Albania

Albanian Minister of Transportation and Energy, Belinda Balluku, on Friday said the situation at Albania's main airport was returning to "normality" after a work stoppage by air traffic controllers over pay brought operations grinding to a halt.

"Starting from 9am today, operations at Rinas airport in Albanian airspace are going back to normality," Balluku wrote on Facebook.

"Nobody forced me to do so. It was my own choice, but I made a mistake. That's why we aim to encourage other young girls not to let their parents arrange a marriage they don't want. At the same time, we advocate that they get a new perspective on life."

Poverty and discrimination

Photo: GRUBB/Daniel Ibraimovic

Albania deployed army and police forces at the country's only international airport on Wednesday after protesting air trafficker controllers halted inbound and outbound flights.

The air traffic controllers were not allowed to enter the airport. The prosecution has opened an investigation into allegations of "abuse of duty". Police issued restraining orders for three of them.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw an increase in state control over the judiciary and media and further endangered minorities that already suffer from discrimination in Central and Southeast Europe, rights watchdog Amnesty International said in its annual report published on Monday.

An opposition Kosovo MP has called on the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, to open vaccination centres for Kosovo citizens at a time when Kosovo has one the lowest COVID vaccination rates in Europe.

Facebook removed more than 300 Facebook and Instagram accounts belonging to members of an Iranian dissident group based in Albania that had been targeting Iran and content related to Iran.

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.

Sami Kohen, a 93-year-old active journalist known as a flagship of international news coverage in Turkey, has told the milestone of his 80-year-long professional life in the latest interview with daily Hürriyet.

Born in 1928 in Istanbul as a son of Albert Kohen, Kohen's first piece was published in a newspaper when he was only 13.

Locals in Montenegro's coastal resort towns fear another bad tourist season lies ahead, as most of the resorts on the Adriatic are still almost empty. The country is recording a high number of COVID-19 cases, restrictive health measures remain in force and curfew is enforced from 10 pm to 5 am. Intercity traffic is also prohibited.

Albanian Police seized 18 illegal weapons bases on Thursday in the capital, Tirana, which they believe are connected to organised crime groups and arrested five people. Another two were declared wanted.

The police operation, codenamed "Complex", also helped uncover three past unsolved crimes related to guns and explosives.