Sun, Nov 22 2009
BIDEN IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: US vice president Joe Biden, centre, with Bosnia’s foreign minister Sven Alkalaj, left, and US ambassador to Bosnia Charles English after landing in Sarajevo on May 19 2009.

Prime minister Hashim Thaci says that he will brief US vice president on ‘successes and challenges’ faced by Kosovo. ‘Welcome and thank you’ posters put for Biden, a long-time supporter of Kosovo independence.
US vice president says that he does not expect Serbia to recognise Kosovo’s independence, but Serbia should co-operate with the EU and international community on Kosovo.
Calls for Kosovo to pressure Biden to lobby harder for more recognition for the fledgling state, while the topic may be skimmed in Serbia as the US seeks to rebuild ties.
The vice president's first stop will apparently be Pristina where he will be guaranteed a warm welcome. Biden's long track record of opposition to Milosevic may make his visit to Serbia more tense.
The John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign is running attack ads against Barack Obama on the basis of Joe Biden's prediction that there could be a "generated crisis" internationally to exploit Obama's apparent vulnerability as a newly-elected president. The trouble for the Republican camp is that their angle could prove either a backfire or a misfire.
Barack Obama, the Democratic Party's candidate for US president, indulged in a campaign swing through Europe. His vice-presidential running partner, Joe Biden, if tempted to do the same, may as well avoid Belgrade. Memories run deep in the Balkans, but among Serbian nationalists, uppermost on their minds is that long-term senator and foreign policy committee figure Biden was strongly in favour of the
Under pressure from Brussels on the name issue dispute with Greece, Skopje seeks to re-build relationship with with Sofia.
Parties that governed together in Pristina fall out because of their battle in Kosovo’s local government elections.
Media reports say that the EU will pressure Athens and Skopje to come up with a solution to the Macedonia name dispute by December 7, or Brussels will take a cooler approach to Macedonia’s EU hopes; while a row breaks out in Belgrade after Serbia’s foreign minister takes sides in the dispute.
Russia’s planned humanitarian base in Serbia could hold deeper strategic interests
The IMF has withdrawn its mission, which was due to assess Romania's compliance with the terms of the bailout, and now expects Romania to miss the fiscal deficit target set by the bailout agreement.