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Romanian organised crime prosecutors say that more than 70 Roma children from the east of the country were trained to pick pockets and then sent to Paris to steal and beg.

Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation from President Rumen Radev to visit Bulgaria in 2018 to mark the 140th anniversary of the end of the Russo-Turkish war.

After efforts in 2016 to curb widespread cannabis cultivation in Albania were unsuccessful, police have deployed helicopters as part of a new national effort to end the growing of illegal crops.

A Swiss court found Donatello Poggi, a local politician in the canton of Ticino, guilty of racial discrimination because he wrote that the 1995 genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica was a lie, media reported.

By the end of this year, Romania is set to become the largest economy in the Balkans - but experts warn that if political instability continues, it will struggle to maintain the current momentum.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party, successor to the former ruling Communist Party, is seeking to regain control of the huge, bizarre-looking monument to Socialism at Mount Buzludzha, which has been abandoned to decay for over three decades.

Macedonia's Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, on Tuesday heads to Bulgaria on a mission to warm up strained relations - and seek Bulgaria's aid in Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic intregration bids.

Kosovo's president has established himself as a shrewd tactician able to outmanoeuvre his opponents – but who still remains haunted by his past.

President Klaus Iohannis said Romanian foreign policy would remain stable despite the current government crisis, after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Just weeks after winning nationwide presidential polls, new President Aleksandar Vucic already appears to be preparing his campaign for the all-important municipal elections in the Serbian capital.

Russian heavy metal band Kipelov, well known for its ardent Russian nationalism, has come up with a song about Serbia's 'tragedy' in Kosovo.

More protesters are due to rally in Sarajevo on Wednesday, joining hundreds of angry war veterans who are demanding higher pensions, and stoking fears of deepening social unrest.

Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina suffer from poverty, discrimination and social exclusion from childhood onwards, and campaigners say that ensuring them a good education is the best way to change their fortunes.

After a month of twists and turns, the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, entered a coalition government with former opponents – a novelty in Croatian politics.

New Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will be inaugurated at a ceremony in Belgrade which will feature performances, multimedia displays, soldiers and thousands of guests, media reported.

After right-wingers protested against a documentary about Kosovo, director Aleksandar Reljic said it showed that it remains a controversial topic - even though his film aims to promote dialogue and undermine stereotypes.

As the retrial of former security chiefs Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic began in The Hague, prosecutors said they were “key participants” in a joint criminal enterprise to dominate parts of Croatia and Bosnia.

On a visit to Ankara, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov pledged to normalise the troubled relations between the EU and Turkey during the country’s EU presidency in 2018.

Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic has asked the Hague Tribunal to install Skype so he can communicate with his family while he is in the UN court’s detention unit.

If the grand coalition led by former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters fails to form a new government, President Hashim Thaci must decide whether to award a mandate to the opposition or push for new polls.