Free Republic

(TIRANA) - Albania on Thursday slammed calls from a Kosovo hardline opposition leader to temporarily block the border with Serbia as a way of barring Serb products from entering the breakaway territory. Albania's foreign ministry said in a statement that the attempt to block the border was contrary to constructive efforts to make Kosovo a democratic state and multi-ethnic society. "The use of nationalist and pseudo-patriotic rhetoric" will not help key goals of the Albanians in both Kosovo and Albania to progress towards integration into the European Union, or new recognitions of Kosovo's independence, the ministry warned. Albin Kurti, a...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Two teams of Michigan State University researchers – one working at a medieval burial site in Albania, the other at a DNA lab in East Lansing – have shown how modern science can unlock the mysteries of the past. The scientists are the first to confirm the existence of brucellosis, an infectious disease still prevalent today, in ancient skeletal remains. The findings, which appear in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, suggest brucellosis has been endemic to Albania since at least the Middle Ages. Although rare in the United States, brucellosis remains a major problem in...

Several dozen young men are basking in the warm mid-day sun. They are Afghan and Pakistani. Behind them, on a white wall, is graffiti extolling the glories of the UÇK -- ex-Kosovo Albanian guerilla fighters.Over the past two years, the Macedonian village of Lojane, which borders Serbia, has become a stop-over on the illegal migration routes to Western Europe. “It started when groups of three or four would arrive periodically. It didn’t disturb us at first,” says Selam Mehmeti, the head of the village community. “But since this summer, it’s grown to a whole other dimension: there were 500 in...

After six grave sites, 133 coins and over 10,000 fragments of animal bone, archaeologists with assistant professor of classics David Hernandez's excavation team hit pay dirt, or rather, pay pavement, in the form of an ancient Roman forum. This summer, Hernandez and a team of Notre Dame undergraduates embarked on a six-week excavation trip to Butrint, Albania, where they made the discovery... Since the 1920s archaeologists have probed the site, producing evidence of a Greek sanctuary of Asclepius, a medieval house, a Venetian castle and now, a Roman forum, he said. The forum was a rectangular plaza surrounded by government...

The world court ruled Monday that Greece was wrong to block a bid by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to join NATO in 2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's use of the name “Macedonia.” In a 15-1 ruling, the court found that Greece's veto breached a provisional 1995 deal under which Greece had agreed not to block membership of the country in international organizations if it used the name FYROM, while the matter was submitted to further negotiations. More than 15 years later, mediation over the name is still ongoing. The victory is partly...

Ilir Kumbaro is wanted for torture and kidnapping in Albania. An arrest warrant has been issued for him after he failed to appear in a London court today A former Albanian spy chief wanted for torture and kidnapping was on the run yesterday after failing to appear at an extradition hearing in London. Ports and airports were put on alert after 58-year-old Ilir Kumbaro did not turn up at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he faced being sent back to Eastern Europe. The Daily Mail has learned that despite Kumbaro being regarded as ‘clever and resourceful’, his bail conditions did not...

KFor soldiers from the US stand guard at a barricade at the closed Serbia-Kosovo border crossing of Jarinje. Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters Cultural claims persist in regions as Belgrade refuses to acknowledge independence of Kosovo MILEVA PREMOVIC and her neighbours while away the afternoon in the shade of a broad tree. The unseasonable warmth makes it hard to imagine that the green Kapaonik mountains, rising up a few miles away in Serbia, will soon be white with snow and busy with skiers. It would also be hard to believe that bullets were fired and blood shed here just a few days...

On September the 16th NATO forces, overstepping their UN Security Council (UNSC) mandates, amid tensions on the administrative border between Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, have fired the first shots at bare-handed Kosovo Serbs in the village of Zupce. The Kosovo Serbs have erected barricades, in a life or death situation, to defend themselves against the Muslim Albanian onslaughts which desire to forcefully incorporate northern Kosovo into the US/EU created Republic of Kosovo, an amputated province from the Republic of Serbia. The Albanian police, aided and assisted by NATO’s KFOR, have taken over two border crossings: Jarinje and...

Cameramen cover a protest in front of Albania's Central Election Commission in Tirana, May 21 2011. The opposition said its victory in the Tirana mayor's race has been overturned by the counting of so-called stray and misplaced ballots while the CEC says it is living up to its duty to count every vote. [Reuters] Socialist Party supporters shout slogans as police stand guard during a protest in front of Albania's Central Election Commission in Tirana, May 21 2011. [Reuters] Opposition Socialist Party lawmaker Namik Dokle, centre, shouts slogans in front of police during a protest at Albania's Central Election...

