News stories by Vesna Peric Zimonjic, page 4

Dismayed by the lack of beer and chips at a football game three years ago, Dragan Stancic and Uros Petrovic, two young Belgradians, hatched a plan to take matters into their own hands.

The Serbian parliament has adopted one of the most long awaited — and most controversial — laws in its recent history: the law on restitution of property confiscated by the communist regime after World War II.

A new literary trend is gaining momentum in Serbia. It revolves around a phenomenon sociologists are describing as 'prison literature'.

For decades, the former Yugoslavia was a communist country with a human face, whose nations enjoyed high standards of living compared to other Eastern Europeans, visa-free travel abroad, and participatory government. Twenty years ago, on Jun. 25, all that ended.

For most of the world the issue of Kosovo is long over. The nation declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and has gained recognition from 76 out of 192 U.N. member states.

'Nothing can bring back our husbands or children, but this means so much for us; the man who ordered them killed is finally going to face justice,' says Hajra Catic, head of the Women of Srebrenica Association, following the arrest in Serbia of the former head of the Bosnian Serb army Ratko Mladic.

Serbia has been reforming and transforming its justice system to more closely emulate international and European models, but the concept of plea-bargaining for more lenient sentences has led to unprecedented protest in the country.

Katka Ceh has been selling vegetables at Pancevo’s open-air market since losing her job as a pre-school teacher in the nearby village of Kovacica more than a year ago.

Sentencing of two former generals ignited protests across Croatia over the weekend. Thousands of angry people protested in the streets of Zagreb and other major cities, claiming injustice had been done to heroes of the homeland war for independence that ended 16 years ago.

Sentencing of two former generals ignited protests across Croatia over the weekend. Thousands of angry people protested in the streets of Zagreb and other major cities, claiming injustice had been done to heroes of the homeland war for independence that ended 16 years ago.