North Macedonia is using NATO’s Next-Generation Incident Command System (NICS) to coordinate its national response to the COVID-19 crisis and to provide its public with real-time information and advice, the alliance’s press service reported.

Turkey held its first tender on Thursday to prepare to build a huge canal on the edge of Istanbul, a Transport Ministry spokesman said, signaling progress on the project despite widespread criticism over its cost and environmental impact.

Kosovo lawmakers dismissed the government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday, triggering a political crisis as the Balkan country is trying to stop the spread of the coronavirus, news wires reported.

A no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Albin Kurti's government was called in Kosovo on Wednesday, as bickering among the country's three top leaders continues in spite of the coronavirus crisis. The motion was launched by Kurti's junior coalition partners, Isa Mustafa's center-left Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).

Greece must take immediate action to end the violence against migrants and asylum seekers at the border between Turkey and Greece, an independent UN human rights expert said on Monday, expressing alarm at reports of violence at the hands of some Greek security officers and unidentified armed men.

A pair of Turkish fighter jets F-16 on Monday violated Greek air space in the Aegean for the second time in as many hours on Monday, flying over the island of Chios, in the eastern Aegean, at 3,700 feet, Ekathimerini reported, citing the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA) sources.

North Macedonia's ex-premier urged the country on Monday to postpone a snap poll scheduled for mid-April because of the coronavirus, news wires reported. The small Balkan state, where 19 new coronavirus infections have been recorded, has already imposed heavy restrictions on public life to prevent an outbreak.  The government has banned all public and private gatherings, closed schools and shuttered restaurants and other entertainment venues nationwide.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said a 2016 refugee deal between Turkey and the European Union needs to be updated, expressing Ankara's hopes to reach a new agreement in time for a summit of the bloc's leaders later this month.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday called a general election for 26 April, a vote seen as important for his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) to cement its hold on power.

Thousands of people, led by Serbian Orthodox Church clerics, marched peacefully through the Montenegrin capital Podgorica on Saturday in protest against a law they fear will be used to target the church’s assets and status.