Albania

ALBANIA Albania is the only country that didn’t feel the impact of global economic crisis, the country’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha said. In his address to the Committee on National Strategy Planning, Berisha stressed that there have been pay cuts in all countries except for Albania, where salaries surged significantly, …

KOSOVO The rebuilding of Kosovo Albanian homes in north Mitrovica was again delayed on Wednesday, when Serb members of Kosovo’s Police and EU rule of law mission, EULEX, officials prevented workers from entering the construction site. The Krou I Vitakut/Brdjani neighbourhood of Mitrovica has seen repeated violence since Kosovo Albanians …

KOSOVO EULEX denied on Wednesday a report in a Priština daily it sent a request to the Kosovo government “over negotiations with Serbia on customs”. According to Albanian language newspaper Koha Ditore, this had to do with trade and came following the negotiations on the signing of a protocol on …

SERBIA The Supreme Court of Serbia has overturned a verdict that set Sinan Morina, charged with war crimes, free. The ethnic Albanian was a member of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Now the case has been returned to the first-degree court for a retrial. The statement from the Supreme …

HOLLAND The Hague Tribunal has set October 28 as the date for the arraignment of ethnic Kosovo Albanians Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lah Brahimaj. The three are former members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). After the 1999 war in the province, Haradinaj pursued a political career and …

KOSOVO Several people have been injured after around 100 Serbs and 20 Albanians threw stones at each other in the troubled Kroi i Vitakut//Brdjani neighbourhood of Mitrovica, northern Kosovo. Serbs were protesting on Tuesday against the resumption of reconstruction work on homes in Mitrovica, which has long been a flashpoint. …

PRISTINA EULEX chief Yves de Kermabon says a protocol between the EU mission and Serbia’s MUP is not related to the so-called six point plan. He met in Priština yesterday with the Kosovo Albanian leaders, President Fatmir Sejdiu and PM Hashim Thaci, to discuss the signing of the police cooperation …

SERBIA, ALBANIA Belgrade-Tirana relations can sharpen after Sali Berisha’s statement about national unity of Albanians in the mother land and Kosovo, representative of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija in the Serbian government Oliver Ivanovic said. Tirana’s official response to Belgrade’s protest note about “cooperation between Republic of Albania and …

TIRANA, Albania Albanian PM Sali Berisha’s statement about the need to “integrate Albanians” is not tantamount to provoking Belgrade, said the Foreign Ministry in Tirana. “This is not a case of provoking Serbia. The cooperation of the republic of Albania and the republic of Kosovo is quite natural and has …

ALBANIA Edi Rama, the current leader of the Socialists – the biggest opposition party in Albania, said he would run again for another term at the upcoming party’s congress scheduled for end of August. Despite facing numerous accusations from other parties and his Socialists as wells, Rama said he strongly …