Marija

The countdown is under way to unveil the 2024 class of the European Young Leaders (EYL40). Motivated by the urgent need to tackle the increasing disconnect between citizens and policymakers, and to rebuild the trust that is vital to democracies, Friends of Europe launched the EYL40 leadership programme in 2012. The EYL40 Class of 2024 will be unveiled on 22 January.

"I want to donate money, I need [your] ID," is the Facebook message that changed Marija's life. It was a message that has brought her a lot of anxiety and a large debt, all from a few quick loans and the shame that she let it happen to her at all. Because of that shame, she spoke to BIRN on condition that we not use her real name and refer to her only as Marija.

25 soldiers from NATO's multinational force in Kosovo - KFOR have been injured during clashes with Serbs in the northern part of the country.

The condition of three of them is serious. The servicemen were injured by explosive devices. Among the injured are 11 Italians.

The Slovenian Bishops' Conference (SŠK) will get its first ever woman secretary-general as sister Marija Šimenc takes over from Tadej Strehovec on 17 April. She will be the highest-raking woman in the Slovenian Roman Catholic Church.

The 17th the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for Sport, hosted by Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu, has started in the southern province of Antalya as of Oct. 25 and will continue till Oct. 27.

Branka Vierda of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights praised this week's decision by a Zagreb City Assembly commission to add the names of the Zec family, who were murdered in 1991, to a register of names of people who could be memorialised by having a street or public area in the Croatian capital named after them.

In the coming days in Belgrade, three girls who claim to have been the victims of sexual harassment as former students of the Petnica research station will give statements to the police.

Domžale – The 15th Mountain Film Festival starts on Monday in Domžale near Ljubljana, featuring 33 films from 19 countries in four categories: mountaineering, climbing, mountain nature and culture, and sports and adventure. The festival, concluding on Sunday, will bring a plethora of productions on wild animals and epic stories from the Himalayas.

Forty years ago tomorrow, on 28 January 1981, the first ever binding international treaty addressing the need to protect personal data was opened for signature in Strasbourg: the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, also known as "Convention 108".

The Anti-Fascist League of Croatia held a memorial event on Monday evening for the three murdered members of the Zec family on Sljeme Hill above Zagreb, where they were killed by Croatian reservist policemen during the war in December 1991 - a crime that remains unpunished.

On the 29th anniversary of their deaths, activists laid flowers and lit candles near the site of the killings.