Greek-owned properties in Himara demolished

Municipal workers look on as an excavator demolishes properties belonging to ethnic Greeks in Himara, southern Albania, on Wednesday. Tensions are said to have peaked after authorities decided to knock down houses belonging to members of the country's Greek minority. Families were warned last month that their homes would be demolished as part of an urban regeneration plan that critics have denounced as unconstitutional. New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote to Johannes Hahn, the European commissioner for enlargement, to express his concern about the situation. [EPA]