A last round of United Nations-sponsored negotiations on the future status of Kosovo between Serbian authorities and leaders of the province’s ethnic Albanian majority broke up in Austria without an agreement. Kosovo’s leaders are widely expected to declare independence soon after mediators from the European Union, the United States and Russia submit their report to the United Nations by Dec. 10.
Albania’s central bank raised its key repo rate by 0.25 percentage points to 6.25 percent on Tuesday, citing inflationary pressures from booming loans, loose government spending, and rising electricity costs.
Governor Ardian Fullani told a news conference the hike was meant to preserve price stability in the face of growing loan-fuelled consumer demand, and also pre-empt the effects of a 7.9 percent deficit in next year’s budget.
Fullani added that the bank was worried about the expansion of the credit portfolio, which hit growth of over 50 percent year-on-year in October.
Hakim was released last year from Guantánamo along with four other Uighurs, a minority group of Turkic-speaking Chinese Muslims, after the United States said they were not terrorists. The authorities believed they might face persecution if returned to China, so they were sent to Albania, the only other country that would receive them.
Thousands of Albanians gathered Wednesday in the southern city of Vlora to mark the 95th anniversary of their country’s declaration of independence. Before it declared its independence on November 28, 1912 Albania had been part of the Ottoman Empire for over four centuries.
NATO warned Albania on Friday that it must push through more reforms of its justice and political system to win early membership in the Western military alliance.
“The invitation tickets are not punched yet; further reform is necessary,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after a meeting with Albanian’s president Bamir Topi. “A lot of work will still have to be done and no guarantees can be given.”
TIRANA, 30 July 2007 (ESI-News.com) – Four men accused of killing 10 police officers during the worst incident of the 1997 riots have been arrested. Three had their court initial appearance today. Continue Reading »
Albania is burning: Ukrainian contractors and Czech volunteers join locals to fight raging wildfires
TIRANA, 30 July 2007 (ESI-News.com) – From Kolonje in the south to Lura in the north, Albania is burning. There are more than 30 wild fires across the country this Monday, but authorities are finally having relief in their fight. Continue Reading »
GOSTIVAR, 27 July 2007 (ESI-News.com) Police in Macedonia have broken up a prostitution ring in the city’s night clubs, saving 24 women from the clutches of human traffickers, local authorities said. Continue Reading »
TIRANA, 27 July 2007 (ESI-News.com) Albanian President Bamir Topi held a telephone conversation with the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, in which Rice assured the new president of U.S. support as Albania works toward NATO membership, Topi’s spokesman said in a statement. Continue Reading »
TIRANA, 26 July 2007 (ESI News) – Faced with an energy crisis and a heatwave, the Albanian government has ordered the country’s civil administration to cut its working hours to five, three less than the usual eight-hour day. Continue Reading »
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