Eurasia

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 Prime Minister Ivica Dacic says if local authorities in south Serbia don’t remove a memorial dedicated to ethnic Albanian fighters, the state will do so “by force”.Dacic ordered the authorities in the mainly Albanian towns of Bujanovac and Presevo in South Serbia to remove a monument dedicated to ethnic …

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 …

As Kosovo Serbs lend support to Serbia’s ‘platform’ on Kosovo, the document is to go before parliament by January 7.After several hours of discussion, 150 representatives from the Serb-run north of Kosovo on Tuesday offered to support the Serbian government’s official platform for Kosovo. The platform demands a high level …

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 …

Pakistan became on Monday the 98th state to recognize Kosovo’s independence, moving the country a step closer to its strategic goal of achieving 100 recognitions by the end of 2012.“Pakistan has decided to accord recognition to the Republic of Kosovo. The decision has been made in accordance with the aspirations …

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 …