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NATO has condemned as "totally unacceptable" attacks by demonstrators in Kosovo that left some 25 of its peacekeepers injured. Police and NATO troops clashed with Serb protesters in the north where there has been unrest over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors. Tear gas and stun grenades were used to deter protesters in Zvecan, after they tried to invade a government building. NATO soldiers also formed a security cordon around two other town halls... The NATO-led troops in Zvecan at first tried to separate protesters from the police, but later dispersed the crowd using shield and batons, AFP reported. Several...

(Video of the riot in the Kosovo region by the Serbian minority against Albanian rule the local police and US led KFOR troops getting beaten up)

NATO peacekeeping soldiers formed security cordons around three town halls in Kosovo on Monday as police clashed with Serb protesters, while Serbia's president put the army on the highest level of combat alert. The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo's Serb majority area after elections the Serbs boycotted. In Zvecan, one of the towns, Kosovo police - staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs quit the force last year - sprayed pepper gas to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke through a security barricade and tried to force their way into the municipality building,...

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called on Kosovo to tone down tensions with Serbia on Sunday, two days after clashes between Kosovan police and protesters who are opposed to Albanian mayors taking office in ethnic Serbian areas. Stoltenberg, the transatlantic military alliance's Norwegian secretary-general, said he had spoken to European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about Kosovo and that Pristina and Belgrade must engage in the EU-led dialog. "Pristina must de-escalate & not take unilateral, destabilizing steps," Stoltenberg said in a tweet. Serbs, who form the majority of the population in Kosovo's northern region, do not accept its 2008 declaration...

The most circulated newspaper in Europe killed a major corruption story to please Joe Biden. A new report details how editors at Bild, the outlet in question, canned an extensive investigative piece on Albanian PM Edi Rama because he and the US president are friends and political allies.Per The Washington Examiner, Albania has become a narco-state over the last decade under Rama, and Bild was getting ready to expose him further.So, who is Rama? He’s the far-left leader of Albania’s Socialist Party. Accusations against him range from drug trafficking to money laundering, to extortion and vote buying.A few days ago,...

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer issued a subpoena on Wednesday requiring the FBI to turn over an unclassified record that reportedly details allegations of a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.The subpoena comes after Republican Senator Chuck Grassley’s office was made aware of the FBI-generated whistleblower form. The FD-1023 form allegedly outlines a scheme involving the exchange of money for policy decisions.“It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose,” Grassley and Comer wrote in a letter to FBI...

Now that Republicans have narrow control of the House of Representatives, the GOP is investigating the Biden administration with gusto. Still, Republicans seem not to have noticed one major foreign policy scandal that's hiding in plain sight. As I recently reported , the rising scandal surrounding retired FBI senior official Charles McGonigal is perhaps the worst in the bureau’s history. Multiple sources have told me that McGonigal, while still serving with the FBI as head of counterintelligence in New York, shook down Balkan business people, most of them Albanian, in an audacious political corruption scheme worth many millions of dollars....

The FBI’s reputation problems have accelerated with the arrest on corruption charges of Charles McGonigal, the former chief of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office, one of the most powerful spy-hunters in the country - who also happened to be connected to Hunter Biden. In twin indictments last month, McGonigal was charged with taking secret cash payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer, holding secret meetings with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and attempting to remove top Kremlin oligarch Oleg Deripaska from a US sanctions list. The Albanians cited by prosecutors tie this scandal to Hunter Biden and...

The ancient Greek historian Strabo referred to the presence of an important shrine located on the west coast of the Peloponnese some 2,000 years ago. Remains of such an Archaic temple have now been uncovered at the Kleidi site near Samikon, which presumably once formed part of the sanctuary of Poseidon.Researchers of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in collaboration with colleagues from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Kiel University, and the Ephorate of Antiquities of Elis unearthed the remains of an early temple-like structure that was located within the Poseidon sanctuary site and was quite possibly dedicated to the deity himself....

The situation in Kosovo is "on the brink of armed conflicts", Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic said Wednesday, amid mounting tensions in former Belgrade province's volatile north. "We have to give our best, all of us together, to try to keep the peace. We are really on the brink of armed conflicts, thanks to unilateral moves from Pristina," Brnabic said during a meeting with Serbian NGOs. Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade still does not recognise it and encourages the territory's Serbs to defy Pristina's authority. Hundreds of ethnic Serbs, outraged over the arrest of an ex-police...

