World News

Croatia is facing political turmoil, after Prime Minister Ivo Sanader suddenly resigned, citing personal reasons.

The European Union and dozens of countries have pledged to speed up social support for Holocaust survivors and the search for art and other items that were stolen during World War II by the Nazis. At a meeting in Prague, they agreed to establish a special European institute to deal with these issues and education.

The people of Albania were going to the polls Sunday, June 28, in parliamentary elections, seen as a key test for the Balkan country’s ambition to join the European Union. Albania’s incumbent Prime Minister Sali Berisha faces a tough fight in the national elections.

Michael Jackson, who became known as ‘the king of pop’, has died of cardiac arrest at the age of 50.

(ADDS DETAINED ACTIVISTS, CHANGING LEAD)

At least 10 reformists were detained before dawn Sunday, June 14, hours after Iranian officials said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a landslide victory, the Voice of America (VOA) network reported.

In a potential setback for Christians seeking religious freedom, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “re-elected”, officials said, but his main rival called the declared victory “treason to the votes of the people.”

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has lost the presidential election, his challenger said, a development that was expected to be welcomed by Christians seeking more religious rights and the United States, where President Barack Obama seeks new relations with the strict Islamic nation.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington was closed Thursday, June 11, after an elderly man known for his anti-Semitic views stormed the building and killed a guard, officials said.

Hungary’s main far-right party, accused by rights groups of spreading anti-Semitic views and hatred towards the country’s up to 800,000 Gypsies, known as Roma, has received three seats in the European Parliament, official results showed.

Lawyer Krisztina Morvai is a beautiful blond mother who smiles on campaign posters of the far-right party, the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik). However the red, lipstick smile, of Jobbik’s primary candidate for the European Union Parliament soon disappears when asked about her views on Hungary’s estimated 800.000 gypsies, who prefer to be known as the Roma, and Jewish people.

The European Union’s budget commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite has won Lithuania’s presidential election getting roughly 69 percent of the vote according to official results.

The current European Union president, the Czech Republic, is under pressure to overcome failed talks with key former Soviet states on an energy deal. Negotiations on reducing Europe’s dependency on Russian natural gas are one of several key challenges facing the Czech Republic’s new government.

The latest annual report by the independent United States Commission on International Religious Freedom names 13 countries as serious violators of religious freedom, Worthy News monitored Saturday, May 2, with reporting by the Voice of America network (VOA).

Facing student-led demonstrations, the Moldova’s ruling Communists has agreed to recount parliamentary election returns that gave the victory in Sunday’s vote to the Communist Party.

The man who has won Macedonia’s presidential elections has pledged to solve a dispute with Greece over his country’s name, which has delayed its entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi canceled a trip to Russia and declared a state of emergency after a powerful early morning earthquake in central Italy killed scores of people and left many more injured and tens of thousands of Italians homeless.

At least 25,000 protesters, many of them waving flags used by Hungary’s pro-Nazi regime during World War Two, demanded early elections Sunday, April 5, after the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party agreed on a new candidate for prime minister to tackle the worst economic crisis in generations.

The people of Macedonia voted Sunday, April 5, in the final round of presidential and local elections that are seen as key for the country’s efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. A right-leaning candidate was expected to win.

The United States and the European Union strongly condemned Sunday, April 5, North Korea’s launch of a long range rocket that could potentially reach Alaska, which Pyongyang claimed was used for a satellite.

Czechs were bracing for possible riots Saturday, April 4, as activists opposed to U.S. plans to install part of a missile defense system in their country said they would go ahead with a protest march during President Barack Obama’s visit to Prague this weekend, despite a ban on the demonstration.