Former U.S. track star Marion Jones is telling children in Croatia to think hard about making big decisions, saying she wished she had done so"..."Jones' appearances were part of "our embassies' public diplomacy outreach to the Croatian and Serbian people.

Former track star Marion Jones is making a series of diplomatic visits to Serbia and Croatia this week on behalf of the U.S. State Department, an international opportunity for her to continue rehabilitating her tarnished image.

NATO Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy Stefanie Babst pointed out that the pace of cooperation between NATO and Serbia depends on the country alone...The public needs to be informed about the effect of NATO and EU on citizens' lives.

We cannot tolerate a new candidate for membership of the EU that is bringing in a frozen conflict ... You cannot have it both ways - candidate status moving nicely along and at the same time having a stranglehold on northern Kosovo. That sentiment is shared by a number of EU countries,

Statues of Heydar Aliyev -- the leader of Soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982 and president of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003 -- have already been erected in Bucharest and Kyiv at the behest of Azerbaijani authorities, who often make large financial donations to the accepting cities or countries.

Serbia's road to the EU has cleared significantly, though there are still many kilometres to go... This dealing with the past at a judicial level occurs in parallel, as witnessed in other historical precedents, with the longer-term work of society with itself.

Sarajevo announced plans to open a museum of its brutal siege by Bosnian Serb forces, saying the approaching trial of their commander Ratko Mladic made it all the more important to display the evidence. The collection includes an encyclopedia on the siege and 1,400 filmed accounts of witnesses.

To some, his capture testifies to the effectiveness of European leverage and underlines the E.U.'s soft power: by holding out the carrot of accession, the E.U. induces meaningful change in would-be members.