The election of a new president in Albania late last week shows consensus is possible there, Cristina Gallach, EU security chief Javier Solana’s spokeswoman, said on Monday (July 23rd).

The newly elected parliament is expected to convene on August 3rd after officials results are announced from Sunday’s (July 22nd) general elections, won by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The Romanian government declared a Code Red emergency late Monday (July 23rd) after three more people died of heat-related causes, for a total of 18. Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu said the state of emergency will be enforced in five southern districts and in Bucharest.

EU foreign ministers agreed on Monday (July 23rd) to strengthen the Union’s role in efforts to determine the final status of Kosovo.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with members of Kosovo’s negotiating team — the Unity Group — on Monday (July 23rd), and urged Kosovo leaders to continue talks on final status with Belgrade, rather than declaring independence unilaterally.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who faced the death penalty in Libya until last week, were pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on Tuesday (July 24th), less than an hour after they landed in Sofia.

As Sunday’s (July 22nd) elections ended with a landslide victory for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), reaction from the international community was positive.

Egypt’s official religious adviser has ruled that Muslims are free to change their faith as it is a matter between an individual and God, in a move which could have far-reaching implications for the country’s Christians.

At a second meeting with his Iranian counterpart in two months, the US ambassador blasted Tehran on Tuesday for arming and training Shiite militias but agreed to set up a security subcommittee with Iran and Iraq to carry forward work on stabilising the country.

Six foreign medics sentenced to death then life imprisonment in Libya in a controversial AIDS case were free in the Bulgarian capital Tuesday after the EU struck a multi-million-dollar financial and trade deal with Tripoli.