Rama government

An Albanian court has rejected the appeal by Fredi Beleri, the mayor-elect of Himare in southern Albania and an ethnic Greek, who was seeking release under restrictive measures.

On Friday, the judges ruled to uphold the pretrial detention measure.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the issue of the release of the ethnic Greek mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, during a meeting with his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama on Tuesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius.

Fredi Beleri, the candidate representing the Greek minority, emerged victorious over his opponent Jorgo Goro, who had the backing of the Edi Rama government, in the race for the mayor of Himara in Albania's local elections.

The official results were announced Monday after an earlier interruption in the vote counting process.

"With this designation, I am reaffirming the need for accountability and transparency in Albania's democratic institutions, government processes, and the actions of Albanian public officials," Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote in the press release.

The governments of Albania and Kosovo signed agreements on Monday establishing the co-financing of offices aimed at educating the Albanian diaspora from both countries by creating new cultural centres.

The fourth joint meeting of the two countries' governments was held in Korca, a city in southeastern Albania. The unification of the diaspora was its primary focus.

The Greek Foreign Ministry expressed concerns regarding the decision by the Albanian authorities to proceed with the demolition of residences of members of the Greek ethnic minority in Himarra.

Elvi Fundo, director of the news portal Citynews.al and Radio Best, was beaten up by unidentified assailants near Tirana's train station on Wednesday and later hospitalized.

Albania's centre-left government has fully met only four of its 27 electoral promises after two-and-a-half years in power, an NGO has claimed.

While presenting what it called it "truth-meter" Mjaft representatives noted - among others - that the government had failed to open 300,000 new workplaces as it had pledged.