Albania

Tirana and Pristina say role and acts of former chief prosecutor at the Hague Tribunal need probing following the acquittal of Ramush Haradinaj last week.The Kosovo and Albania governments have urged international authorities to start an independent inquiry into the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former …

Albania’s President, Bujar Nishani, has appointed on Monday the head of the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets, HIDAA, Adriatik Llalla, as Albania’s new general prosecutor.Nishani said in a memo attached to the decree that the decisive factor was Llalla’s experience and his bipartisan election as the …

Noting the 100th anniversary of Albania’s independence, Kim Yong Nam, reclusive leader of North Korea, sent greetings to President Bujar Nishani on Wednesday.“Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, Wednesday sent a message of greeting to Albanian President Bujar Nishani on the occasion of …

Following criticism of the idea, the Albanian government has shelved plans to slaughter 1,000 lambs to mark the 100th independence anniversary on Wednesday.The idea for a mass slaughter of lambs was proposed by the Prime Minister, Sali Berisha. But it does not appear in the official calendar of festivities published …

Albanians are marking the 100th anniversary of their country’s independence with concerts, exhibitions, fairs and new monuments in the capital, Tirana, and in Vlora.The festivities in Tirana began on Monday with the inauguration of a mosaic of the Albanian flag, with stones collected from battlefields linked to the struggle for …

More than fifty years after his death in France, Albania’s former monarch, King Zog I, was laid to rest in Tirana on Saturday in a ceremony attended by political leaders and thousands of people.Zog was laid to rest in the recently reconstructed mausoleum of the royal family, where his wife, …

The Interior Ministry on Monday announced the arrest of a police chief in Gjirokastra, accused of taking bribes from a businessman.Miklovan Kararaj, 26, head of the anti-corruption unit in the Gjirokastra police department, was detained after being accused of soliciting €10,000 from a businessman, the ministry said.

Albania’s Union of Journalists says media owners routinely fail to pay reporters on time and so further erode the media’s independence.“Many newspapers and TV stations are failing to pay reporters for months at a time and the situation has got worse over the past year,” Aleksander Cipa, head of the …

EU Commissioner Stefan Fule announced Monday that Albania will receive 81 million euro to assist with issues including judicial reform and the fight against organised crime.The money will help build the new courthouse in Tirana, restructure two border crossing points and improve the Albanian State Police. It will also help …

Prosecutors have asked a Tirana court to allow an investigation into possible money laundering by Egypt’s deposed strongman, Hosni Mubarak, his family and associates in Albania.The request follows receipt of a request for legal help from the Egyptian authorities, as they seek to trace and recover billions of dollars that …