Politicians

Police inspect the scene where a politician was murdered and four people injured in Elbasan on March 21. Photo: LSA

Russia said it will begin pulling thousands of troops back from areas near the Ukrainian border starting Friday, in a step that could calm tensions with the West that have surged in recent weeks.

The military units will return to their bases by May 1, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday in Crimea, where he's on a visit to review maneuvers.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday (21 April) that the European Union needs more power to coordinate the bloc's response to health crises like the coronavirus pandemic, and did not rule out a treaty change to secure them.

Serbia's President, Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, will meet EU officials in Brussels next week, but will not meet each other, it has been confirmed.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday (20 April) invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to meet in war-torn eastern Ukraine, stressing that millions of lives were at stake from fresh fighting in the separatist conflict.

Edi Rama will try hard to be re-elected

Romania remains the main partner of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, in this sense being also the consistent support offered for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Klaus Iohannis said at the meeting he had on Tuesday, at the Cotroceni Palace, with the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu.

The leadership of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has backed its head Armin Laschet as the conservative bloc's candidate for chancellor in the upcoming German federal elections, dpa reported.

Armin Laschet, leader of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU), won the backing of senior party members at an internal meeting to run as the conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel at a September federal election, party sources said on April 20.

Ljubljana – The business newspaper Finance believes the tax reform drafted by the Finance Ministry is far from ambitious, even though it says in its commentary on Monday that any reform is better than none.

The proposal has not left the ministry yet and it might not be adopted in its current form or at all, the paper says under the headline Tax Reform – Better Some than None?