RIGHTS: Roma Are Scapegoats During Downturn

On International Roma Day, Wednesday, human rights groups voiced their concern for the discrimination and violence against Roma in European countries.

BALKANS: Cluster Bombs Threaten Thousands

An estimated 160,000 people in Serbia are still in danger from thousands of unexploded cluster bombs, ten years after the NATO bombing campaign. The danger is gravest in the south, close to the border with Kosovo.

EUROPE: Communist Ideology, as bad as Nazism?

A declaration which equates communism to Nazism and condemns communist ideology as "directly responsible for crimes against humanity" has been debated in the European Parliament on the initiative of the Czech Presidency of the European Union.

ROMANIA: Pushed by Crisis Into Dubious Borrowing

The Romanian government is borrowing close to 20 billion euros from international financial institutions in order to stem the effects of the global financial crisis. But few in the country seem to know precisely how the money will be used and whether it will have a more positive than constricting effect.

MOLDOVA: New Look Communists Offer Stability

Moldavians are heading for general elections this Sunday. After a campaign marred with illegalities, the incumbent Communist Party is confident of winning most seats in the national parliament.

EUROPE: Financial Crisis Takes Political Toll

The weak governments in Hungary and the Czech Republic have fallen, raising questions on the future of liberal economic reform and the influence of the U.S., the European Union and Russia in the region.

UKRAINE: Struggling to Find a Saviour

Who will save Ukraine? On the verge of state bankruptcy, the country is considering its options both East and West.

KOSOVO: Parallel Serb Administration Challenged

An Albanian group has filed a lawsuit against parallel structures set up to administer ethnic Serbs within Kosovo.

EUROPE: Cold Breeze Sweeps the East

The region that liked to see itself as the engine of European economic growth and as immune to the global economic crisis is now being pointed to as the next to hit the slump.

BALKANS: Fallout of Bombing 'Continues to Kill'

Ten years after the NATO bombing of Serbia, concern is rising over a rise in the number of reported cases of cancer.

BALKANS: Images Bring the Wars Back

The guns have been silent in the Balkans for more than ten years now, but their images and echoes continue to torment thousands, the first study on health among war veterans in Serbia shows.

RUSSIA: In a New Gas War with Ukraine

The Ukraine-Russia gas dispute has boosted plans for construction of the South Stream and North Stream gas pipelines that would eventually divert Russian gas supplies through the Black Sea and the Baltic seabed respectively to European consumers.

ENVIRONMENT: Bulgaria Going Down a Slippery Slope

The World Ski Cup for women last weekend was organised in Bulgaria at a ski resort whose development is partially illegal, and which is damaging a world heritage site.

KOSOVO: In Mitrovica, Ten Minutes Is a Long Drive

It was a bus ride from one part of the city to another. Or was it.

Q&A: Truth Brings Reconciliation

The guns have been silent for 10 years across what was Yugoslavia, but more than 130,000 violent deaths still cast a long shadow on the region.

KOSOVO: Unsteady on its First Birthday

Young people took to the streets of Pristina well before midnight brought in the 17th of February and the first anniversary of Kosovo's declaration of independence. They yelled and danced, waving the Albanian and occasionally the U.S. flags.

RUSSIA: Looking for a Handshake with Obama

Russian leaders are looking for new opportunities for improved relations with the U.S. under President Barack Obama, after a period of increasing tensions between the two countries.

BALKANS: Serbs Don’t Squeal

It would appear at first sight that Ratko Mladic, indicted for war crimes, has little to worry about. A survey shows that two-thirds of Serbs would not tip off the police about him, despite the million euros reward offered by the state.

ENVIRONMENT-EUROPE: No Money on the Table Yet

Figures indicating how much the European Union should give to poor countries affected by climate change have been removed at the last minute from a new environmental blueprint published in Brussels Jan. 28.

ICELAND: People Power Produces Unexpected Muscle

The government has fallen in Iceland in the wake of an unprecedented season of protests.

BULGARIA: Protests Rise Above Parties, and Against Them

Protests have been taking place in Bulgarian capital Sofia almost every day since Jan. 14. Bringing together students and parents, farmers and environmentalists, the actions are directed against a political class which, in the words of the organisers, has "robbed" Bulgarians.