A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Albania early on Tuesday, killing four people and sparking panic in the capital, Tirana, and other cities. The epicentre of the quake, the strongest in the region in decades, was about 20 miles north-west of Tirana, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre
Continue reading...Category Archives: Albania
‘They built it themselves’: how a slum became Albania’s fastest growing city
Money sent home by relatives working abroad has transformed Kamza over the past decade
Driving out of Albania’s capital, Tirana, into nearby Kamza, blocks of communist-era apartments give way to a chaotic jumble of houses of different colours, shapes and heights. Many are half-finished or being rebuilt. Some are just exposed brick, while others are painted near-fluorescent greens, oranges or yellows.
“People pay a lot of attention to the aesthetics of the houses,” says Njazi Murrja, who lives locally. “They show the culture and the wealth of the family.”
Continue reading...London ballroom hosts showcase event for ‘golden passports’
Three PMs attend marketing sales event on how wealthy can snap up citizenship from $100,000
Three prime ministers took to a stage in the ballroom of a five-star London hotel this week offering the world’s wealthiest people “golden passports” and citizenship of their countries in return for hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment or flat “contributions”.
Allen Chastanet, the prime minister of the Caribbean island of St Lucia, told about 300 members of the super-rich elite and their advisers gathered at the Rosewood hotel for “global citizenship conference” that his country’s economic mission was “going after high net-worth individuals and giving them a comfortable place to live”.
Continue reading...The house that Hoxha built: dictator’s villa to become public space
Enver Hoxha’s villa in central Tirana, once sealed off by the Albanian secret service and home to party elites, is to be opened to the public
The interiors of Enver Hoxha’s cavernous three-story villa are mostly just as they were when Albania’s communist leader died in 1985. By then, Hoxha had led a Stalinist dictatorship in the country for four decades, turning Albania into one of the most isolated and repressive states in the world.
During the communist period, the whole area around Hoxha’s house in Albania’s capital city, Tirana, was sealed off by police and secret agents. Known as the Blloku, the district functioned as a kind of wall-less Kremlin in the heart of Tirana, reserved for the party elite and their families.
Continue reading...Albanian prime minister’s office hit by protesters’ petrol bombs – video
Anti-government protesters target Edi Rama's office, calling for his resignation over corruption allegations. Supporters of Albania's opposition parties have been holding protests to try to push the government to accept snap elections
Continue reading...Albania airport heist: armed robbers steal €2.5m from Austrian Airlines plane
Police arrest four people and question 40 over audacious runway heist at Tirana’s Mother Teresa airport
Albanian police have arrested four people and questioned 40 others after armed robbers stole millions of euros from an Austria Airlines aeroplane in a deadly heist.
Armed men broke onto the runway of Tirana airport on Tuesday and stole the money due to be transported to a bank in Vienna, police said.
Continue reading...Tehran’s futile attempts at discrediting the cause for regime change in Iran
No longer having the tacit support of a U.S. administration inclined toward rapprochement , the regime of Tehran is gradually facing the consequences of its unrestricted incursions in the neighboring region and brutal crackdown on domestic dissent in past years. With regime change in Iran gaining increasing support both at home and abroad, Tehran is frantically resorting to the oldest trick in its book: demonizing the opposition.
Albania returning Brazil poultry shipment with salmonella
More than a dozen states this year have passed "Blue Lives Matter" laws that come down even harder on crimes against law enforcement officers. More than a dozen states this year have passed "Blue Lives Matter" laws that come down even harder on crimes against law enforcement officers.
Albanian taxi driver decorates his cab with Trump pictures
Uljan Kolgjegja, 37, an Albanian taxi driver, points to a picture of U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump in his car in the Albanian capital, Tirana, Monday, Sept. 26, 2016.