Doruntina Baliu is a journalist with RFE/RL's Kosovo Service.
RFE/RL has learnt that hundreds of foreign fighters, including from Central Asia, are among the ranks of Syrian militant groups which toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Fishermen in Albania and residents of Kosovo and Montenegro say toxic waste is ruining their environment. People who live near overflowing landfills get sick from toxic gasses, according to local doctors, but the costs of cleanup and new facilities remain out of reach for these small countries.
Waste has become a major problem in the Western Balkans, with overfilled landfills polluting land and water. In Kosovo, Albania, and Montenegro, waste management remains below European standards.
Increased NATO-led patrols are running along the Kosovo-Serbia border in the wake of rising tension. Northern Kosovo is a Serb-majority area with a porous frontier that has allowed smugglers and militants to cross into Kosovo towns, sometimes sparking deadly clashes.
In the once-pristine village of Shala in central Kosovo, a stone quarry has turned the once serene landscapes into a dust-filled wasteland, endangering the health and safety of its residents.
A communist-era fortified island off the coast of Albania may now become a luxury resort under plans by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump. A team of RFE/RL journalists explored the abandoned bunkers and tunnels of Sazan.
Women in Kosovo confront safety challenges as they pursue their passion for running in public spaces.
Residents of northern Kosovo, an ethnic Serb-majority area, will finally be forced to pay electricity bills under an agreement years in the making. The plan will end 25 years of free power -- and is likely to put the bite on energy-intensive cryptocurrency "mining" in the region bordering Serbia.
With no easy access to the nearest city, villagers in northern Albania regularly cross the border into Kosovo to conduct business. In the Kosovar town of Dragash, migrants find a lively market for their farm produce and health services they can't access back home.
For almost two years, hundreds of Afghan refugees have been stuck in Albania awaiting a green light to move to the United States. As they bide their time in the coastal resort of Shengjin, some have found work as cooks in tourist restaurants.
Kosovo’s only ferronickel plant has restarted production for the first time since closing in 2021 over soaring energy costs.
In Kosovo's famously divided city, residents talk about coping with life when the languor of late spring gives way to security cordons, blaring alarms, and customers in bulletproof vests.
U.S. Special Envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar has said that the Serbia-Kosovo normalization agreement will create "a peaceful, predictable, and friendly relationship" between the two countries and will open "the door for both of them to move faster into Euro-Atlantic structures."
Prime Minister Albin Kurti has remained defiant over a Western proposal for improving relations with Serbia even as he says it could cost Kosovo critical support.
Kosovo has officially applied for membership in the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights organization, in an effort to seize on the recent exit of Russia.