TENS of thousands of demonstrators have started a silent protest in the Albanian capital Tirana, a week to the day after clashes during an opposition rally killed three. The demonstrators, headed by the leadership of the opposition Socialists and the families of the victims, started a march on the government buildings. People continued to pour into the downtown area near the government, bringing traffic in central Tirana to a standstill. Many protesters carried flowers.

Did you know that the EU has ensured that there has been no war between its members for last 60 years?

In my December 2010 essay "Amorality of US Kosovo Policy: Friends with the Snake", I published reactions to the Council of Europe’s (CoE) 27-page report authored by the Swiss-Italian politician, senator and prosecuting lawyer Dick Marty. The report, which is the culmination of his two-year investigation, claimed that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) thugs headed by the current Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci, known as “the Snake”, abducted mostly Kosovo Serbs and also some Albanian so-called “collaborators,” transported them to northern Albania, murdered them, extracted their kidneys and other organs, and sold them on the black market. These macabre Nazi/Croatian...

Although the campaign of elections is not officially opened yet, Prime Minister Sali Berisha has launched the tour of inaugurations, promising the Albanians to increase the investment and the improvement of their lives regardless of where they reside. In the picturesque village of Daias in the municipality of Petrela, where with an investment of 52 million is build a road and a new school, Prime Minister Berisha said that the government has funded any project that every village in the country have the infrastructure like that of the city. According to the Prime Minister Berisha, Petrela municipality, where during 5...

Croatia, Kosovo and Montenegro have started to count their populations as part of a year of censuses across the ethnically tense Western Balkans to keep up with EU countries doing the same... Because of the painful history organisation of the count sparked debate and controversy throughout the region: from Macedonia, where ethnic Albanians fear that their importance will be reduced, across Montenegro, where there are complaints that Serbs are being "assimilated", to Bosnia which did not even manage to adopt a census law. In Kosovo, where the last census was held in 1981 while it was still a province in...

The attack came as the bus sat outside Terminal 2 at the airport, according to Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt. The bus driver and a passenger were killed, and one person suffered serious wounds and another light injuries, he said. A source tells Fox News that the shooter yelled "Allah Akbar" when opening fire on the U.S. military personnel. He then dropped his gun at the scene, ran into the terminal and was subdued. U.S. Air Force Europe spokeswoman Maj. Beverly Mock said all four victims were airmen. They were all based at the Lakenheath military base in Britain. A...

A Silver Spring man convicted of falsifying immigration documents had threatened to blow up the White House, the U.S. Treasury building, a federal courthouse and a Metro stop, vowing to "slaughter the enemies of Islam," federal prosecutors said Monday in court. Lajqi, an ethnic Albanian who came to the United States through Mexico in the mid-1980s, is a self-described "extremist militant," who said he was trained by Bosnian Muslim rebels, according to court papers. He was angry about American military involvement in Kosovo in the 1990s, and "blamed all Albanian deaths in Kosovo on the United States," the court papers...

Ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo gave detailed testimony in 2003 on an alleged program to kill Serb captives, sell their organs, and bury hundreds of victims to hide evidence of civilian killings, according to a U.N. document obtained by The Associated Press.....

A classified document obtained by FRANCE 24 suggests the United Nations knew about organ trafficking in postwar Kosovo as early as 2003, five years before prosecutors in The Hague first raised the issue. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was expected to deliver a report on the situation in Kosovo to the Security Council in New York on Wednesday, reaffirming UN support for investigations into human organ trafficking during Kosovo’s postwar period. But a classified document obtained by FRANCE 24 indicates the UN knew of trafficking well before the issue was first raised by Carla del Ponte, a former prosecutor at...

Check out the Drudge Report. It appears that while our media is focused on Egypt, unrest is breaking out in other Moslem countries. Drudge has articles on three separate countries - Yemen, Albania, and Jordan - where protests are occurring right now.

TENS of thousands of demonstrators have started a silent protest in the Albanian capital Tirana, a week to the day after clashes during an opposition rally killed three. The demonstrators, headed by the leadership of the opposition Socialists and the families of the victims, started a march on the government buildings. People continued to pour into the downtown area near the government, bringing traffic in central Tirana to a standstill. Many protesters carried flowers.

Recent events in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt spell a dangerous new trend in the region. There have been major developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, each of which is of tremendous importance. In Tunisia, a popular uprising fueled by unemployment, economic suffering and long-term discontent has overthrown the dictator, but not necessarily the dictatorship. In 55 years of independence, the country has been governed by two dictators, the current one being Zine al-Abedin Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and was a key power in the regime even before that. Is this going to spread? Does it...

Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez assured Wednesday in Madrid Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic that her country will stick to its decision not to recognize Kosovo's independence. In a meeting with Jeremic, Jimenez also expressed support for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, according to Spanish news agency EFE. The talk focused on the situation in Kosovo, bilateral relations -- which the two ministers agreed were excellent -- and Serbia's integration in the European Union, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said. The Spanish minister thanked Jeremic on Serbia's constructive attitude regarding dialogue with Pristina, which they agreed should start as soon as...

The United States has signed a deal with Bhutan giving US citizens in the country immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the State Department said Tuesday. The deal with Bhutan brings to 34 the number of countries with which the United States has signed so-called "Article 98" agreements exempting US citizens from the court's jurisdiction, said Lynn Cassel, a department spokesman. Bhutan and Bosnia-Herzegovina both agreed to the pacts on May 16 but the deal with Thimphu was not announced until Tuesday. Washington refuses to support the ICC, arguing that it could become a forum for politically...

...Contemporary proponents of the Greater Albania employ a two-pronged strategy to gather supporters. "We are a social-welfare movement." Vetevendosje chief Kurti said. He seeks to draw support from the reservoir of energetic young people, frustrated by economic hopelessness, poverty and unemployment. The other direction of Vetevendosje action is to play up allegations of discrimination of Albanians in Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro....

NOTE The following text SNIPPET is a quote: newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo082410.htm Two Additional Arrests Made of Members of Violent International Organized Crime Group Albanian Government Aide Arrested; Newly Unsealed Indictment Charges 17 Defendants with Murder, Kidnapping, and Other Racketeering Offenses PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced the arrests of FLORIAN VESHI and ALMIR RRAPO for their roles in a racketeering enterprise that engaged...

SNIPPET: "Dr. Zakir Naik is a 44 year-old Muslim preacher born in India. He has gained a significant international following by establishing a satellite television network, Peace TV, which promotes Wahhabi Islam; it is based in Mumbai/Bombay, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, and has a supporting organization, the Islamic Research Foundation. Naik has mainly broadcast his message in English as well as Urdu. But Peace TV is an ambitious enterprise that now aims at Albanian Muslims, among others. Zakir Naik is distinguished by one characteristic: incitement of provocative disdain for any other Muslims than Wahhabis and Pakistani jihadists, as well as...

Note: The following text is a quote: Seven Charged with Terrorism Violations in North Carolina RALEIGH, NC—Seven individuals have been charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons abroad, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division; George E.B. Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; and Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Division, announced today. On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned a sealed seven-count indictment against the...

June 17, 2010 NOTE The following text is a quote: Kosovar National Charged with Terrorism Violations RALEIGH, NC—Bajram Asllani, 29, a resident of Mitrovica, Kosovo, has been charged in a criminal complaint with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons abroad, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; George E.B. Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Division; and Robin Pendergraft, Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, announced today. Asllani, also known as “Bajram...

  CONSPIRACY TO PROVIDE MATERIAL SUPPORT OR RESOURCES TO TERRORISTS (1 COUNT); CONSPIRACY TO KILL, KIDNAP, MAIM, OR INJURE PERSONS OR DAMAGE PROPERTY IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY (1 COUNT) BAJRAM ASLLANI Photograph taken in 2010    Aliases: Ebu Hatab, Bajram Aslani, Bajram Asslani Var Aslani, Bajram Asslani, Aslani Bajram, Bajram Aslami, Bajram Aslanni, Bajram Hajriz Asllani, Bayram Aslani DESCRIPTION   Dates of Birth Used:  August 12, 1980; August 12, 1989; November 11, 1970; December 8, 1980 Hair: Dark Brown Place of Birth: Mitrovica, Kosovo Eyes: Brown Height: 5'7" Sex: Male Weight: Unknown (heavy-set build) Complexion: Medium NCIC: T920777787 Nationality:...

Since the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989, the countries involved have explored different ways of dealing with the past. Albania took a different path to many, something which is still affecting it today, says the BBC's Iain MacInnes.> We met Ramiz Alia, the former leader of the Communist Party of Albania and, later, the first president of the post-communist Republic of Albania. Enver Hoxha, who led Albania from World War II until his death in 1985, designated Mr Alia as his successor as party leader. Mr Alia, who remained in power until 1992, has some regrets...

