Sali Berisha

Launching his campaign to become the next mayor of the capital, Bojaxhi challenged Albania's two big political parties, the Socialist and Democrats, arguing that they had little to offer the city.

"We have no security in Tirana, are without air and are without clean, unclogged streets," the former minister said.

Supporters of Albania's opposition centre-right Democrats plan to gather on Thursday in front of the government office in Tirana amid allegations of a murder plot involving the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta.

Disillusioned with political promises and with the justice system in Albania, relatives of a victim of January 21st, 2011 protest in Tirana have asked the European Parliament to help push forward the investigation.

Police spokeswoman Alma Katragjini said in a statement that 58-year-old banker Santo was shot at 9.30am local time outside his office in the central Blloku neighborhood of Tirana.  

Katrigjini said that the motive for the murder was unclear; a group of investigators has been assembled to probe it.

Albania's former Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, has urged the prosecutor’s office to investigate what he called excessive and illegal use of force by police in the village of Lazarat.  

“The United States Embassy in Tirana is appalled at the unsubstantiated allegation made against an Embassy employee earlier today by Mr Sali Berisha,” the US embassy said on Thursday.

“The allegation is completely untrue and without foundation,” it added.

“The IEA did not suggest that Albania broke sanctions on Iran and any report that says otherwise needs to run a correction,” Magdalena Sanocka, a spokesperson for the IEA, said.

Sanocka said its report only mentioned Albania as a temporary destination for an Iranian oil tanker, which eventually unloaded its cargo elsewhere.

Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha on Thursday called for a parliamentary inquiry into claims that the centre-left government of Premier Edi Rama has imported oil from Teheran, breaking the UN-imposed embargo.

“The government has breached the embargo by allowing imports of oil from Iran, a grave national and international act,” Berisha said during Thursday's parliamentary session.

The data, obtained through a freedom of information request, FOI, show that the Ministry of Interior held six major TV ad campaigns and produced one spot in four years for a total 85,389,780 lek (€610,000).

The seven contracts awarded for the production and transmission of the adverts all went to one advertising agency, Promo Sh.p.k.

Announcing the rally in Tirana, Albania's former Democratic Party Prime Minister, Sali Berisha, said Edi Rama's new left-of-centre government had based "everything on deception, falsity and violence against the opposition and the people”.

“The fraud committed by Edi Rama in turning his electoral platform upside down is quickly making his government illegitimate,” he added.