TIRANA (AP) – Several thousand opposition supporters protested in the Albanian capital late on Friday against the country’s ongoing power crisis. The rally ended peacefully, with opposition leaders vowing to continue their protests against Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s center-right government. Albania suffers daily electricity cuts due to a lack of rain powering hydroelectric plants, poor management, and opposition parties accuse Berisha’s government of incompetent energy policies. They also claim the government has not done enough to fight poverty and unemployment, and allege extensive corruption. “My wish for the New Year is to see the end of dictatorship and corruption, blackness, poverty and unemployment,” said Edi Rama, the main opposition Socialist leader and mayor of Tirana.

SKOFIJE (AP) – Slovenia held a celebration on Saturday marking the elimination of borders between nine new EU members and the rest of the bloc, just a week before the former communist country takes over the EU presidency. On Friday, the nine new EU members were officially incorporated into the Schengen frontier-free zone of Europe, which now stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic. “This is something we did not ever dare to dream of 15 years ago,” Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said at Saturday’s ceremony. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the elimination of borders sent a “very powerful signal of unity” within Europe.

A minor member of Serbia’s ruling coalition, the Serbian Unity Party (SSJ), announced yesterday it was defecting to a more radical, ultranationalist faction, the Beta news agency reported. The ruling committee of the SSJ said it had decided to merge with the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). The SRS won the largest number of seats in January’s parliamentary election but was unable to form a ruling coalition. The SSJ defection comes a month ahead of the first round of the country’s presidential election, but is not likely to threaten Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s ruling coalition. (AFP)

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is to end its observation mission in Croatia on December 31, after 11 years in the Balkan country, an official said on Saturday. Mission spokeswoman Ljerka Drazenovic said the decision had been taken by OSCE headquarters in Vienna after an assessment of Croatia’s democratic development. (AFP)