Something happened after President Clinton's 1999 war in Kosovo: It never ended. Its continuation was characterized by anti-Serb arson, kidnappings, bombings of NATO-escorted civilian buses and efforts to kill everyone from schoolgirls to octogenarians, plus the rare peacekeeper who tried to prevent any of this. Toward the end of 1999, several major newspapers reported on findings that mass graves such as the infamous Trepca zinc mine turned up empty, as did the stadium we were told was being used as a concentration camp. Anyone reading this one-time follow-up also would have learned that the "cleansing" of 800,000 Albanians had more...

A UN official has urged Albania to stop hampering efforts to investigate claims that hundreds of Serbs were tortured and murdered for their organs in the country during the Kosovo war. Belgrade says the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted up to 500 Serb civilians and took them to neighbouring Albania for organ removal during the 1998-9 conflict with Slobodan Milosevic’s forces. The allegations were first made public in a memoir by Carla Del Ponte, the former chief UN war crimes prosecutor, who said her office had received information about a possible Albanian trafficking network selling human organs abroad for transplanting....

The New Year's Eve massacre in Finland was described by police as a case of domestic violence, a bloody crime of passion. And so it was:a middle-aged man rebuffed by his ex-girlfriend broke a restraining order, killed her, then shot four of her colleagues at a supermarket before, it seems, taking his own life. But behind the horrific crime of an apparently deranged individual there was the deep-rooted problem of social exclusion. The clue is in the name of the suspected gunman: Ibrahim Shkupolli. Finnish sources say he was a Pristina-born Kosovo Albanian, one of the many who have settled...

Shots have been fired at a shopping centre in the town of Espoo, near the capital of Finland, Helsinki. An eyewitness said at least one person was left lying on the floor after shooting broke out, the national broadcaster YLE said on its website.

A sixth person has been found dead following the shootings in a town near Helsinki, Finland, police said Thursday. They said it is believed the sixth victim is the shooter, who police had previously identified as 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli. Shkupolli, who police said had lived in Finland "for some time," is believed to have killed at least four people at a shopping center near the Finnish capital Helsinki. Finnish police confirmed the shooting happened at 10:08 a.m. (3:08 a.m. ET), leaving three men and one woman dead. CNN affiliate MTV3 and state broadcaster YLE reported that five people were killed....

<p>"NatWest handed Al Qaeda terrorist 100% mortgage to buy £93,000 home he turned into a bomb factory"</p> <p>SNIPPET: "A bank has sparked outrage by handing over a 100 per cent mortgage to an Al Qaeda terrorist who smuggled himself into Britain.</p>

* Print * ShareThis A suspected Albanian gangster carrying a loaded pistol and silencer has been arrested outside the home of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, police have said, Sky News reported. There was no threat to Blair's safety, it is understood. The suspect, 56, was stopped in his car as he drove in Connaught Street, central London, on Monday at 11.15 p.m. local time. Officers on patrol became suspicious and arrested him for alleged traffic and documentation offences. About 25 minutes later, a passer-by approached a uniformed officer on guard outside Blair's £3.5m Connaught Square townhouse. He handed the...

Not much media attention focuses on the leveling of Christian sanctuaries. After all, it’s just a "Christian story." However, the latest mosque burnt to the ground gets plenty of newsfeed with narrative and copious photographs.

Inevitably, some extraordinary security measures were taken in Kosovo's capital in connection with William Jefferson Clinton's recent visit. The former president of the United States undertook a long journey to the middle of the Balkans in order to take a look at his own figure standing twelve feet above the rest of humanity. There could be little doubt that those extraordinary measures added additional tension in the life of the current and former residents of the area. Let's clear up a possible confusion: many of the current Albanian residents of Pristina live in the houses of the former Serbian owners...

Albania wants the remains of Nobel Peace laureate Mother Teresa and the only post-independence monarch to be returned to the country, the prime minister has said. Mother Teresa's remains are in India and King Ahmet Zog's in France. Prime minister Sali Berisha's government has asked India for the Roman Catholic nun's to be returned by the 100th anniversary of her birth in August. Berisha yesterday said Albania has started negotiations with India's government,which "will be intensified this year". Macedonia and Albania have been engaged in a dispute over the national identity of Mother Teresa, who was born in Macedonia to...

