Vlora

This wasn't the first mass escape from Albania. A few months before, on March 6, 1991, several thousand more Albanians reached Italy after seizing cargo ships in the ports.

A year earlier, on July 1990, some 5,000 others took refuge in foreign embassies in the capital, Tirana. Thousands more crossed the land border to Greece.

After a series of debates and repeated promises, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced Wednesday that he received a proposal to begin building the country’s second passenger airport near the coastal city of Vlora “by this summer".

Police authorities in Albania in collaboration with Italian counterparts have opened an investigation into drugs trafficking after a small plane was spotted on Sunday flying over fields near Vlora a few miles from the sea.

Three suspects were later questioned by the Vlora police, although the plane and its pilot are still unidentified.

Christmas Eve, 1990. The first Albanian refugees pass through the unprotected borders with Greece.

The first blast went off in the coastal city on Saturday, blowing up a car belonging to Ardian Trota, a crime suspect labelled by the local media as "the strongman of Kukes".

The car was destroyed by the powerful explosion but Trota was not in it at the time of the blast and only suffered minor injuries.

Italian-flagged ferry Norman Atlantic carrying hundreds of passengers was on fire in the Adriatic Sea, the CNN reported, quoting Greek Merchant Marine Ministry officials.

At least 150 passengers have been been taken off the ferry by the Greek authorities but high winds, rough seas and poor visibility are hampering rescue efforts.

The arrests came after Albanian police on Thursday blocked 270 men, women and children from trying to board ferries in the southern port of Vlora bound for Italy, who would then be transferred to Germany on buses.

...