Edi Rama

The zoo in the Albanian capital was shuttered after the video was published online last week by Animal Rescue Albania, a Tirana-based campaign group.

In an open letter to the city's mayor Lulzim Basha, Animal Rescue Albania called on the authorities to close the zoo down and end the cruelty towards the animals kept there.

The lawyers for two Albanian MPs, Tom Doshi and Mark Frroku, who were arrested on Thursday on charges of faking testimonies, have filed briefs with Albania's Supreme Court seeking their immediate release.

The lawyers said the arraignment orders signed by General Prosecutor Adriatik Llala were illegal and out of line with the criminal procedural code.

FM advises region against taking "steps back"

BELGRADE -- Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said that officials of the Balkan states should avoid statements that lead "a step back from the crucial things."

PRISTINA - The community of Serb municipalities is a form of association and cannot be a non-governmental organization, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said in Pristina Wednesday.

"Albanians deserve better than circus politics"

BELGRADE -- Marko Djuric has commented on announcements of "national unification of Albanians" to say that they "deserve more responsible politics."

Nikola Selakovic, Serbian Justice Minister, said Serbia would not "keep quiet" over the potential creation of a "Greater Albania", which Selakovic said Edi Rama, the Albanian Prime Minister had endorsed on Monday.

BELGRADE - The creation of a Greater Albania worries and frightens Serbs, but it should also worry the entire Europe and the world, Serbian Minister of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy Aleksandar Vulin said on Tuesday.

BELGRADE - Serbia cannot and will not be silent about the creation of a greater Albania, Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic stated and called on the EU to oppose this instead of keeping quiet about it and regarding it benevolently.

"Serbia won't sit quietly as Greater Albania is created"

BELGRADE -- Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic has said that the country "cannot and will not" react quietly to the creation of a Greater Albania.

He remarked that "they need not hide it under any other guise, because (Greater Albania) is obviously what this is about," and "called on the EU to oppose it."

"Unification" of Kosovo and Albania "through EU"

TIRANA/PRISTINA -- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has said that Albania and Kosovo "united the nation through the European Union."