Shkodër

Eight people have died in southern Albania when a car carrying suspected migrants swerved off a mountain road into a ravine, police said.

The car fell on the rocky bank of the fast-flowing Vjosa River, about 240 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tirana, around 4 a.m., according to a police statement.

That lump of plaster fell from one of the many old and unmaintained houses of the neighbourhood of a town with a long history as a centre of trade and administration.

Over those centuries, many large walled houses were built. However, scores of these buildings are collapsing one after another due to abandonment, bureaucratic obstacles and lack of attention.

The governments of Montenegro and Albania held an unprecedented joint cabinet meeting on Tuesday, vowing to work together to confront the challenges of migration, refugees, minorities and security.

Local inhabitants thought it was just a small, grassy hill.

However, a joint team of Polish and Albanian archaeologists now think they may have discovered the lost city of Bassania, which the Roman writer Livy described as the site of a battle between the Romans and the last king of Illyria.

The archbishop of Shkoder-Pult, Angelo Massafra, announced on Thursday that from January 1, he will not allow people to get married on Sundays, causing surprise and some dismay among Catholics in Albania.

Artur Jaku, a priest in Shkodra, told Albanian Public Television, RTSH that the most important reason was that on Sundays, Catholics should go to Mass.

On Saturday, in the northern city of Shkodra, 38 Catholics killed for their faith under Albania's Communist regime will be beatified in what is being called the biggest single Albanian Catholic event ever.

The Mass that around 10,000 people are expected to attend will be held by Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Pope's Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican.