Albanians rushed to apply for new identity cards and biometric passports, a key requirement for future visa-free travel to the EU. The new documents are seen as crucial to avert election fraud in the upcoming parliamentary election in June. They have also been one of the conditions of the European …

Albanian President Bamir Topi has set June 28 as the date of Albania’s parliamentary election, a crucial test of democratisation that will be watched closely by the European Union. Albania has yet to hold elections that meet international standards, with all six general elections since the collapse of communism in …

Kosovo police have arrested six people suspected of involvement in “high-profile” organised crime, a spokesman said on Tuesday. All suspects were Kosovo Albanians from the wider Mitrovica region, and were arrested for alleged involvement in racketeering, money laundering, and smuggling of fuel and other goods into Kosovo. Police spokesman Veton …

(Reuters) – Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza city Thursday and unleashed their heaviest shelling of its crowded neighborhoods in three weeks of war, stepping up pressure on Hamas as the Islamist group weighed a ceasefire. The Palestinian death toll topped 1,050, including many civilians. More than 4,000 have been …

GAZA (Reuters) – An explosion blasted a tower block in the city of Gaza that houses the offices of Reuters and other media organizations on Thursday, forcing an evacuation and disrupting coverage of increasingly fierce fighting. Colleagues said a journalist for the Abu Dhabi television channel had been wounded. Reuters …

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak apologized to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Thursday after Israeli forces shelled the main U.N. aid compound in the city of Gaza, Ban told reporters. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said its compound, where up to 700 Palestinians were being …

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – The Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers will meet on Saturday to try to resolve a gas row that has cut back supplies to a freezing Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated European calls for a quick to the two countries’ arguments over gas debts and prices, saying …

KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistani police arrested more than a dozen Islamist militants in the southern city of Karachi Thursday after a gun battle following a pre-dawn raid on their hideout, officials said. Two policemen were killed and nine wounded before the militants’ resistance was broken after several hours of shooting. …

TEHRAN (FNA)- An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale jolted Iran’s southeastern province of Kerman on Wednesday. There are yet no reports on the number of possible casualties or damage to properties by the quake. Iran is criss-crossed with fault lines and is regularly hit by earthquakes, experiencing at …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili arrived in Doha on Wednesday to deliver a message from President Ahmadinejad to Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on the current conditions in the Gaza Strip. During his stay in the Qatari capital, Jalili is …