World News

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.

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.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization named Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as its new secretary general Saturday, April 4, after Turkey lifted its objections to the choice.

Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic claimed victory in the Balkan country’s general election Monday, March 30, and pledged to speed up its entry into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurscany said Saturday, March 21, he is resigning because of his government’s plunging popularity as it struggles to overcome Hungary’s worst economic crisis in recent memory.

An Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her was sentenced on Thursday, March 18, to life in prison, which he will serve mainly in a psychiatric facility.

An Austrian man who fathered seven children with a daughter he held captive in a cellar for more than two decades has pleaded guilty to rape and incest, but denies murdering a newborn son. Josef Fritzl spoke Monday, March 16, at the start of what has been dubbed Austria’s trial of the century.

Russia said Sunday, March 15, it will send a permanent observer to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, amid mounting concerns among producers about falling oil prices.