Eurasia News

A group of 42 Sudanese refugees has arrived in Timisoara, western Romania, after being evacuated from a makeshift camp in the desert in Iraq, according to UNHCR sources. The refugees, who have been provided with winter clothing, are staying in the new Emergency Transit Centre set up by the Romanian …

Kosovo is pushing ahead with decentralisation as envisaged by the Ahtisaari plan, but without the support of citizens across the ethnic spectrum the integration of all communities will remain a challenge, said Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. Decentralization, a byword for allowing Kosovo’s minority Serbs to run their affairs separately …

Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha on Tuesday fired the country’s highest tax official who is currently on trial on charges of torture and murder. Arben Sefgjini, head of the General Directorate of Taxes, previously served as the head of Tirana’s Secret Service Office, SHIK. Three of his former colleagues, Budion …

Macedonia’s two ethnic Albanian parties, the ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, and the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, picked their own presidential candidates for the March 22 elections, pushing the total number of presidential hopefulls to ten. DUI picked its vice president Agron Buxhaku as the party’s sole …

Albanian think-tanks that monitor the EU accession process disagree on whether the country’s application for EU candidate status should come during the Czech presidency or later. Greece’s ratification of Albania’s Stabilization and Association Agreement, SAA, with the European Union last week was the final step in the formal approval process …

WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama will press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to extend government control beyond the capital and fight corruption in a new U.S. policy that will have a “significant non-military component,” a White House official said on Wednesday. The White House is conducting a review of all aspects …

BRUSSELS  – NATO-led forces killed nearly 100 civilians in operations against militants in Afghanistan last year, the alliance said on Wednesday, while blaming insurgents for the deaths of 10 times that number. Civilian casualties have eroded public support for President Hamid Karzai’s government and foreign troops backing it. It has …

PRAGUE  – The European Union said on Wednesday it would invite Iran to a conference on Afghanistan. Calls have grown in the international community to engage Iran in both regional diplomacy and in direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear program. EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the planned conference would …

MOSCOW  – Russia has halted plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border, a Russian news agency quoted the military as saying on Wednesday, in what could be a sign Moscow is seeking better ties with the new U.S. president. But there was no official confirmation and a Kremlin official …

LONDON  – Private security companies are expanding operations in Afghanistan as the war there heats up, but industry experts say those that made fortunes in Iraq may find business much tougher in the new market. As Iraq has grown more stable, Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency is strong, has been …