King's College, London

Sir Vasilios (Basil) Markezinis, a Greek-British barrister and legal scholar, has died in Oxford, United Kingdom, aged 79. 

The news was made public on Monday by his long-time friend, Nikandros Bouras, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at King's College, London, who said that Markezinis had been suffering from dementia in the past four years.

"Adoption, Memory and Cold War Greece" is the subject of a lecture that Gonda Van Steen, a professor at King's College, London, will deliver at the British School library on Wednesday, April 3. Van Steen is the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature, and director of the Center for Hellenic Studies. The Athens lecture starts at 7 p.m.

Swiss TV on Monday reported the death of the 29-year-old athlete of Kosovo Albanian origin - who moved to Germany aged six - saying it was announced on Facebook in a post uploaded by his brother.

Gashi died last Saturday under circumstances that remain unclear, the Swiss public broadcaster, said.

Muhaxheri - who sparked outrage in both  Kosovo and Albania in July, when he posted a photograph on Facebook of him allegedly beheading a young man - is one of a list of ten individuals and two organizations who has been listed as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under the US President's Executive Order 13224.

Albanian citizen Idajet Balliu, 24, was reported killed in fighting near the Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday - the latest of ethnic Albanians who have died fighting as part of various Islamic militant organisations since the Syrian conflict started.

Interior Minister Jankulovska says hard-line Islamists returning to Europe after fighting in Syria pose a danger to the whole continent.

“Four Macedonian citizens already died in Syria, which is a strong indicator that this problem is expanding,” Jankulovska said.

“This is not a problem isolated in a single country but a problem threatening all of Europe,” she added.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu News Agency reported on Friday that Interior Minister Efkan Ala had said two of the arrested "terrorists" were Albanian nationals, while the third was from Kosovo. 

The shoot-out in the central Turkish province of Nigde on Thursday left three people dead, including a soldier and a police officer.

The amendment initiated by the ministry of justice follows reports that a growing number of Albanian citizens have joined radical Islamist groups fighting in the Syrian civil war.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Arjan Dyrmishi, a security expert with the Albanian Institute of Democracy and Mediation told Balkan Insight.