By Patrick Worsnip, Reuters Britain lobbied U.N. officials on Thursday with a proposal for the world body to lead a comprehensive “campaign plan” for peace in Afghanistan, where NATO-led troops are struggling against Taliban insurgents. Defense Secretary Des Browne said the United Nations was best placed to coordinate a peace-building …

AFP – A rowdy protest of about 200 people, half of them women wearing burqas, demanded that parliament reinstate a female MP suspended for comparing her colleagues to animals. The demonstrators marched in the eastern town of Jalalabad to the offices of the United Nations where they were to hand …

BUCHAREST, Romania — President Traian Basescu invited all parties in Parliament and groups representing minorities to begin discussing issues of national interest on Thursday (May 24th). He said a meeting will be held on Monday to discuss changing elections-related legislation and introducing a majority voting system, amending the constitution and …

BRUSSELS, Belgium — EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn met with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha in Brussels on Thursday (May 24th) and said that the various political parties must find a presidential candidate all can support, while working together on electoral reform. Berisha agreed, saying, “It is possible to choose …

ANKARA, Turkey — Speaking to reporters Thursday (May 24th), Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed government support for the military if it decides to launch a cross-border operation against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Erdogan said he is confident that Parliament would back it as well, …

Albanian bloggers are divided over the state of affairs in Albania. Many claim that the campaign for the return of the diaspora is not doing much, while others think corruption is a real obstacle to investment and the return of Albanian emigrants. Clearly, the mixed reviews show a country in …

During the Southeastern Europe Co-operation Process (SEECP) meeting in Zagreb earlier this month, regional foreign ministers tapped Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Hido Biscevic as the first secretary-general of the new Regional Co-operation Council (RCC) that will be based in Sarajevo.

Corruption is undermining judicial systems around the world, Transparency International (TI) warned in a new report issued on Thursday (May 24th). As a result, citizens are denied access to justice and the basic human right to a fair and impartial trial, sometimes even to a trial at all.

Maliki nominates 6 new ministers BAGHDAD  (AFP) —  Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri  Al Maliki on Thursday nominated ministers for six Cabinet seats that  loyalists of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr vacated six weeks  ago. The move is widely viewed as a way of recasting the national government along more …

ANKARA — The suicide bomber behind a deadly attack here was a former far-left militant believed to have joined the Kurdish separatist movement fighting a violent 22-year campaign, newspapers said on Thursday.