Turkey negotiates its EU membership next week

Turkish PM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that on June 30 he would talk with EU Commissioner and Vice-President of the EC Frans Timmermans in relation with the delay of the visa dropping issue. The EU refuses to grant Schengen non-visa regime to Turkey if it fails to limit the range of its anti-terrorist legislation. Ankara wouldn’t do that, as its fight with the Kurdish PKK warriors continues. In the meantime President Recep Erdogan has stated that Turkey might hold a referendum on the continuing of its EU negotiation process.

Flow of Bosnian jihadists to Syria and Iraq nearly stopped

The flow of jihadists from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Syria and Iraq has nearly stopped, but 200 citizens from the Balkan state are still fighting in the Middle East, the Sarajevo-based Atlantic Initiative western think-tank reports. The readmissions from the Middle East ceased in 2015 with the exception of few extraditions from Turkish prisons. Analysts say the positive trend is due to “the intensive efforts put in the persecution of new warriors and of those who return from Syria and Iraq”. 330 Bosnians have left since 2012, in order to join the jihad, 188 of them male. Nearly 50 have been killed and 47 have returned to the Balkans.

Serb People’s Party against NATO in the Balkans

The deployment of NATO anti-missile defense facilities across Eastern Europe and the expansion of the Alliance in the Balkans are destabilizing the continent, said leader of the Serb People’s Party Nenad Popovic for TASS. The politician assured that his party did support the appeal of the Russian Duma to its colleagues from the NATO and OSCE member-states and also to the parliaments of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina for the creation of a neutral zone of sovereign countries that will take independent decisions for their key state and national interests.

Bin Laden’s bodyguard to live in Montenegro

The USA has released from the prison of the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, the Pentagon’s press office reports. Abdel Malik Abdel Wahab al-Rahabi, a citizen of Yemen has been set free after 14 years spent in the base. He has been sent to Montenegro due to the unstable situation in his motherland and he will be a permanent resident of the Balkan state from now on. The Yemeniwas cleared for release yet in December 2014. 79 prisoners, accused of terrorism and nabbed in third countries are now imprisoned in Guantanamo.

Smart bench placed in Zagreb

The first smart solar bench has been placed in front of the Zagreb University, aiming at the greater usage of green and environmental technologies. The bench is an innovative project of Ivan Marvosh - a student from the electricity and ship building faculty at the university in Split. It also recharges mobile phones and tablets, has sensors measuring the air’s quality, temperature and the loudness of the noise around. Internet access is offered too. The bench serves as a lamp through the night and counters the number of people passing by. It can work 10 days with no sun and is shock resistant. Its inventor would like to install 20 other benches of that kind across Zagreb and 500 more over the globe till the end of 2016, followed by several thousands more in 2017.

Compiled by: Stoimen Pavlov

English version: Zhivko Stanchev