Christian Democratic Party

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace admitted to being "pretty blunt about [the troop withdrawal] publicly… a rare thing when it comes to United States decisions." True to his confession of a lack of diplomacy, he added: "I think the [peace] deal that was done in Doha was a rotten deal. It effectively told a Taliban that wasn't winning that they were winning."

In a major boost to the EU membership hopes of both Balkan countries, the German Bundestag on Thursday night voted to support the start of EU accession talks for North Macedonia and Albania.

The vote means the German government should be "in favour" of a start date for the two countries at the European Council meeting on October 17-18.

According to an article written today in the German newspaper Welt am Sontag, the German interior ministry wants to prevent migrants from reaching Europe’s Mediterranean coast by picking them up at sea and rerouting them to Africa.

Swiss voters approved a new surveillance law on Sept. 25, in a victory for the government which argued the security services needed enhanced powers in an increasingly volatile world. 

The year 2015 was an incredible year, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her speech at the two-day conference of the Christian Democratic Party, referring to the terrorist attacks in Paris, the Ukrainian crisis and the tragic plane crash involving the co-pilot of Germannwings.

The lawyers for two Albanian MPs, Tom Doshi and Mark Frroku, who were arrested on Thursday on charges of faking testimonies, have filed briefs with Albania's Supreme Court seeking their immediate release.

The lawyers said the arraignment orders signed by General Prosecutor Adriatik Llala were illegal and out of line with the criminal procedural code.

Eighty of Albania's 140 legislators on Thursday voted to back a request from the general prosecutor for the arrest of MPs Tom Doshi and Marku Frroku.

The opposition centre-right Democratic Party boycotted the vote, calling the prosecutor's probe against Doshi and Frroku a farce.

Albania's ruling centre-left coalition faces a battle to rally all its MPs on Thursday in parliament in order to pass plans for the country's administrative-territorial reform and amendments to the law for the organization of the High Council of Justice, HJC.

They require a qualified majority of 84 votes out 140 seats.

Confusion has erupted over whether the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK - the party that won most votes in the recent general election in Kosovo - should automatically have the right to form the new government even though it appears unable to claim a majority in parliament.