Donald Lu

Italian authorities arrested Albania's fugitive former General Prosecutor, Adriatik Lllalla, in Rome, on 10 December, Albania's Special Prosecution Against Organised Crime and Corruption, SPAK, confirmed to BIRN on Monday.

Adriatik Llalla, 52, a former General Prosecutor of Albania, was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison and his assets confiscated after being found guilty of not declaring his wealth and other irregularities on asset declarations. He becomes one of the highest officials in the country to be found guilty of such charges.

Albania's Interior Ministry on Thursday presented the results of its flagship law-enforcement operation, "Force of the Law", claiming major successes in fighting organized crime and money-laundering.

At a conference in Tirana, the minister Farmir Xhafaj said eight months of work had brought big successes and consumed many hours of activity.

The US ambassador to Albania Donald Lu warned on Sunday that pressure is high on the judges handling the case of former interior minister Saimir Tahiri - who is expected to appear before the Serious Crime Appeals Court on Monday after being put under house arrest on May 12.

The State Department announced on Monday that businessman and politician Tom Doshi, one of the wealthiest MPs in the Albanian parliament, has been barred from entering the US, along with his immediate family.

The State Department alleged in a statement that Doshi's ban was "due to his involvement in significant corruption".

It was a fine day for Albanian's embattled police - whose image was badly tarnished reports of close connections between senior police officers and drug-lords last year.

An investigation that lasted about two weeks ended on Wednesday with police seizing a record quantity of Colombian cocaine.

The US State Department on Wednesday announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had "designated" Adriatik Llalla, 49, and his family as corrupt foreign officials, thereby banning Llalla from entering the country.

Disparaging statements made by US Ambassador to Albania Donald Lu about its Justice system have caused an uproar in the neighbouring country. During a speech on occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Judges’ School. According to reports in the Albanian media, Mr.

Albania's Ministry of Energy on Friday in Tirana unveiled a preliminary feasibility study for a proposed Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline, hoping the EU may fund construction of the section of the pipeline between Albania and Montenegro.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said an interview with Politico he cannot rule out a union between Albania and the breakaway province of Kosovo – formerly part of Yugoslavia – if the country’s EU membership bid is off the agenda.  Rama added that such an alliance with Kosovo was not his own wish “but a possible alternative to the closed door of the European Union”.