policy, found by Vladimir Popovic "Beba".

Montenegro's state-owned national carrier, Montenegro Airlines, on Monday admitted a net loss of 74 million euro, blaming the economic crisis and the previous management for its poor financial position.

Islamists plan to conquer territory "from Spain to China"

The extremist organization Islamic State plans to conquer the Middle East, North Africa, parts of Europe, all in the next five years, claims BBC journalist Andrew Hosken.

The new survey Eurobarometer by the European Commission, released on Wednesday, suggests that people in Serbia are the most sceptical about EU membership in the Balkans.

About 42 per cent of the people surveyed in Serbia believe that the country's membership of the EU would a good thing while 22 per cent consider it would be negative for the country.

Russia is not ruling out the possibility of introducing "reciprocal measures" toward Montenegro, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Ukraine.

This has been reported by Sputnik. These countries have joined EU's anti-Russian sanctions.

The two countries have stepped up joint efforts this week to stop Albanian migrants heading for Germany after more than 20,000 arrived over the past few months.

On Wednesday, about 70 asylum-seekers from Albania landed at Tirana International Airport after being deported from Germany.