SNIPPET: "Arabic language schools in Nasr City are doing well and many Salafists come to Egypt in to learn the language of the Koran. Many deeply religious students from Europe come to Egypt to learn Arabic. The question is: are these European Salafists coming to study the language of the Koran or to prepare terrorist attacks?" SNIPPET: "In addition to language lessons, they usually follow courses in Islamic law offered by teachers ranging from the renowned Al-Azhar University to clandestine imams without permits. "Religious fanatics want to be taken seriously," says Walid al-Gohari, founder and director of the Al-Fajr institute,...

It is so refreshing to see that our own government helped create an Islamic stronghold within the Balkan Peninsula. Serbia jails 4 Muslims for plotting terror attack Tue Sep 8, 2009 12:28 BELGRADE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - A Serbian court on Tuesday sentenced four Muslims to prison terms ranging from four to eight years for plotting to attack a football stadium in a southern town of Novi Pazar, a spokeswoman said.

The EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, has confirmed that it is now involved in the investigation into allegations that three Serbs attempted to secure false testimony about organ trafficking. Christophe Lamfalussy told Balkan Insight that a mixed team of Kosovo and EULEX prosecutors in Pristina were now investigating the case. Three Serbs were arrested in June by Kosovo police, accused of trying to bribe Kosovo Serbs to falsely testify that they were victims of organ harvesting during the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict. EULEX was not involved in the initial arrests. Milutin Radanovic and Predrag Zelkovic are Serbian citizens....

A spectacular 61km section of highway through mountainous northern Albania opens on Thursday, creating a strategic link with fellow ethnic Albanians in landlocked Kosovo. For Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia last year, the modern four-lane route is a vital commercial link through a friendly country. At more than €600m (£510m, $840m) the new stretch of road will cut the eight-hour journey between Tirana and Pristina by at least two hours, according to Ernest Noka, Albania’s deputy transport minister. It was the toughest construction challenge on a corridor linking Albania’s Adriatic port of Durres with the Balkan interior and pan-European...

MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned over the rising tensions between the Serb and Albanian population in Kosovo, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. "The use of international police and activities against Serbs is unacceptable," spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said. Nesterenko said that there is a growth in the destabilization of northern Kosovo that could lead to an escalation of tensions throughout the region, adding that "balanced actions in the interests of all parties are needed." Kosovo's minority Serb population, which is dominant in the north of the territory, began to protest last week in Brdjani, an Albanian...

WARSAW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha is due to visit Prague on April 28, where he is expected to submit an application on EU candidate status, Czech media said on Saturday. Albania along with Croatia became NATO members in April. The Czech government's press service has made no official comments on the reports, but said that during the Albanian premier's visit to Prague "journalists were indeed in for a surprise." Berisha has said EU membership is a key aim for the once-isolated country in the run up to parliamentary elections in June. EU enlargement...

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2009 – For NATO’s two newest members, a National Guard program contributed to their April 1 accession into the alliance. Albania and Croatia have been members of the National Guard’s State Partnership Program for more than a decade. Along with other initiatives such as NATO’s Partnership for Peace program, the National Guard’s State Partnership Program helped the countries prepare for NATO membership, National Guard Bureau officials said. Established in 1949 as a defense pact against the former Soviet Union and now 28 members strong, NATO celebrated its 60th anniversary April 4. A dozen countries founded NATO...

Note from Ravnagora: The following was written back on February 17, 2008, the day Kosovo was handed its "independence". It gives a terrific overview of the "Albanian" issue. The author was born in Istanbul. The Greeks understand well... American and European foreign policy in the Balkans, suffering from a terminal form of historical amnesia, is bankrupt. The results of those bankrupt policies are visibly on display today as Kosovor Albanians declare themselves independent and a second Muslim state is now established on the European continent. The stage is now set for the a regime led by elements of the Kosovo...

It is a year since Kosovo, with NATO backing, made a unilateral declaration of independence, breaking away from Serbia. Fifty countries, most of which have little knowledge of the political intricacies of the Balkans and even less about the complicated historical interplay between the various ethnic and religious groups living in the area supported the move. As a state it is doubtful whether Kosovo can survive. It has virtually no industry, no service sector, tourism is non existent and agricultural exports minimal. The economy has been propped up artificially by the presence of NATO KFOR troops and foreign aid. Its...

A largely Muslim nation this month is hosting an exhibition highlighting a chapter of world history that has received little public exposure until now: how some Muslims risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. It is well known that Islamic leaders, including the grand mufti of Jerusalem, collaborated with the Nazis in divining anti-Semitic propaganda and recruiting Arab officials to support Adolph Hitler's war against Jews. Many of today's Mideast leaders, such as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are notorious for their outspoken denial of the Holocaust. Often overlooked, however, are scores of Albanian...