PRISTINA, Kosovo Kosovo is ready to defend its 2008 independence declaration before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), media reported on Friday (April 10th). British expert Michael Wood will lead Kosovo’s legal team at the ICJ to debate Serbia’s motion questioning the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February …

BUCHAREST, Romania The prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen, Radu Duda, son-in-law of former King Mihai I of Romania, announced his candidacy for president on Thursday (April 9th). The election will be held in November.

ATHENS, Greece Unknown attackers planted explosive devices in three cathedrals across Greece on Thursday (April 9th). One went off inside the church of Agia Triada in Piraeus but caused no injuries.

TIRANA, Albania Parliament has decided to send a unit consisting of 63 commandos to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Chad, media reported on Thursday (April 9th). The defence ministry says the Albanian troops will be in charge of security at the UN headquarters in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena. The unit …

Tbilisi, Georgia – About 20,000 demonstrators Friday kept up the pressure on Georgia’s president to resign, with some pelting his residence with cabbages and carrots on a second day of protests. President Mikheil Saakashvili rejected their demands and called for talks. The crowd was smaller than on Thursday, a national …

CHISINAU, Moldova Moldova has “proof” of Romanian involvement in the riots this week against the Communist victory in legislative elections, President Vladimir Voronin said Friday. He said liberal opposition parties had held talks at the highest level with the Romanian embassy while Romanian “citizens and combat specialists” had taken part …

Moldova’s president on Friday ordered a recount of disputed elections won by the Communists that sparked bloody riots by their opponents and a diplomatic crisis with Romania. The Communists cemented their eight-year dominance of Moldovan politics in the weekend polls, gaining 60 of the 101 seats in the new parliament …

The US Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, has congratulated Bulgarian Foreign Minister Kalfin on Bulgaria’s stable economy and banking system. Kalfin completed his two-day visit to the USA with a meeting with Locke, thus becoming the first high-ranking foreign official that the US Secretary of Commerce has welcomed since assuming …

An arsenal of surveillance equipment – including bugging and tracking devices and night-vision telescopes for sniper operations – is being assembled by the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX. The EU rule of law mission has issued a 162-page tender for the high-tech tools, to be used in …

Serbian President Boris Tadic has emphatically condemned the theft of the Croatian flag from the country’s embassy in Belgrade. Tadic said he was in contact with all the necessary institutions “in order to arrest and punish the extremists and hooligans who did this”, according to the president’s press service. The …