Birn

Montenegrin officials at the opening of Bar-Boljare highway first section. Photo: Government of Montenegro.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic opened the first section of the highway, seven years after the Chinese-financed project started and drove up Montenegro's public debt to 90.85 per cent of GDP.

Some 4,000 people took part in this year's march, with genocide survivors in front, followed by children and family members of those who were killed, and others who came to pay respects to the victims.

Direct flights between Belgrade and Pristina, announced in January 2020, have not been restored yet due to the Corona crisis, BIRN has been told.

The Lufthansa group subsidiary that was supposed to realize the project, Eurowings, told BIRN that on this route "unfortunately there is still no further movement as a result of the Corona pandemic".

The annual Srebrenica Peace March is setting off from the village of Nezuk on Friday, following in reverse the 100-kilometre route taken by Bosniaks who fled on foot from Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

View of the Boka Kotorska Bay in Montenegro. Photo: BIRN/Samir Kajosevic

The Central Bank said that Russians were also the largest investors in Montenegro, after they invested 41.6 million euros in the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.

They accuse him of using a Facebook account to issue a series of posts promoting the Islamic State and its late leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and calling for a holy war in the Middle East and Africa.

El Salih was released on June 11 after an Appeals Court rejected a prosecution request to keep him in custody until trial.

Cakalli is the founder of an informal Bosnian branch of a Turkish far-right group known as the Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar), some of whose members support neo-fascist ideas. The Grey Wolves are officially called Idealist Hearths (Ulku Ocaklari) and their organisation is affiliated with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, which is an ally of the Turkish ruling party.

Bosnia's capital Sarajevo is gearing up for its fourth Pride March this Saturday, which will be held during the Pride Month for the first time and culminate a month of activities dedicated to bringing families and their queer members closer.

Alen Basil in 2012. Photo: Facebook

When BIRN called Basil to ask about the claims that he is involved in the people-smuggling business, he denied the accusations.

"I am a court translator, I work with the court and of course I am mentioned [n that context], because I am there with the prosecutor and with the court," he said.

The Hungarian government's attempt to scrap a concert to raise funds for Ukraine was foiled by an independent mayor, local media reported on Sunday.