Albanian government

Albania's opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha travels on Monday to the US with key aides for meetings with members of Congress and US officials to discuss democracy and the rule of law in Albania.

However, BIRN has learned that on the eve of the visit the Democratic Party signed a contract with the lobbying firm Podesta Group to secure access to Washington's top echelons.

Albania is going to lease state land and properties with tourism potential to investors for the symbolic price of only one euro.

The decision taken on Wednesday does not target everyone. "Strategic investors" must be able to stump up at least 50 million euros for a touristic project.

Albania's parliament was split on Thursday over the planned formation of a new body to fight corruption, modelled on the FBI, called the National Bureau of Investigation, BKH.

The new structure will be considered part of the police although it will closely collaborate with the General Prosecutor's office as well.

Economists have attacked the Albanian government's plan to allow a private firm to manage data on business VAT payments as lacking in transparency, unnecessary and potentially corrupt.

A private company will be invited to invest in a 10-million-euro technological platform that will be attached to the tax system to track every business transaction in real time.

The Albanian government has raised the compensation for legal advice offered by Omnia Strategy in the dispute with US company by 150,000 euros, bringing the payment to a total of 645,000 euros.

No reason was given for the increased payment in the government decision, which was taken on December 28 but published in the official gazette on Tuesday.

The Albanian government is organizing a donor conference on Friday to support the International Commission on Missing People, ICMP, in its attempts to find the around 6,000 remains of people who were executed or died in Communist camps and prisons in the country.

Several dozen activists gathered on Tuesday in front of the Pyramid, a well-known landmark in Tirana, to protest against Kurti's 30-day remand in a top-security jail.

Students, civil society representatives and independent MP Mesila Doda took part in the rally alongside the Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party supporters.

Following a hostile reaction from the media and pressure from international bodies such as the OSCE, the Albanian government has withdrawn a draft amendment that aimed to re-criminalize defamation of senior officials.

Italian businessman Francesco Becchetti is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court in the UK on December 7 for a procedural hearing that will consider an extradition request by the Albanian authorities.

Becchetti, 49, was arrested in London by officers from the UK's Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit on 26 October on behalf of the Albanian authorities.

Albania has said it is ready to play its part in the European Union plan for accommodating 100,000 refugees in the Balkans, but Tirana also fears that the country could be used as a new route to Western Europe for incoming migrants.