NYON, Switzerland (AP) — The Women's Champions League groups that will mostly be played when men's top-tier club soccer in Europe is shut down for its World Cup were drawn Monday.
Women's soccer aims to build on the successful European Championship in July, and the elite club competition has been scheduled with the decisive final three group-stage rounds in December that avoid fixture clashes with knockout games in Qatar.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s Interior Ministry said Saturday that one of its border systems was hit by a cyberattack that came from the same Iranian source as an earlier attack that led the country to break diplomatic relations with Iran.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian special forces police forced the door of the Iranian Embassy in Tirana on Thursday and officers surrounded the compound in which it stands, shortly after the last staff members left the building following the government's order to expel them.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled the country's embassy staff over a major cyberattack nearly two months ago that was allegedly carried out by Tehran on Albanian government websites, the prime minister said Wednesday.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Anticipating a tough winter in light of the war in Ukraine, three Balkan states agreed Friday to help each other with potential food or energy shortages and have urged the European Union to include the volatile region in its support plans.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An Albanian court on Wednesday ordered two Russians and a Ukrainian to remain in custody while authorities conduct an espionage investigation into the suspects' activities at a former military weapons manufacturing plant.
DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AP) — A pair of U.S. Air Force B52 strategic bombers on Monday flew low over the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik and three other NATO-member states in the region as a sign of support amid the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The Western Balkans are an integral part of the European Union and Spain fully backs the region's integration into the 27-member bloc, Spain's prime minister said Monday.
Pedro Sanchez was in Albania's capital Tirana Monday in the first-ever trip by a Spanish prime minister to the country.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has offered North Macedonia his country’s full support for integration into the 27-nation European Union.
Sanchez held talks Sunday with North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski in the capital of Skopje, ahead of the last stop on his Western Balkan tour, visiting Albania on Monday.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Spain's prime minister on Friday kicked off a tour of the Western Balkans with a visit to Serbia, offering his country's support for the integration of the volatile region into the European Union.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s former President Ilir Meta on Monday took over the leadership of his old political party and pledged to fight government corruption through referendums.
Meta, 53, who was replaced Sunday by new President Bajram Begaj, was elected Monday as leader of a committee that would re-organize his old left-wing Socialist Movement for Integration party, or LSI, into a re-named the Party of Freedom.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s new president was sworn in on Sunday and urged the nation's political parties to cooperate on the country's future and consolidate the rule of law.
President Bajram Begaj, 55, who won after getting 78 votes in the 140-seat Parliament, formally took office at a ceremony in parliament.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Iranian dissidents in Albania on Friday said they had canceled a summit following warnings from local authorities of a possible terrorist threat.
Some 3,000 Iranian dissidents from the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, best known as MEK, live at Ashraf 3 camp in Manez, 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Albania’s capital, Tirana.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said Friday that the United Kingdom has barred him from entering the country, citing his involvement with organized crime and corruption.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union started membership negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia on Tuesday, a long-delayed step in the Balkan nations' paths toward EU membership that gained momentum amid the war in Ukraine.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — North Macedonia has approved a French proposal that opens the way for negotiations to join the European Union and overcome Bulgarian objections.
There were 68 votes in favor of the proposal in the 120-member chamber, with the leftist coalition, which has 61 seats, getting the backing of small ethnic Albanian parties.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — European Union and U.S. leaders are urging North Macedonia’s parliament to accept a French proposal that will move the tiny Balkan country closer toward EU membership and overcome objections by Bulgaria.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters held a peaceful protest in the capital Tirana Thursday, urging the center-left government to resign because of the cost-of-living crisis and alleged corruption.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria’s parliament voted Friday to lift a veto that has long blocked European Union membership negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, raising fresh hopes that the bloc can now press on with its expansion plans in the Western Balkans amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Leaders from the Western Balkans expressed frustration Thursday that they are still waiting in the European Union’s wings even as candidacy bids by Ukraine and Moldova were swiftly embraced by EU leaders.
MANZA, Albania (AP) — Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday denounced the Iranian regime for “brutality” and urged the Biden administration not to renew a nuclear deal with Tehran, saying it would embolden Iran's leadership.
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s central government and authorities in the capital joined forces on Monday to bring back home an international music festival founded by the father of singer-songwriter Dua Lipa which had been moved following a dispute with its organizers.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — European Council President Charles Michel visited North Macedonia on Thursday and said efforts to start European Union membership talks with the landlocked Balkan country and neighboring Albania have become a “top priority” since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An international music festival founded by the father of singer-songwriter Dua Lipa to promote his native Kosovo has led to recriminations for the small European country after it lost the event to neighboring Albania.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian officials on Monday declared the Vjosa River and its tributaries a future national park, a move aimed at preserving what they called one of the last wild rivers in Europe.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited North Macedonia and Bulgaria on Saturday in a bid to resolve the dispute between both countries that has seen European Union membership talks with both North Macedonia and Albania blocked.
PERMET, Albania (AP) — Albania’s parliament on Saturday elected a top military official as the country’s new president after no candidates were nominated in three rounds of voting.
Gen.-Maj. Bajram Begaj won the post after the 140-seat Parliament voted 78 in favor, four against and one abstained.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A group of people evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban returned to power last year held a protest Wednesday in Albania over the failure to expedite their move to the United States.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An official funeral ceremony was held Thursday for former Albanian President Bujar Nishani, who died as a result of an undisclosed, long-running illness at the age of 55.
Thousands of people, including the president, parliament speaker, government ministers and politicians, paid their respects to Nishani at the presidential office in the capital, Tirana.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Former Albanian President Bujar Nishani, who was often criticized for his center-right political affiliation from the leftist coalition, died following a serious health problem, the country’s presidential office said Saturday.