Eastern Bloc

Some of the files of Albania's once-feared Communist secret police, the Sigurimi, may have been destroyed or falsified, 25 years on from the fall of the Communist regime, a German expert told BIRN.

Russia plans the creation of a Ministry of State Security (MGB) in a large-scale institutional restructuring, sources quoted by daily Kommersant have suggested.

The number of Americans visiting Cuba surged 93 percent year-on-year in the first four months of 2016, the Cuban government said May 4.

The communist island is basking in its newfound glow as a trendy tourist destination since Washington and Havana announced a historic rapprochement in December 2014.

The second part of Bekim Fehmiu's memoirs, "Brilliant and Terrifying," published in Albanian by Samizdat B92, has been presented in Pristina and Prizren.

The National Theater in Pristina hosted a promotion of the second part of the "Brilliant and Horrible" memoir of famous Yugoslav actor Bekim Fehmiu.

After the original publication in 2013, the Samizdat publisher translated and printed the book in Albanian, Fehmiu's mother tongue.

US President Barack Obama told Cubans on March 22 he wants to "bury" decades of Cold War conflict and then joined his counterpart Raul Castro for some baseball diplomacy to wrap up his historic visit to the communist island.

U.S. President Barack Obama pushed Cuba to improve human rights during his historic visit to the Communist-led island on March 21, publicly sparring with President Raul Castro who showed flashes of anger and hit back at U.S. "double standards," while also setting aside differences in pursuit of a "new day," as Obama called it.  

Cuba's President Raul Castro began an official state visit to France on Feb. 1, his first ever to Europe, which is being seen as a key step in rebuilding his island nation's ties with the West.

The Cuban leader was welcomed under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris before being driven down a virtually deserted Champs-Elysees avenue, decked out in Cuban flags.

The biggest opposition party of Bulgaria submitted a bill that would change the procedure of disclosing affiliation of Bulgarian citizens to the Soviet-era security services and the military intelligence.

The central station of the Ministry of State Security of East Germany (Stasi) will be transformed into a historical site with museums, exhibitions and archives, DPA news agency has announced.