Balkans

Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivaylo Kalfin, is leaving Sunday for India, where he will be on an official two-day visit. Kalfin is going to India at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press service announced. Minister Kalfin is also going to meet …

Dublin.  Ireland President Mary McAleese will visit Bulgaria in March. It is expected Mary McAleese to meet with political leaders and representatives of business as of March 25-27, Irish Times informs. Former communist country assessed in the EU on January 1 2007. Ireland President visited Bulgaria’s neighbor country Romania in …

A new rightist coalition is being formed in Bulgaria, as parliamentary parties Union of the Democratic Forces (SDS) and Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB) are in an advanced stage of the talks among them, Sunday. DSB’s Ivan Ivanov said at a party conference in Plovdiv, that the final decision …

A Croatian court sentenced retired general Vladimir Zagorec to seven years in prison on Monday for abuse of office and for stealing $5 million worth of diamonds from a safe in the Ministry of Defense upon leaving his post as an assistant to the minister in 2000. Although Zagorec is …

The EU’s law and justice mission in Kosovo, EULEX, prepared to launch the first trial under its mandate on Monday, against a protest by Serb judicial workers opposed to the work of the mission which they see as supporting Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. The trial against two Kosovo Serbs accused …

Georgi Ivanov, the presidential candidate of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party in the March 22 election, has a clear lead ahead of his Socialist Party rival, shows the latest opinion poll done by local think thank Centre for Research and Policy Making. Over 30.5 percents of the respondents said they …

A 22-year old convicted Romanian hacker is to be hired by the District Attorney’s office in Como, northern Italy, to help it catch paedophiles and other online criminals, Romanian TV station Realitatea reports. Gabriel Bogdan Ionescu was arrested in 2007 and is currently serving a 3-year sentence in jail in …

Macedonia plans to invest an unprecedented 8 billion euros on strategic infrastructure projects stimulate long-term development over the next seven years, the government said on Sunday, also mentioning plans for a nuclear power plant. The money to improve energy capacities, transport, environmental protection, education and culture will partially come from …

lbania’s Minister of Finance accused the World Bank on Friday of damaging their excellent relations with a probe by an independent investigative panel on a coastal management project that has embarrassed the conservative government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha. “We regret to note that Bank’s internal issues are being transposed …

International human rights group Front Line accused Kosovo’s public telecoms company of harrassing civil society group COHU!, and called for a prompt investigation into the matter. The managing director of Kosovo’s Post and Telecommunications Kosovo, PTK, Shyqyri Haxhaj, accused the wife of COHU! director Avni Zogjani, a PTK employee, of …