Prime Ministers of Albania

The Albania government said on Monday that it is seriously examining an incident at the weekend in which two Russians and a Ukrainian passport holder were detained while entering an arms factory in Gramsh and allegedly assaulted soldiers.

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.

Socialist Party MPs said on Thursday that an opposition request to investigate controversial strategic investments in the country's coastal areas should be rejected on a technicality, arguing that supporting signatures wasn't collected in a proper way.

Albania's parliament is set to vote for a new president on Saturday, but no candidates' names are known or even rumoured, less than 24 hours ahead of the vote.

Sali Berisha appeared to be back in charge of Albania's main centre-right opposition Democratic Party after nine years, after he won 93 per cent of votes cast by around 40,000 party members on Sunday.

Albania's President, Ilir Meta, will end his mandate in office after winning a Constitutional Court battle with the ruling Socialist Party, which dismissed him via a vote in parliament nine months ago.

In a verdict on Wednesday, the Court said the accusations made against Meta "do not constitute serious violation of the constitution".

Unfortunately, for the past 30 years, both international and Albanian leaders have often tipped the scales of justice to serve their respective political agendas.

The civil war within Albania's main opposition Democratic Party worsened over the weekend after an assembly on Saturday summoned by former DP leader Sali Berisha voted to change the party's statute, and dismiss the current leader, Lulzim Basha - who has, in turn, dismissed some party members that participated in the assembly.

Political veteran Sali Berisha will bid to take back control of the opposition Democrats on Saturday, but in doing so he risks splitting the party in two.

Few people in the US or abroad took notice of President Joe Biden's memorandum to combat corruption globally -until the Administration began to declare former world leaders personae non grata.

In Albania, the US had repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Edi Rama's Socialist government of corruption, calling it "pervasive in all branches of government," especially in the judiciary.