Kosovo Albanians

"After one month in isolation, I was forced to work as a carpenter. The working conditions were very hard. There was a deep snow, ice and freezing temperatures," said Bajraktari.

"Most of us had no blankets. Some had a blanket of [size] one metre by one metre. The windows had no glass and my cell filled up with snow. The food was disgusting."

Ljubljana – President Borut Pahor and Kosovo counterpart Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu agreed in Ljubljana on Monday that relations between the two countries are excellent and expressed the wish to continue this way. Both leaders see a peaceful and secure future for the Western Balkans in the context of European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Albanian PM's visit to Kosovo again highlighted his alleged grudges with his Kosovo counterpart, Albin Kurti.

During a joint meeting on Monday in Pristina between the governments of Kosovo and Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that he will personally submit a report to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg being prepared in Albania's parliament querying the Dick Marty report and what he alleged was its Russian influence.

Kosovo's prestigious Sunny Hill musical festival will be held at "its own home town" of Pristina in August, after earlier announcing that it would be moved to Albania in a dispute over its location.

Music fans who have booked accommodation in Kosovo's capital Pristina to attend the Sunny Hill festival will have to change their plans, as Albania's capital, Tirana, has surprisingly become the last-minute location for the event.

The failure of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to act related to the crimes committed by Kosovo Albanian leaders, has led Pristina government to believe they are "completely innocent," said Gennady Kuzmin, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Mission of Russia to the United Nations.

In December last year, Albania's High Court overturned a decision by the country's Appeals Court which, five years earlier, had freed a notorious underworld figure called Lulzim Berisha.

The pre-trial judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Nicolas Guillou, decided on Thursday that Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli should remain in detention ahead of their trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo.

Bajram Begaj has swapped the military for the office of Albanian president. But can he become a figure of unity after a much-criticised election?