The Dispatch

German troops back to Bosnia as fear of instability grows

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has deployed troops with the European Union's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia for the first time in a decade as concerns mount instability from the Ukraine war…

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Kosovo starts power cuts as a result of energy crisis

PRISTINA, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Kosovo’s energy distribution company, KEDS, said it would start power cuts at 8 a.m. on Monday because of a lack of domestic production and high…

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Eleven dead in mass shooting in Montenegro

CETINJE, Montenegro (Reuters) - Eleven people, including two children and a gunman, were killed in a mass shooting in Montenegro on Friday, and six others were injured, a state prosecutor…

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Photo story: Full Moon over Istanbul

A full moon sets behind the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, early Friday morning. Via EPA-EFE/ERDEM SAHIN

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Kosovo PM warns of possible new conflict with Serbia

PRISTINA, (Reuters) - Kosovo is prepared to stand against a possible attack by Serbia as worsening strife with minority Serbs could result in a new armed conflict, Prime Minister Albin…

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Erdogan plays up diplomatic gains with eye on elections

A series of diplomatic wins, capped by the deal to resume Ukraine's grain exports, provides some respite for President Tayyip Erdogan from Turkey's economic strife and offers a blueprint of…

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Kosovo detains Russian journalist at the border

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo’s interior minister said it has arrested a Russian journalist at the border on suspicion that she could be a spy, and security authorities were searching “for…

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UPDATE – Twelve Poles killed, 31 injured in Croatia bus crash on their way to Medjuorgje

VARAZDIN, Croatia (Reuters) - Twelve people were killed and 31 injured, 18 of them seriously, when a Polish bus filled with religious pilgrims slipped off a road and crashed near…

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Serbia, Kosovo leaders to discuss tensions at Brussels Aug. 18 meeting

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo will meet in Brussels on Aug. 18 to discuss a flare-up of tensions between the neighbouring western Balkan nations, the European Union's executive…

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FACTBOX -Putin and Erdogan contacts underline complex Russia-Turkey ties

Aug 5 (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan meet on Friday for the second time in just over two weeks, after Turkey helped broker a deal to resume Ukraine's Black Sea…

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Montenegro signs long-disputed contract with Serbian Orthodox church

PODGORICA, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Montenegro's government signed a contract regulating its ties with the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church on Wednesday, saying it would help heal deep divisions between pro-European…

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UPDATED: Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says first grain ship ‘nothing’, economy in coma

KYIV/ISTANBUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy dismissed the importance of the first grain export shipment from his country since Russia invaded, saying it was carrying a fraction of the…

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Turkey’s annual inflation hits fresh 24-year high of 79.6%

ISTANBUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Turkish inflation rose to a fresh 24-year high of 79.6% in July, data showed on Wednesday as the lira's continued weakness and global energy and commodity costs pushed…

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Bulgarian President calls snap election

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev set Oct. 2 as the date for the country's fourth parliamentary election in less than two years on Monday, after the collapse in June of reformist…

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Kosovo starts issuing extra documents to Serbian citizens as protesters block roads

ZUPCE, Kosovo (Reuters) - Kosovo's government on Monday began issuing extra documents to Serbian citizens crossing into its territory, as Serbs living in the north of the country who oppose…

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Spain’s PM backs EU candidacy for Bosnia

AP - Spain's prime minister on Saturday expressed support for Bosnia to become a candidate for European Union membership amid fears that uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine could…

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Turkey’s tourism revenues nearly triple, but many Turks stay home

ISTANBUL, July 29 (Reuters) - Turkey's tourism revenues nearly tripled in the second quarter while first-half foreign visitor numbers surged close to 2019 levels, data showed on Friday, recovering from a coronavirus-driven…

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Bulgaria faces fresh polls after Socialists drop bid to form government

SOFIA, July 27 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's Socialist party abandoned plans on Wednesday to propose a new coalition government after failing to scrape together a majority in parliament, a development that…

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Albania’s ex-PM says UK has barred him from entering

TIRANA (Reuters) - Albania’s former president and prime minister, Sali Berisha, said on Friday he had been banned by London from entering the UK for supposedly having links with criminal…

