Albania

Some Albanian teachers and professors have criticised a government initiative to include religious education and history as a compulsory course in secondary and high schools.

Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday announced the move at a ceremony commemorating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammed and the Minister of Education, Lindita Nikolla, confirmed the plan on Monday.

After substantial progress from 2004 to 2010, democracy in the Balkans has declined for six years according to US-based NGO Freedom House's annual report on democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia, which was published on Tuesday.

Greece will hold two meetings on migration with several of its neighbours in the next two weeks, the country's Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has said.

The meetings, planned for April 14 and April 21-22, will take place in Thessaloniki, Greek news agency ANA-MPA quoted Kotzias as saying at a press briefing on Friday.

Opposition Vetevendosje activists threw tear gas to interrupt the inauguration of Kosovo's new President, Hashim Thaci, in Pristina on Friday.

The inauguration ceremony on the Skedenderbeu boulevard was briefly halted while the police arrested some of the perpetrators.

An interview with Fabio Tambone, Head of Institutional International Relations Unit, Directorate for Institutional and External Relations at the Italian Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas and Water.

Mr. Tambone, do you think that the Southern Gas Corridor will be implemented within the scheduled deadline having in mind the current political situation?

Experts see dangers in the way the government is approaching people's privacy. Alfred Olli, an expert in civil and public safety, told BIRN on Tuesday that the government cannot violently impose surveillance on citizens against their will.

Albanian media reported on Sunday that Daci, also known as Ebu Belkisa, who had been fighting alongside ISIS in the Middle East, has died.

Local media quoted his relatives as saying they had been informed by Daci's wife that the 33-year-old former imam from the village of Leshnica, in the Pogradec area of eastern Albania, was dead.

Albanian is preparing to impose a new ban on shooting of animals and birds for another five years.

The Ministry of Environment told BIRN that the new draft law is on its way and is expected to pass parliament in July and take effect early in the autumn.

Austrian Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil told Austrian newspaper ‘Osterreich’ that 3 military battalions were ready to deploy in the state of Tirol in light of the refugee crisis. His new statements come a day after he told news outlets Saturday that tighter military border controls were necessary on the borders of Greece, Italy and Bulgaria to stem immigration flows.

Albanians will soon be able to fly out from a second airport at Kukes in the north after the government and the shareholders of Tirana International Airport, TIA agreed to end the latter's monopoly on flights.

A concession agreement signed by the government on October 2004 gave TIA shareholders, led by AviAlliance company of Germany, exclusive rights to civil flights from Albania.