Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union (EU) taking its first step to join the 27-nation bloc. “Today ... we signed the first important institutional agreement ... that opens the door for deeper relationship between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said at the signing ceremony. In May, the European Commission launched a dialogue on visa free travel with Bosnia a...

Scottish anti-war activist and actor Gerard Kelly has accused the British government of being hypocritical over the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in its policy towards Iran. “It is the height of hypocrisy that we ask Iran to obey the non-proliferation treaty yet our own government blatantly disregards it by commissioning a replacement for Trident,” Kelly said. “Once again, it’s do as we say, not as we do,” he said in sending a message of support to protesters ...

A Muslim girl cannot skip co-ed swimming lessons because of religious prohibitions against wearing formfitting clothing, a German court ruled. The ruling means the 12-year-old girl must participate in swimming lessons starting next week. Citing religious reasons, the girl’s parents said they did not want their daughter to participate because her body would not be covered. Their attorney said the family plans to appeal. The parents rejected an offer last year from the girl’s teache...

Amnesty International organised a press conference in downtown Toronto in connection with the plight of China’s Uyghur Muslim minority.  One of the speakers was Rebiya Kadeer, a Uyghur activist who spent over five years in a Chinese jail on the charge of “leaking state secrets” after sending newspaper clippings to her husband in the United States. Since the Chinese Communist Party came to power in China in 1949, Kadeer said the Uyghur language and culture have been supp...