Foreign ministers of Albania

Albanians will soon be able to fly out from a second airport at Kukes in the north after the government and the shareholders of Tirana International Airport, TIA agreed to end the latter's monopoly on flights.

A concession agreement signed by the government on October 2004 gave TIA shareholders, led by AviAlliance company of Germany, exclusive rights to civil flights from Albania.

Albania's opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha travels on Monday to the US with key aides for meetings with members of Congress and US officials to discuss democracy and the rule of law in Albania.

However, BIRN has learned that on the eve of the visit the Democratic Party signed a contract with the lobbying firm Podesta Group to secure access to Washington's top echelons.

The municipality of Tirana is demanding damages from the opposition Democratic Party for damaging state institutions and a bunker in Tuesday's protest.

The municipality said it sought 118,000 euros for damage caused in the different parts of the city during the violent unrest.

The opposition is holding an anti-government rally in Tirana on Tuesday, saying it is the first of a series of actions aimed at ousting the government and replacing it with a technical administration that will hold snap elections.

Albania's Minister of Justice resigned suddenly on Monday, in the middle of presiding over key judicial reforms that the EU considers vital for the country.

Nasip Naco, from the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI, a coalition party in the Socialist-led government, resigned after two years in office on Monday.

With Grexit now slowly receding in the rear view mirror, Greece’s radical leftist government is returning to more normal international contacts, as Greek FM Nikos Kotzias begins a tour of Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina this week.

On Tuesday, Kotzias will head to Pristina, where he will be received by Kosovo PM Isa Mustafa and his counterpart  Hashim Thaci.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic met with Albanian Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta in Tirana Wednesday to discuss relations between the two countries.

They also spoke about "ways to improve economic cooperation, including establishing direct flights between Belgrade and Tirana," Tanjug reported.

The main political parties in Albania officially started electoral campaigns on Saturday for the next local elections, but the first days of the campaign were marred by claims of irregularities.

On Saturday, Zef Hila, the opposition Democratic Party candidate for the municipality of Vau i Dejes, alleged that he was subjected to harassment by police officers.

Parties in Albania condemned a man who threw a chair amid a crowd attending a Democratic Party rally in Kolonja, in southeast Albania on Wednesday, injuring a 63-year-old.

The chairman of the Democratic Party and current Mayor of Tirana, Lulzim Basha, was also at the rally where the local candidate for mayor was being presented.

Several thousand supporters of Albania's opposition centre-right Democratic Party showed their strength in Tirana on Thursday at a rally demanding the resignation of the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

Tom Doshi, a former Socialist Party MP, has caused ructions by claiming that Meta paid an assassin to have him and one other MP killed.