Vlora

Through binoculars, ornithologist Jon Vorpsi spies flamingos and pelicans that pause along their migration routes on a hook of protected land on Albania's southern coast.

A court in Albania decided on Saturday to detain until his trial an ethnic Greek mayoral candidate in the southern Albanian municipality of Himara, Fredi Beleri, after he was charged with vote-buying.

A Greek expatriate mayoral candidate in the southern Albanian municipality of Himara, Fredi Beleri, was arrested at midnight on Thursday by the Albanian police outside his business premises on suspicion of paying people for their votes, causing strong condemnation from officials in Athens.

Domestic violence survivor Elvedina Hajdari on Wednesday joined the Women's Day march in Kosovo organized by civil society and women's rights NGOs in the capital, Pristina, sharing her own experience of judicial institutions' neglect.

Albanian police on Friday said they had found 47 new surveillance cameras erected illegally in the Durres region.

They said the cameras had been put up "to provide information for criminal purposes, as well as to monitor the movements of the police". Eight people are under investigation.

The founder of a cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, suspected of having fled Turkey with the assets of his clients, has been arrested in Albania, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Aug. 30. 

Türkiye issued an international arrest warrant in April last year for fugitive businessman Faruk Fatih Özer, who fled with a reported $2 billion in investors' assets.

Albania's health minister has said that all COVID-19 patients who are treated at home will be reimbursed for medicines they buy during their treatment - but getting the money back has sometimes proved impossible.

Albanian environmentalists have voiced deep dismay after the country's Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy on March 5 announced the results of the tender to construct a new airport at Vlora in the south of the country.

Proposed flag carrier Air Albania, a joint venture being negotiated with Turkish Airlines, will begin flying European routes this summer with a view to making its first transatlantic flights by December, one of the men behind the venture has told BIRN.

After a series of debates and repeated promises, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced Wednesday that he received a proposal to begin building the country’s second passenger airport near the coastal city of Vlora “by this summer".