Albania

Balkan nations contribute to anti-ISIL coalition

The biggest company in Albania, Canadian-based Bankers Petroleum, registered its highest ever crude oil production in Albanian oilfields during 2014, earning $583 million, 3 per cent more than in 2013.

Oil production averaged 20,690 barrels per day, 14 per cent more than in 2013, the company said in a press release.

Several thousand supporters of Albania's opposition centre-right Democratic Party showed their strength in Tirana on Thursday at a rally demanding the resignation of the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

Tom Doshi, a former Socialist Party MP, has caused ructions by claiming that Meta paid an assassin to have him and one other MP killed.

Top officials from Macedonia's ruling VMRO-DPMNE party did every unlawful activity they could think of in order to win the local election in 2013 in the municipality of Centar in Skopje, the mayor of the municipality, Andrej Zernovski, claimed on Thursday.

By Fiachra Gibbons

There are tears in their eyes and the last hugs are achingly long. No one wants to let another smart young person leave Greece for Germany.

GENEVE - The Serbian national football team has dropped by one position to 40th in the latest FIFA world rankings.

With 709 points, Serbia is ahead of Nigeria (701), Iran (692) and Sweden (663), and behind Scotland (727), Cape Verde (762) and Wales (763).

Supporters of Albania's opposition centre-right Democrats plan to gather on Thursday in front of the government office in Tirana amid allegations of a murder plot involving the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

   School in Tirana. Photo: LSA/Malton Dibra

Government plans to change the law on public education and transfer the power to employ teachers from school boards to school directors has alarmed civil society groups.

They call it a step back towards politically motivated appointments of teachers.

Environmental organisations in Montenegro have announced a protest rally on Tuesday in the coastal town of Budva against the government's decision to allow the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the Adriatic Sea.

They say the Montenegrin government has not produced a convincing argument that drilling is either necessary or desirable. 

The Voltaj band will represent Romania in the 2015 Eurovision contest with the song 'De la capat' (Over Again), after winning the national selection on Sunday night in Craiova (west of Bucharest).

Photo credit: (c) Ilie BUMBAC / AGERPRES FLOW

Voltaj got 24 points, with the specialized jury and public vote weighing 50 percent each.