IT may seem far-fetched to suggest that it is only a matter of time before refugees who have thrown themselves on the tender mercies of people traffickers arrive on our shores but the fact that two British men have been remanded in custody charged with immigration offences after 18 Albanians were rescued from a sinking boat in the English Channel suggests otherwise.

Latest: Two British men have been remanded in custody charged with immigration offences after 18 Albanians were rescued from a sinking boat in the English Channel.

Albania claim their players were assaulted by fans, stewards and police in Belgrade at the now-infamous Euro 2016 qualifier against Serbia which was abandoned after the violent scenes.

The Irish Innocence Project have expressed concern at further delays in the appeal court hearing of a man sentenced to 18 years in prison in Greece for robberies he could not have committed because he was in Ireland at the time.

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama has rejected a request from the United States for the tiny impoverished Balkan nation to host the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

In Iceland, they’re suddenly attempting to play down expectations.

EU countries will agree this week to make Serbia a candidate to join the bloc after it resolved some long standing differences with its former province of Kosovo last week.

About 200,000 people gathered in Macedonia’s capital Skopje to attend celebrations for the Balkan country’s 20th anniversary of independence.

The attacker who killed two British-based US airmen and wounded two others at Frankfurt airport appears to have been motivated by Islamic extremism, say German prosecutors.

Albania’s political crisis escalated as the government and its opposition traded blame for the deaths of three protesters during a violent demonstration against an administration accused of deeply-rooted corruption.

Prime minister Hashim Thaci has claimed victory in Kosovo’s first general election since the province declared independence from Serbia as an independent exit poll showed his Democratic Party of Kosovo ahead of its rivals.

A French Gendarme was shot and wounded early today during clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo’s ethnically divided city of Mitrovica as European Union police fired tear gas to disperse the violent crowd, a European Union official said.

FOUR Albanian nationals were charged over the weekend following a major garda investigation into organised crime across the south and south-east of the country.

Ten Albanians suspected of running a massive burglary and organised crime ring in Munster and south Leinster were arrested today.

Riot police in Kosovo used tear gas and pepper spray today to separate hundreds of ethnic Albanian protesters from rock-throwing Serbs voting in local Serbian elections in the tense, divided town of Mitrovica.

Serbia’s foreign minister has said that the upcoming ruling by the International Court of Justice on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence will create “an unprecedented opportunity” for compromise between rival Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

A mass grave has been discovered in Serbia, apparently containing the bodies of Kosovo Albanians, officials said today.

Investigative judges today ordered that nine former Serb paramilitary fighters be held in jail in connection with the killing of some 40 civilians during Kosovo's war.

Kosovo’s first election since independence from Serbia has ended peacefully, with some minority Serbs ignoring a call to boycott and casting ballots alongside ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo’s prime minister urged minority Serbs not to boycott the country’s first elections since independence from Serbia, calling the vote today a key test for his new nation.

Albania wants the remains of Nobel Peace laureate Mother Teresa and the only post-independence monarch to be returned to the country, the prime minister said.

Sligo Rovers 1 KS Vllaznia 2

ALBANIANS have voted in a general election that is seen as crucial for the country’s European Union aspirations, with surveys showing the two main rivals neck and neck.

ALBANIANS have voted in a general election that is seen as crucial for the country’s European Union aspirations, with surveys showing the two main rivals neck and neck.

THE rotor blades whirred, the down-draught bending vegetation as the helicopter airlifted a wounded soldier to safety.

UN judges yesterday acquitted former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic of ordering a deadly campaign of terror against Kosovo Albanians, and ordered him released from custody.

A peaceful repeat vote at dozens of polling stations in Macedonia confirmed today the ruling coalition's landslide victory in parliamentary elections that had initially been marred by violence.

MACEDONIA’S parliamentary election was marred by violence in Albanian areas and suspected fraud yesterday, with one person shot dead and nine wounded, and voting halted in one town after a gun battle.

A Croatian prostitute who was raped by a Waterford businessman has claimed that she has been approached by two Albanian men in her home country who offered her money to withdraw her evidence.

UN forces were attacked as they forced Serb demonstrators from an occupied court today sparking a running battle as they faced rocks, grenades and bullets.

TO a sea of Albanian and American flags, Prime Minister Hasim Thaci called the republic of Kosovo into being last Sunday week, setting off a diplomatic firestorm, raising Russian- backed Serbian ire and sparking fears that minority ethnic groups from Spain to China would have a new basis for resistance.

Kosovo marked its first full week of independence with prayers and protests today as outraged Serbs geared up for demonstrations across Europe.

THE reaction of our newspapers to the declaration of independence by Kosovo has been almost uniformly positive. The attitude seems to be that as a small nation, we should welcome the emergence of this new ‘state’.

Nato troops closed roads between Serbia and northern Kosovo and armed UN police guarded wrecked border checkpoints today preparing for more protests by Serbs incensed by the country’s declaration of independence.

Thousands of Serbs destroyed two border checkpoints in Kosovo today during protests over the country’s newly-declared independence.

Angry Serbs set off explosions in northern Kosovo today protesting at the newborn republic’s independence.

YESTERDAY, Pristina awoke to a city-wide hangover after its delirious denizens marked independence with an all-night city-wide party.

Thousands of Kosovo Serbs took to the streets in protest today over their ethnic Albanian leadership’s declaration of the province’s independence from Serbia.

Kosovo’s leaders sent out 192 letters to the world’s nations today asking for formal recognition of its independence.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern will attend a meeting of EU Foreign Minister today following Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo took to the streets to celebrate the declaration of independence from Serbia expected to come this weekend.

Serbians were voting today in a run off presidential election that may bring an ally of late hardline President Slobodan Milosevic back to power, before a potentially explosive split by the Serbian province of Kosovo.