Europe

PRISTINA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A court in Albania on Saturday ordered that former president and prime minister Sali Berisha be placed under house arrest following corruption charges relating to his time in office.

Prosecutors accuse Berisha, 79, of using his influence while premier between 2005 and 2009 to favor his daughter's husband in the privatization of a state land. Berisha has denied any wrongdoing.

Berisha now heads Albania's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party.

BELGRADE, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Thousands gathered in a square in in central Belgrade on Saturday in the biggest protest yet over parliamentary and municipal elections on Dec. 17, results of which the demonstrators want anulled.

Protesters waving Serbian flags and holding a banner reading "We do not accept" cheered Marinika Tepic, a leader of the opposition Serbia Against Violence alliance, who has been on hunger strike since Dec. 18.

WARSAW, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Poland ended a ground search on Saturday after finding no parts of a suspected Russian rocket which it said had violated the country's airspace on Friday morning, the Polish army said.

"At 3:00 pm (1400 GMT), the inspection of the designated area was completed... The search result was negative," the Polish army's operational command wrote on social media platform X.

"Military activities have been completed and we do not plan any further field verification."

KYIV, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The death toll from Russia's largest air attack on Ukraine rose to 39 on Saturday as rescuers continued to clear debris and rubble from the bombardment, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Russia launched 158 missiles and drones on cities and towns across Ukraine on Friday in what Ukrainian officials described as the worst aerial bombardment since the start of the war in February 2022.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Thousands of people rallied in Serbia’s capital on Saturday, chanting “Thieves!” and accusing the populist authorities of President Aleksandar Vucic of orchestrating a fraud during a recent general election.

The big rally in central Belgrade capped nearly two weeks of street protests against reported widespread irregularities during the Dec. 17 parliamentary and local ballot that were also noted by international election observers.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Climate activists blocked part of the main highway around Amsterdam near the former headquarters of ING bank on Saturday to protest its financing of fossil fuels.

Amsterdam Municipality said in a message on X, formerly Twitter, that traffic authorities closed part of the road and diverted traffic “to prevent a life-threatening situation.”

MOSCOW (AP) —Thirty-two Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Saturday, Moscow officials reported, a day after an 18-hour aerial barrage across Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians.

Drones were seen in the skies over Russia’s Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol, and Kursk regions, the country’s defense ministry said in a statement. It said that all of the drones had been destroyed by air defenses.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — South Africa launched a case Friday at the United Nations’ top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to halt its attacks — the first such challenge made at the court over the current war. Israel swiftly rejected the filing “with disgust.”

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s defense forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile.

“Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland’s airspace. It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace. We have confirmation of this on radars and from allies” in NATO, said Poland’s armed forces chief, Gen. Wiesław Kukuła.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The Bosnian Serbs’ separatist leader vowed to carry on weakening his war-scarred country to the point where it will tear apart, despite a pledge by the United States to prevent such an outcome.

“I am not irrational, I know that America’s response will be to use force … but I have no reason to be frightened by that into sacrificing (Serb) national interests,” Milorad Dodik, the president of Bosnia’s Serb-run part, told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.