Albanian election officials confirm prime minister’s re-election after recounts

October 3rd, 2009 Brown agrees to televised British election debateLONDON — Prime Minister Gordon Brown has agreed to take part in Britain's first televised election debate among party leaders. Brown, who has been accused of dithering on a host of issues, had been reluctant to participate in U.S.-style election debates even though his two main rivals had agreed.

September 15th, 2009 Recount ordered at 10 percent of Afghan vote sitesKABUL — A top election official says vote tallies from about 10 percent of Afghanistan's polling stations need to be recounted because of possible irregularities in the country's Aug. 20 presidential election.

July 6th, 2009 Bulgarian conservatives win election by big marginSOFIA, Bulgaria — Official results confirm Bulgaria's conservative opposition has won parliamentary elections by a wide margin. Outgoing Socialist Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev conceded defeat hours after polls closed late Sunday, clearing the way for Sofia Mayor Boiko Borisov to form the next government.

July 4th, 2009 Albanian opposition threatens street protestsTIRANA, Albania — Albania's opposition Socialists charged Saturday that the ruling Democrats were improperly trying to influence the country's lengthy vote count by declaring victory before all ballots from last week's national election were tallied. Albania joined NATO in April and has been under intense international pressure to ensure the June 28 vote was free of the fraud that marred the first six elections held after the Balkan country's communist regime fell in 1990.

June 29th, 2009 OSCE says still problems with Albania voteTIRANA, Albania — Albania's governing party was in a close race with the Socialist opposition on Monday as the votes were counted in the country's parliamentary election. The ballot is seen as a crucial test of the Balkan country's hopes of EU membership, and a preliminary report by international election observers found signs of both improvement and violations.

June 18th, 2009 Explosion kills politician in AlbaniaTIRANA, Albania — An explosive device killed a conservative politician as he drove through northern Albania on Thursday, 10 days ahead of the country's parliamentary election, police said. The leader of the victim's political party called it a terrorist attack, but police suggested organized crime groups may have been responsible.

June 18th, 2009 Albanian politician killed in car blastTIRANA, Albania — A conservative politician was killed in a car explosion Thursday, 10 days ahead of Albania's parliamentary election, police said. Aleks Keka, a 34-year-old regional leader for the small conservative Christian Democratic Party, died in the blast while driving through Shkodra, a city 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of capital Tirana, police said.

June 17th, 2009 Canada avoids summer electionTORONTO — Canada's prime minister reached a deal Wednesday with one of three opposition parties allowing him to avoid early elections. The opposition Liberals had been threatening to join two other opposition parties in toppling Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government on Friday if Harper didn't unveil planned changes for unemployment insurance.

June 16th, 2009 PRAGUE - Iran summoned a senior Czech diplomat Tuesday over the European Union's (EU) critical statements about the disputed Iranian presidential election, the Czech foreign ministry said. "I can confirm that our charge d'affaires Josef Havlas was today (Tuesday) summoned to the foreign ministry in Teheran," ministry spokesman Jiri Benes told DPA.

May 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - As many as three MPs from the national capital, which is nearly half of the total MPs of Delhi, are in the prime minister's council of ministers. While the name of Kapil Sibal was announced as a cabinet minister last Friday, the names of Ajay Makan and Krishna Tirath were announced Wednesday.

May 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - All union ministers submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will give his own letter and that of his cabinet to President Pratibha Patil in the afternoon. 'It is protocol that the prime minister of the outgoing government resigns after election results,' a prime ministerial aide told IANS, adding that Manmohan Singh and the ministers would be asked to continue till the formation of the next government.

May 11th, 2009 AMRITSAR - Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will address a series of election rallies here today.

April 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Election Commission Wednesday clarified that it has not issued any instruction to remove from government offices photographs and images of national leaders, prominent historical personalities of the past, the president and the governors ahead of polls. 'The EC (Election Commission) wishes to clarify the misunderstanding about the instruction on March 28 about the display of photographs and images in the government offices,' Deputy Election Commissioner R.

March 5th, 2009 TIRANA - Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha fired the nation's culture minister late Wednesday after a local television channel showed him sexually harassing a woman seeking a job in his office. The largest private TV in Albania, the Top Channel, previously showed Culture, Youth, Tourism and Sports Minister Ylli Pango, 56, asking sexual favours from the woman seeking work.

January 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami's reported recommendation to the president to remove Election Commissioner Navin Chawla goes against the Election Commission's July 2004 proposal, favouring a stringent procedure for removal of election commissioners.