AH, football. It really is the global game. The last thing you might expect when stumbling bleary-eyed into a hotel reception in the Balkans first thing in the morning is to be given a blow-by-blow account of Cork City’s home win over Bray Wanderers the night before.

Montenegro’s parliament is to declare independence for the tiny Balkan republic today, forming a new European state and formally dissolving what was left of Yugoslavia.

Emergency teams resumed searching the wreckage of a four-carriage passenger train today, which derailed and plunged into a river canyon outside the Montenegrin capital, killing at least 44 people and injuring 198, officials said.

Nato led troops have ended an operation to gather information about the support network helping Radovan Karadzic evade arrest.

A former Yugoslav army general charged with destroying much of the ancient port town of Dubrovnik during the Croatian war today boarded a flight to The Netherlands to answer to the UN war crimes court.