National security

Police were unable to arrest on Saturday two men that failed to stop their vehicle when asked to pull over in the eastern Athens neighborhood of Ilissia and then opened fire on officers who pursued them.

Police sources confirmed on Friday that CCTV cameras at the Bank of Greece and another lender in central Athens recorded parts of Thursday morning’s car bomb attack.

The footage shows a Nissan Sunny being parked outside the central bank headquarters and the driver emerging from the vehicle wearing a helmet.

OPATIJA - Outgoing interior minister Ivica Dacic stated in Opatija on Wednesday that police cooperation in the region is very good and that it even surpasses the cooperation between political bodies in certain countries, which is producing positive results in international police cooperation in the Balkans and South-East Europe.

Police spokesman arrested for endangering safety

BELGRADE -- Radomir Počuča, a spokesman for the PTJ police unit, and member of the SNP Naši ("Ours") organization Ivan Ivanović have been arrested.

They were brought in for questioning on Monday on the order of the Prosecution for High Technological Crime.

DIMITROVGRAD - In a joint operation by police forces from seven regional countries, named "Nisava 2014", a large amount of foreign currency was seized as well as a so-called ATM skimmer - a fraud device used for stealing customer bank card data, chief of Serbia's border police Nenad Banovic said on Monday in Dimitrovgrad.

Police found the drugs stashed in a van parked on secluded beach. It is believed that speed boats were to be used to traffic the drugs to Italy.

Media reports said police have arrested one suspect and issued warrants for five others.   

The drugs are believed to have originated in the notoriously lawless village of Lazarat, a no-go zone for police.

Moldova's citizens will soon be able to travel to the EU's border-free Schengen area without a visa, under a draft law approved by Parliament on Thursday.

At the end of March, police at Nigrita Prison, in northern Greece, reportedly beat to death Ilia Kareli, an Albanian inmate held in solitary confinement.

The autopsy revealed that he was extensively beaten on the soles of his feet and his chest, and had burns on his hands.

"Tabloidization of police" seen as present-day danger

BELGRADE -- Filip Švarm says that although the murder of a former Arkan bodyguard was reminiscent of the 1990s, "the danger now lies in the tabloidization of the police."

Bulgaria will cooperate with China in the prevention of and fight against crime, after a draft agreement between the two countries' governments has been approved, Wednesday.