Elbasan

The four Albanian construction workers who died in the collapse of a scaffolding in Hamburg on Monday, as well as their injured colleague, worked in Germany with fake Bulgarian passports, Albanian media reports.

State Police in Albania said on Friday that they are investigating Deputy Commissioner Anisa Kostani, a police officer in Elbasan, after she harshly criticised journalists on social media for their reporting of a killing in the city.

After a trial that lasted just seven days, Leka, then 36, and Blloshmi, 29, were sentenced to death and then executed on the night of July 17, 1977.

Born in the same village - Berzheshte, in the Librazhd area - the two poets lived a short and difficult life under Hoxha's regime, which kept the country isolated from the democratic world for more than four decades.

The United States sanctioned seven people in politics, media and justice in the Balkans on Monday, calling them a "serious threat to regional stability" and the cause of democracy.

Police inspect the scene where a politician was murdered and four people injured in Elbasan on March 21. Photo: LSA

Police inspect the scene where a politician was murdered and four citizens were injured in Elbasan, Albania, March 21, 2021. Photo: LSA

Xhuvani is a former state official who had campaigned for several parties, including the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, and the Justice and Integration and Unity Party, while being a Socialist Party activist currently.

In the mountainous region of Martanesh, north-east of the Albanian capital Tirana, dozens of abandoned Communist-era bunkers are being used by shepherds as summer huts for their sheep.

Shepherds who come from the Tirana and Elbasan areas have built sheepfolds around the bunkers to ensure a safe haven for their flocks, enabling them to graze in Martanesh's lush pastures.

It was expected to be an eventful political season when Albania's parliament reopened earlier this month, with an agenda of reforms needed to open the way for the start of EU membership negotiations next June.

After the Council of Europe postponed a decision on this issue last June, reforms that need cross-party agreement, such as electoral reform, have become a matter of urgency.

The Pristina Basic Court has jailed eight Kosovo citizens who were found guilty of planning to carry out attacks in Albania against the Israeli national football team; four imams were acquitted in a separate court case on terrorism.

Two former directors of the Albanian Road Authority are among 11 people arrested by an Elbasan court order over the procurement of a road that was never properly built.

Dashamir Xhika, former director of the Authority between 2013 and 2017, was arrested and accused of abuse of office.