Telephone tapping

After an uneasy standoff on Wednesday and overnight Thursday at the premises of Macedonia's secret police, UBK - whose officials prevented the Special Prosecution, SJO, from gaining access to possible evidence of police wiretapping - the Interior Minister said the problem had been resolved.

Albania's parliament on Thursday approved the request of 35 opposition MPs to create a commission of inquiry into the mysterious electronic device "IMSI Catcher", which some claim has been used to illegally intercept communications.

Prosecutor Maria-Sofia Vaitsi on Thursday proposed that an American citizen, William Basil, be indicted to trial on spying charges in connection with a wiretapping system set up to eavesdrop on top Greek government officials during and after the Athens 2004 Olympics.

Basil, an American agent, left Greece after the wiretaps were discovered in 2006 and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Swiss voters approved a new surveillance law on Sept. 25, in a victory for the government which argued the security services needed enhanced powers in an increasingly volatile world. 

Global media magnate Rupert Murdoch's son James will return as chairman of British broadcaster Sky, the company said on Jan. 29, nearly four years after he was forced to leave over a phone hacking scandal.

The Sofia City Court on Friday handed a one-year suspended sentence to Vladimira Yaneva, the court's former chair.

Bozo Petrov, head of MOST, the party that emerged as a kingmaker from the general election, on Thursday declined to take part in a TV duel with Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic over claims that he has been under police surveillance.

Serbian parliament rejects proposal for inquiry committee on wiretapping

Serbia's MPs refused the proposal of the opposition to put on the agenda the decision to set up an inquiry committee on the wiretapping scandal.

After the website Teleprompter published what appears to be a transcribed conversation of Bojan Pajtic, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, on Friday he urged parliament to investigate who was behind the wiretapping.

The US National Security Agency has used a unique, decades-old partnership with AT&T to snoop on Internet usage, according to newly disclosed documents leaked by Edward Snowden.