Gauri van Gulik

The tension accumulated over the past months in Idomeni erupted into violence on Sunday, when FYROM authorities responded to refugees protesting at Greek-FYROM border with tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets.

Greece's parliament on Dec. 23 approved a bill granting same-sex couples the right to a civil union, becoming one of the last European countries to give them legal recognition after years of opposition from the influential Orthodox church.

Refugees seeking to enter Western Europe are routinely subjected to unlawful push-backs and ill-treatment by police on the Macedonian border with Greece and on the Serbian border with Macedonia, a new report by Amnesty International says.

Amnesty International on July 7 accused Balkan countries of mistreating migrants passing through their territories on the way to the European Union, saying people fleeing war were being "shamefully let down".

French lawmakers are set to approve a new law May 5 granting the state sweeping powers to spy on its citizens despite criticism from rights groups that the bill is vague and intrusive.

Rights group Amnesty International said in a new report published on Wednesday that three years after the forced eviction of more than 200 Roma families from the Belville settlement in Belgrade, the city authorities have failed to use 3.6 million euro in European Commission funds to adequately rehouse them.