The United Nations General Assembly's first committee, which deals with disarmament, global challenges, and threats to peace that affect the international community, voted 152-5, on Friday, on a resolution concerning "the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East". The resolution states that Israel must dispose of all its nuclear weapons and place its nuclear sites under the International Atomic Energy Agency's purview. The resolution, which is submitted every year to the UNGA in New York, was submitted by Egypt and sponsored by the Palestinian Authority and 19 counties including Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates. Canada, Israel,...

Six men went on trial in Vienna on Tuesday over their alleged links to a sympathizer of the Islamic State group who carried out a deadly shooting in the Austrian capital in 2020. A verdict in the trial at the Vienna state court is expected in February at the earliest, public broadcaster ORF reported. Four people were killed in the attack on Nov. 2, 2020, and the gunman also died. More than 20 other people, including a police officer, were wounded. Assailant Kujtim Fejzulai, a dual national of Austria and North Macedonia, had a previous conviction for trying to join...

Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence at the FBI field office in New York City who was involved in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia during the 2016 election, has fallen under the scrutiny of a grand jury convened by U.S. attorneys late last year for his own ties with Russia and other foreign governments, reports Insider. The grand jury is reportedly investigating McGonigal’s business dealings with a top aide to Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire Russian oligarch who was at the center of allegations that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign, according to a recently obtained...

This week in history witnessed one of the most stalwart defenses against the Islamic spear-thrust into Europe—the Battle of Albulena in Albania, 1457. To appreciate the significance of this epic clash, one must first appreciate the leader of the Albanian forces, George Kastrioti, better known as Skanderbeg (“Lord Alexander”). Today, he is as little known in the West as he was once widely celebrated all throughout Europe. His life, which is featured in the new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, certainly validates the saying that “truth is stranger than fiction.” Born of Albanian...

Iranian embassy staff in the Albanian capital worked through the night after they were given 24 hours to leave the country over a major cyberattack that the Albanian government blames on Iran. It is the first known case of a country cutting diplomatic relations over a cyberattack. Movement inside the Iranian embassy in Tirana continued nonstop from Wednesday into Thursday. An empty barrel was seen taken into the compound and later a fire was started in it, apparently burning documents. A diplomatic car went in and out, while an Albanian police officer communicated with the embassy before two officers entered...

Albania is ranked as one of the least religious countries in the world, with only 30% of the population stating they consider religion to be important, according to Gallup. Yet, roughly 60% of the population state they belong to Sunni Islam, with only a 17% minority Christians. Such statistics seem to create a contrast between Albania today and the historical Albania. Centuries ago, Albania was one of the main battlegrounds between the Christian Europe and the armies of the Ottoman Empire. With a tiny population, rivalling feudal families and poor finances, the Albanians demonstrated some of the fiercest and most...

Tirana, Albania — It is the stuff of wild nightmares. Despite the passage of three decades, for Iranian dissidents residing in a sprawling Albanian compound — far from their homeland — the torture and trauma of life inside an Iranian regime prison is still raw. “I was a university student, almost seven months pregnant, when the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) came,” Kobra Jowkar, now 59, says softly. “They raided our home at midnight and were very ruthless.” That ruthlessness, she claims, included kicking her around like a soccer ball — and walking on her bulging belly. The worst would...

Bassania was an Illyrian city that came under Roman control during the Illyrian Wars. The location of Bassania has previously been suggested to be near the village of Pedhanë in the Lezhë County, or the village of Bushat in the Shkodër County. Bassania was described by the Roman historian Livius (59 BC – AD 17) in the context of the struggle of the Roman army with the last king of the Illyrians, Gentios.The site was first discovered in 2018, when researchers from the University of Warsaw identified cyclopean defensive walls and two stone structures previously thought to be natural rock...

Saturday, 27 July, 2002, 16:22 GMT 17:22 UK Ancient chess history unearthed The chess piece was found in the ancient city of Butrint A team of British archaeologists have unearthed evidence suggesting that Europeans were playing chess as early as the sixth century. An ivory chess piece, excavated at a Byzantine palace in what is now southern Albania, is more than 500 years older than any previously discovered. Leaders of the University of Anglia expedition said it proves the game has a much longer history in Europe than was previously thought. Until now chess historians had agreed that the game...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Western weaponry pouring into Ukraine helped blunt Russia’s initial offensive and seems certain to play a central role in the approaching, potentially decisive, battle for Ukraine’s contested Donbas region. Yet the Russian military is making little headway halting what has become a historic arms express. The U.S. numbers alone are mounting: more than 12,000 weapons designed to defeat armored vehicles, some 1,400 shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to shoot down aircraft and more than 50 million rounds of ammunition, among many other things. Dozens of other nations are adding to the totals. The Biden administration is preparing yet...