News stories by Claudia Ciobanu, page 5

The Albanian opposition is set to hold another mass rally on Friday, even though three people were killed during an anti-government demonstration last week, allegedly by armed forces of the Ministry of Interior.

Over the past years, acceptance rates for asylum-seekers in Central and Eastern Europe have been decreasing slowly but steadily. Even for those who do receive protected status, life is a gamble.

Eastern European youths have been getting high on 'plant feed' or 'bath salt' for over two years, catching up fast with Western European trends in drug abuse. Governments in the region are now scrambling to control use.

Kosovo youths looking to address issues treated as taboo by mainstream media are taking increasingly to online activism. The new platform is being used particularly to fight high-level corruption.

It's been a steady, even if slow growth for the Slow Food movement around the world.

The Slow Food movement has won significant support from the European Union. Dacian Ciolos, the European Union Commissioner for Agriculture, spoke to IPS in support of the movement at Terra Madre, a biennial reunion of promoters of the Slow Food movement.

The red sludge spill at the Ajka alumina plant in Hungary has been called one of the three worst environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20-30 years. But environmentalists warn other waste depositing sites in Central and Eastern Europe are prone to similar accidents.

The 'gypsy market' in Brasov is bustling with activity on a Saturday morning. It's one of the few places left where pensioners and other low-income Romanians can buy decent clothes cheaply. And also here, the power dynamics between Roma and non-Roma is silently shifting.

Five newborns died last week in a fire caused by an airconditioning fault at a Bucharest maternity. Insufficient, overworked staff and deficient maintenance -- results of inadequate funding of the health system - -were listed among the causes.

All major European countries plan mass expulsions of Roma or demolitions of Roma settlements. Rights groups warn that these measures entail the criminalisation of an entire ethnic group, and break EU law.