Albania is reluctant to openly support the Kosovo Albanian demands for independence but Albanians on both sides of the border threw themselves into celebrations for Albania's first official Independence Day on November 28.
With the demise of its President, Croatia has a chance break with the past and move politically out of the Balkans and into Western Europe. But Franjo Tuijman's legacy will make the years to come difficult ones...
One year on from the introduction of the Law on Public Information, the Serbian government has stepped up pressure on the independent media yet further, calling for a "decontamination" of the press.
By Mufail Limani in Pristina (BCR No.100, 8-Nov-99)
While Serbs flee Albanian persecution in Kosovo and move to Serbia proper, Albanians living in southern Serbia are intimidated into making the opposite journey.
Abducted by a special team of Serbian policemen on December 3 and since held incommunicado, Teki Bokshi, the Kosovar Albanian lawyer who has led efforts to free some 2,000 ethnic Albanians still held in Serbian jails, now shares their uncertain fate.
The stand off at Podgorica airport last week highlighted a stream of small-scale confrontations between Belgrade and Podgorica that is increasingly successfully undermining Montenegro's efforts to make its own way in the Balkans.
Two daily papers and Studio B TV have again been penalised under Serbia's Information Law - for reporting claims that the state had a part in an alleged bud to assassinate opposition leader Vuk Draskovic.
On December 7, the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement announced plans to form a special unit to 'counter the threat of state terrorism'. They have a military-sounding name - the Falcons - but they don't have guns. Yet.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic cherishes a dream of a military axis stretching east from Belgrade to Beijing. But his ambition rests on the future of other would-be presidents - including George Bush Jr. and Gennady Zyuganov.
