Burrel

Protesters faced off police in a dozen towns across Albania on Wednesday, as opposition-run municipalities demanded that the Central Election Commission, CEC, vacate municipal properties planned for use as polling stations in hotly disputed local elections, which the opposition is boycotting.

An Albanian appeal court judge, a former member of High Council of Justice, was arrested on Thursday in Tirana on suspicion of taking bribes to ensure the release of a man jailed previously for 20 years for murder.

Judge Shkelqim Miri, 46, was under investigation after his ruling on the case before the Tirana appeal court aroused strong suspicions.

BELGRADE - Establishing a special court for war crimes committed by the self-styled Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (an ethnic Albanian paramilitary formation) against Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija in 1998 and 1999 is a necessity, Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said on Wednesday.