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Turkey’s Erdogan says almost all Nordic countries are “nests of terror”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that almost all Nordic countries had become "nests of terror", and repeated a threat to block Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids if…

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Photo Story: Police action against protesters on seventh anniversary of Suruc explosion

Turkish police detain protesters during the seventh anniversary of the 2015 Suruc bombing in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday. At least 32 people were killed and some 100 wounded in a…

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Albania, North Macedonia finally start EU membership talks

Albania and North Macedonia began membership talks with the European Union on Tuesday, overcoming a series of obstacles thrown up by EU governments despite an original promise to begin negotiations in mid-2018.…

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N. Macedonia votes to end dispute with Bulgaria, clears way for EU talks

SKOPJE (Reuters) -Lawmakers in North Macedonia on Saturday passed a French-brokered deal aimed at settling a dispute with Bulgaria and clearing the way to long-due European Union membership talks. With…

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Bulgaria election likely after centre-right party refuses to form government

SOFIA, July 14 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's centre-right GERB party refused on Thursday to form a new government, bringing the Balkan country closer to snap polls in the autumn. Bulgaria is…

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UPDATED: Russia in deadly strike on Ukrainian city a day after grain talks breakthrough

KYIV, July 14 (Reuters) - Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia far behind the frontlines on Thursday in an attack which Ukrainian officials said had left at least…

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Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, U.N. set to meet on grain exports

ISTANBUL, July 13 (Reuters) - Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish military delegations are set to meet U.N. officials in Istanbul on Wednesday for talks on a possible deal to resume safe exports of…

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‘Amazing journey’: EU accepts Croatia as 20th euro zone member

European Union finance ministers on Tuesday formally approved Croatia becoming the 20th member of the euro common currency at the start of 2023, a move hailed as the culmination of…

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Photo Story: The victims of the Srebrenica genocide remembered

A Bosnian Muslim woman visits gravestones during a funeral ceremony for fifty newly-identified Bosnian Muslim victims, at the Potocari Memorial Center and Cemetery in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 11 July…

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Photo Story: Protests in Skopje

A woman waves the old Macedonian flag during a protest against the French proposal to resolve the dispute between North Macedonia and Bulgaria in front of the Parliament building in…

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Turkey tightens rules on pilots leaving to work for foreign airlines

ISTANBUL, July 8 (Reuters) - The Turkish civil aviation authority is tightening conditions covering Turkish pilots who resign and move abroad to work for foreign airlines as the aviation industry races to…

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Israel, Turkey to expand mutual flights in their first aviation deal since 1951

JERUSALEM, July 7 (Reuters) - Israel and Turkey will expand bilateral airline traffic under a new aviation deal to be signed on Thursday, their first since 1951, Israel's Transportation Ministry said. "The…

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Croatia’s finance minister resigns

SARAJEVO, July 6 (Reuters) - Croatia's Finance Minister Zdravko Maric resigned late on Tuesday and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic will propose economy professor Marko Primorac as the new candidate for the job,…

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NATO in talks to build naval base in Albania

Albania is in talks with NATO to build a naval base at Porto Romano, a port under construction on its Adriatic coast, Prime Minister Edi Rama revealed. Rama told a…

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Photo Story: Lavender harvest in Bulgaria

A farmer harvests lavender flowers in a field near the town of Shabla, Bulgaria. Bulgaria, currently the largest producer of lavender oil in the world have overtaken France, which had…

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Russian envoy to Bulgaria to ask Moscow to shut embassy after mass expulsions

Russia's ambassador to Bulgaria said she would ask Moscow to close its embassy in the Balkan country after her appeal for Sofia to reverse what she called an unprecedented hostile…

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Armenia, Turkey agree to partially open border closed for decades

The governments of Turkey and Armenia have agreed to allow nationals from other countries — but not yet their own — to cross the border between the two nations, the…

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Erdogan raises possibly nixing NATO-Nordics deal if promises not kept

ANKARA, July 1 (Reuters) - An accord signed with Finland and Sweden to lift Turkey's veto on their NATO membership bids is not the end of the matter and obliges…

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Bulgaria destroys naval mine off its Black Sea coast

