Customs in the port of Durres on Wednesday sequestered a container with contraband cigarettes coming from Singapore with an estimated value of €500,000.Media reports said customs agents became suspicious about the cargo after the company that had ordered the shipment failed to carry out customs procedures for several days. Inside …

Serbian President’s visit to the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, has ruffled feathers in the Bosnian capital.President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Ivica Dacic met top officials of Republika Srpska, RS, in Banja Luka on December 26 and discussed the “special relations” between Serbia and the Serb-dominated entity. Nikolic and …

Opposition Socialists says the city’s first urban plan in more than two decades will destroy its few remaining green spaces.Tirana city council on Sunday, after a heated debate, approved the city’s first urban plan since 1989. The plan was adopted with the votes of centre-right Democratic Party, to which Mayor, …

Ethnic Greek minority leaders in Albania have urged Greece not to scrap their pensions as part of the austerity drive imposed by the IMF and the EU.“We understand the difficulties that our fatherland is passing through and support the efforts of the Greek government and its people to strengthen the …

Victor Ponta’s government aims to better relations with the IMF and improving economic climate.Romania’s new government, led by 40-years-old Victor Ponta, has won a landslide approval in the parliament and is aiming now to push through the 2013 budget and start negotiations with the IMF for the new international precautionary …

Kosovo Prime Minister dismisses Serbia’s “platform” for Kosovo, ruling out calls for special autonomy for the Serb-run north as well as territorial partition.Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, on Wednesday said that Serbia’s recently unveiled plans for Kosovo should be “filed away”, along with other failed projects. “That project will remain …

A Swedish appeal court on Wednesday acquitted a former Serbian police officer convicted in January of war crimes in the Kosovo village of Cuska in 1999.The ruling came after a Swedish court in January sentenced Milic Martinovic to life in prison for the murder of civilians in the Kosovo village …

The government has released a list of half a million former fighters in the independence war from 1991-1995 – in a drive to clamp down on the widespread abuse of veterans status.Three Ministers, of Defence, the Interior and Veterans, all three former soldiers, presented the registry, which has been published …

The government has released a list of half a million former fighters in the independence war from 1991-1995 – in a drive to clamp down on the widespread abuse of veterans status.Three Ministers, of Defence, the Interior and Veterans, all three former soldiers, presented the registry, which has been published …

Serbia’s minister in charge of corruption has said that at least 20 politicians were financed by tycoon Miroslav Miskovic, and that the Delta Holding owner should disclose their names.Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s deputy prime minister in charge of corruption, has called on Miskovic, the owner of Delta Holding, to reveal the …