The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on July 8 rejected two appeals from Swiss Muslims challenging Switzerland's ban on construction of minarets. The court ruled that the appeals were inadmissible because the complaints failed to meet the requirements of Article 35 Section 3 and 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Specifically, the court found that since the appeals were only meant to challenge a constitutional provision in a general manner in Switzerland, the applicants had failed to show any specific injury. Supporters and opponents were not surprised by the ECHR's decision. Hafid Ouardiri, one of the challengers, characterized his failed challenge as a necessary step and was encouraged by the court's statement that the Swiss courts "would be able to would be able to examine the compatibility of a possible refusal to authorise the construction of a minaret with the European Human Rights Convention."

Some 40,000 people gathered July 11 to remember the massacre of an estimated 8,000 captive Muslim men and boys on that day in 1995 at the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, when it was overrun by besieging Serb rebel forces. Religious rites were held by Bosnian Muslim spiritual leader Reiss-ul-Ulema Mustafa Ceric as 613 new victims exhumed from various locations since last year's commemoration were buried in the memorial cemetery at Potocari, six kilometers outside the town. Many of those in attendance walked for days from mountain villages which had sheltered refugees from Srebrenica during the war, in what has become an annual pilgrimage. The event was attended by international dignitaries, including Croatian president Ivo Josipovic and Turkish vice-premier Bulent Arinc. Serbian president Boris Tadic, who attended last year's ceremony, was absent this year, but sent a message saying Serbia is determined to punish all war criminals—although he stressed that he expected the same from other countries. The Muslim member of Bosnia's rotating presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, praised Tadic for keeping his promise made at last year's commemoration to arrest wartime Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. But he protested that a "greater part of Serbian people still evades facing the truth," and glorify Mladic "as a hero." (AKI, July 11; AP, July 8)

Thousands of people joined a general strike in Greece June 14 and protesters in Athens tried to blockade parliament to prevent lawmakers from entering and voting on a new austerity plan. The rally turned violent as demonstrators hurled stones and petrol bombs, smashed windows and clashed with police, who used tear gas and stun grenades against the protesters. The riot left nearly 50 people injured, including 36 officers. Prime Minister George Papandreou said he would form a new government and put it to a vote of confidence in the coming days, hoping to win support for the austerity plan aimed at preventing the country from defaulting on its debt. Following Papandreou's announcement, two lawmakers from his party, including former Public Order Minister Giorgos Floridis, resigned their seats, dealing a new blow to the prime minister. (SETimes, June 16)

A court in St. Petersburg, Russia sent two members of a neo-Nazi group behind bars for life on June 15. The group was responsible for at least seven murders, the court found. While gang leader Alexej Vojevodin and follower Arťom Prochorenko were sentenced to life in prison, another 10 members were given sentences of between two and 18 years. The gang's victims include a Senegalese student shot in front of a night club in St. Petersburg, a man of North Korean origin who was stabbed to death on the street, and the anthropologist and ethnographer Nikolaj Girenko, who was shot to death in front of his home in 2004. Girenko was killed apparently because he frequently testified as an expert witness in trials of neo-Nazi perpetrators.

Authorities in Tunisia have recovered some 150 bodies of more than 250 African migrants who went missing after their over-crowded boat capsized in the Mediterranean earlier this week, the International Organization for Migration said in Geneva on June 4. The migrants were reportedly on their way to the Italian island of Lampedusa from Libya when their vessel ran aground and capsized some 19 nautical miles off Tunisia's Kerkennah islands. Survivors say there were more than 800 people on board when the accident occurred. Tunisia's coast guard and army managed to rescue about 570 from the ill-fated vessel. (RTT, June 3)

Authorities in Serbia on May 26 announced the capture of Ratko Mladic, ending a 16-year manhunt for the former military commander of the self-declared Serb Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mladic faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. He is most infamous for ordering the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war in 1995. Extradition proceedings to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague are to begin immediately.

Belarus's Minsk City Court last week sentenced former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau to a five-year maximum security prison term for organizing protests following the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in December 2010. Lukashenko reportedly won 80% of the vote, while Sannikau was second with a distant 2.5%. Currently, four other presidential candidates are awaiting trial, while one was released in January, and another has fled Belarus to seek asylum in the Czech Republic.

Tens of thousands of protesters have filled the main squares of Spain's cities for the past week to protest government austerity measures—in defiance of a government ban imposed ahead of municipal and regional elections. Madrid's central square has been occupied for days by some 30,000 protesters, who have been dubbed "los indignados" (the indignant). Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero admitted he may not enforce the ban. "I have a great respect for the people protesting, which they are doing in a peaceful manner, and I understand it is driven by economic crisis and young people's hopes for employment," Zapatero said during a radio interview. (BBC News, May 21; Reuters, May 20)