Ulcinj

Storms and bad weather in January have caused serious damage to the famous Montenegrin coastal town of Ulcinj, bringing down part of the ancient town walls. Following heavy rain, part of Pinjes hill in Ulcinj also collapsed on to the local road on January 12, burying two vehicles.

Olive groves near Ulcinj, Montenegro. Photo: BIRN/Samir Kajosevic

Nimanbegu said that the government has an obligation to give back the groves in the former Valdanos military resort.

Ulcinj.  Photo: Municipality of Ulcinj

All political parties in the local assembly in Ulcinj have demanded an urgent meeting with the government after the Health Minister Kenan Hrapovic said that if cases start to occur, quarantine facilities will be opened at the former military base in Zoganje near Ulcinj and in the Danilovgrad and Niksic municipalities.

The proposed new Law on the Use of National Symbols was submitted to the Montenegrin parliament on Friday after controversy caused by fines imposed on people for flying the Albanian flag.

The Montenegrin police directorate said that the Albanian national was expelled on Sunday for disrupting public order and breaching the peace by displaying the Albanian national flag at the Chestnut Festival in Ostros in the municipality of Ulcinj.

Faik Nika, the president of the Albanian National Council, said on Friday that the Albanian government will give financial support for the first time to assist the running of his organisation and its office in the municipality of Plav.

Nika told Montenegrin media the Albanian government has recently made three very important decisions for the Albanian community in Montenegro.

Dzelal Hodzic fondly remembers the biggest catch of his life.

"You could feel it by the noise," said the veteran Montenegrin fisherman. "It was night, and they just said 'lift!' It took us from morning until the following night to get it out. We didn't know what to do with that much fish."

Shyqyri Kahari once made a living sailing the world - until marriage in 1979 brought him home to the Montenegrin town of Ulcinj and a job on a triangular-shaped island called Ada Bojana.

The Serbian Orthodox Church said on Monday that its top bishop in Montenegro, Amfilohije, was prevented by a group of mainly ethnic Albanian residents of the village of Svac, near the coastal town of Ulcinj, from holding a service at the ruins of a medieval church.

Montenegro's Special Prosecution for Organised Crime has begun probes of several Montenegrin citizens who reportedly fought in the Middle East or financed the sending of fighters to conflict zone, BIRN has learned.