SOFIA, July 1 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's military late on Thursday carried out a controlled explosion of a Soviet-era naval mine that had drifted close to the country's Black Sea coast, the defence…

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UPDATED: Bulgaria’s outgoing PM rejects Russian ultimatum, unveils potential successor

SOFIA, July 1 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov rejected a Russian ultimatum to reverse a decision to expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff by noon on Friday and named the country's finance…

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Bulgaria closer to early election

Bulgaria's Socialists, allies in the outgoing coalition government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, said they would not back a new Petkov-led Cabinet, angry with the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats.…

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Turkish police prevent Istanbul Pride from going ahead

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police blocked hundreds of people from gathering for Istanbul's annual Pride parade on Sunday and detained dozens after local authorities banned the march from going ahead…

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Turkey re-evaluates the reintroducing the death penalty

Turkey will reconsider a 2004 decision to abolish capital punishment, the justice minister said, after President Tayyip Erdogan raised the death penalty in connection with the cause of this week's…

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Bulgarian parliament greenlights N Macedonia’s EU membership negotiation

Bulgaria's parliament gave the government the green light on Friday to approve a European Union membership negotiation framework for North Macedonia, in a move that may allow its northern neighbour…

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Albania’s PM slams Bulgaria on Western Balkan EU membership

Bulgaria's block on North Macedonia's progress to join the European Union is a "disgrace", Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said as he arrived for a special Balkans summit with EU…

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Turkey says summit is not deadline for talks on Finland and Sweden’s NATO bids

Discussions between Turkey, Finland and Sweden about the Nordic countries' NATO membership will continue and an alliance summit in Madrid next week is not a deadline, Turkey said after talks in Brussels on Monday. Finland…

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Albanian PM: No EU membership talks soon

TIRANA — Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said he doesn’t expect an EU summit next week to clear the way for his country to begin membership talks and placed the…

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Bulgarian foreign, energy ministers quit, deepening coalition crisis

SOFIA, June 13 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's foreign and energy ministers resigned on Monday after their party, the populist ITN, quit the governing coalition last week, compounding the Balkan country's political…

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Russians fleeing sanctions open 1,000 firms in Serbia

In just over three months since the start of the Ukrainian crisis, Russians have opened more than 1,000 businesses in Serbia, and the latest figures show that over 10 companies…

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Heavy flooding in Ankara leaves one dead

Heavy rainfall in Turkey’s capital on Saturday led to flooding that killed one person, authorities said. Search and rescue teams located the body of the 27-year-old man, who worked as…

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Turkey announces steps to shore up economy, prioritising inflation fight

ISTANBUL, June 10 (Reuters) - Turkey's Treasury said on Friday the fight against inflation remained the top priority in its macroeconomic policy after it and other state institutions announced measures to support…

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Bulgaria faces risk of political instability as PM loses majority

Bulgaria's prime minister pledged to lead a minority government on Wednesday as the populist ITN party quit the government over disagreements on budget spending and whether Bulgaria should back North…

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UPDATED: Ukraine dismisses Moscow’s assurances over grain shipments as ’empty words’

KYIV, June 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed as "empty words" assurances from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Moscow will not use the situation to its advantage if Kyiv allows…

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Bosnian Serb leader Dodik says Ukraine war has delayed secession plan

Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced Bosnian Serb nationalists to postpone plans to pull the Republika Srpska (RS) region out of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s national institutions, a Serb member of the Bosnian…

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Albania to choose chief of defense as president

TIRANA, (Reuters) - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that his party has picked the country's chief of defense to be the new president after failing to choose a consensus…

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Turkey’s trade deficit surges 157% in May

ISTANBUL, (Reuters) - Turkey's trade deficit jumped 157% year-on-year in May to $10.68 billion, the Trade Ministry said on Thursday, as soaring energy import costs continue to widen the shortfall. Russia's invasion of…

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Turkey wants to be called Türkiye

Turkey will be known as Türkiye at the United Nations from now on, after it agreed to a formal request from Ankara. Several international bodies will be asked to make…

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Croatia ready to join euro zone from 2023 – EU Commission

Croatia is ready to join the euro zone, the European Commission said on Wednesday, paving the way for the Balkan country to adopt the euro from the start of 2023…

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