Poverty has obliged a lot of girls from North Albania to enter the world of illegal trafficking by marriages for a better life. This is done through “illegal” forms of “matchmaking” including an organized agency network which promises the girls a “heavenly” life.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has compiled a list of people of interest in its coverage area. Some of these people are criminals, some are politicians and some are businessmen. Some are all three. All of these figures are well known and figure regularly in stories about organized crime and corruption.

The investigation on Moldova's former president Voronin and the family empire done by Stefan Candea, Vitalie Calugareanu, Dumitru Lazur, Vlad Lavrov and Irina Codrean recieved the Global Shining Light Award at the 6th Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva.

People with spare passport also have their reserve country, which serves them as a safe place for hiding when the police gets the warrant for their arrest. Those suspected for crime in the Balkans are always well informed whether there is a ongoing investigation against them.

The articles published by Novaya Gazeta about Gazprom exposing links to high ranking officials in Russia are part of a long term investigative project. Journalists in Eastern Europe collaborate cross border in gathering and analyzing information related to the private businesses of politicians.

While pricey restaurants in Berlin or Amsterdam serve fresh asparagus plucked from fields in the Czech Republic, none of the appreciative diners has the slightest idea that this much-loved item is only on their dinner plates thanks to the backbreaking work carried out by modern-day slaves – men and women lured from poor countries on false pretences and then held captive – beaten and threatened by armed guards if they ask for food, their wages or try to escape.

Macedonia overweighed by illegal weaponry, and Kalashnikovs are being sold in half of the state. While the police claim the arm business does not pay off, dealers trade in Sipkovica, Aracinovo, Slupcane, Lipkovo and Skopje.

Unfortunately, differences in managing medical waste in the region are slight when it comes to large urban centres and the interior. The condition is disastrous in both cases. It all amounts to raising the awareness of the employees in all medical institutions, especially large ones, regarding the necessity to separate dangerous medical waste.

Ferrous scrap is becoming one of the most required products in the Balkan region, and only during the latest years in Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo are opened more than thousand purchase centers. Mostly, ferrous scrap is gathered from the regions exposed almost for two decades to military actions and influence of the radioactive material from the bombs with depleted uranium.

As the European Union expands to Ukraine's doorstep, western governments are beginning to provide the financial and technical assistance the country needs to more effectively control its porous borders. Protecting the borders, and controlling who and what crosses them, is a mammoth task. Indeed, smugglers moving contraband merchandise, from cigarettes to weapons, have long considered Ukraine's border security little more than a minor irritant.