Southern Europe

 Violent thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds left at least eight dead on Aug. 18 in France and Italy, uprooting trees in Tuscany and on the French island of Corsica and ripping away brick shards from St. Mark's famed bell tower in Venice. Over 100 boats in the Mediterranean Sea called for emergency help, authorities said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told a cabinet meeting on Monday that the Croatian government has extended by two weeks to November 14 the deadline for the completion of the population census because of difficulties caused by the pandemic.

Journalists' organisations in Croatia have voiced support for the axed staff of a regional daily after the management of Glas Istre dismissed three journalists who criticized its editorial policy.

The migrant-smuggling business in Western Balkan countries is worth at least 50 million euros a year, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime NGO said in a report published on Monday.

President Zoran Milanovic joined local officials in the town of Labin in Croatia's northern Istria region on Tuesday evening to mark the centenary of the miners' rebellion against the Italian fascist authorities.

The Philomena storm, which left Madrid paralyzed by snow last week, is sweeping across the Mediterranean, has already covered the eastern parts of the Balkans and continues via Serbia towards Greece and Turkey.
Due to Philomena, Madrid faced with the heaviest snowfall in decades, while the temperature dropped to a record -36 degrees.

The government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Tuesday said it remains "strongly committed" to implementing the name accord it signed with Greece in June, while pledging to avoid any interference in the country's internal affairs.

The phenomenon of Greek teenagers barricading themselves inside their schools on the pretext that they have various demands that are not being addressed by the authorities is being repeated this year.

The difference now, however, is that these protests appear to be becoming increasingly fraught with risk.

Vucic also thanked the Russian Federation and its president for the support they give to the territorial integrity of Serbia and its efforts to find a compromise solution for Kosovo and Metohija.

Two Greeks have reportedly been arrested in Albania for the possession of clothes sporting paramilitary symbols and slogans that fuel hate, according to Albanian news portal Faxweb.

The news comes a few hours before the funeral of 35-year-old Konstantinos Katsifas in the village of Bularat in southern Albania, who was shot dead by Albanian police last week.