Albania

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

Ahead of elections due in April, Albania said it was considering buying a US electronic voting identification system – which would make it harder for politicians to steal votes in a country where many people now live and work abroad.

A 2019 government deal with a private venture to improve lab services in Albania ended up complicating efforts to expand COVID-19 testing, critics say, and is causing concern over the long-term impact on publicly-funded diagnostics and scientific research.

Over a chaotic, exhausting and unpredictable year for many people, BIRN has selected photographs from across the region that highlight major political events, social issues, celebrations and commemorations.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

Serbia has announced that it expects the first COVID-19 vaccines to arrive this week, while Turkey and other countries in the Balkans expect their first doses somewhat later – either by the end of 2020 or in the first quarter of 2021.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

Are political calculations behind a practice in Serbia to classify as inactive the addresses of people deemed no longer living at their registered addresses, a significant number of them ethnic Albanians?

Kosovo’s electricity network system operator, KOSTT, has begun to operate independently across the whole of the country and as part of a new energy bloc with neighbouring Albania, officials announced.

Parents of the youthful protesters arrested during the latest anti-government rallies are hunting in police stations across Tirana for their children – some accusing the police of making arbitrary arrests.

Six rights organisations say human rights in Albania deteriorated in several fields in 2020 – the first year Albania has held the chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE.

Violent youngsters roamed Tirana centre on Thursday night, building barricades and clashing with riot police - unappeased by the resignation of the Interior Minister following the fatal shooting by police of an unarmed 25-year-old.

Turkey has long pursued a policy of soft-power diplomacy in the Balkans. More recently, the defence sector has come to the fore.

Belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories is very strong in all six Western Balkan countries, a new survey shows – and these beliefs are not linked, as might be expected, to educational levels.

Several hundred Albanians joined protests across the country on Wednesday night, angered after police shot dead a 25-year-old the night before.

A study presented on Wednesday concludes that China is increasing its presence in the media throughout the region.

A meeting of EU countries’ European affairs ministers again failed to make progress to overcome Bulgarian objections to the start of membership negotiations with North Macedonia.

Albania's Ministry of Justice is planning changes to the penal code that include a sharp rise in fines for defamation cases – and rephrasing the offence to make it easier to reach guilty verdicts.

Amid mud-slinging over whether Albanian politicians helped tarnish the image of the Kosovo Liberation Army, parliament has resolved to investigate whether the KLA committed war crimes in the country.

Advisory body to Council of Europe says the proposed changes to the Albanian constitution and electoral code have been rushed through parliament – warning that it is “crucial to ensure trust in the electoral process.”

Almost half the fishermen working at Albania’s main port of Durres are immigrants, mostly from Egypt or Turkey, as few Albanian youngsters are now willing to work in this difficult industry.

On the international day calling attention to violence against women, both police data and unofficial reports from Central and Southeast Europe highlight that this deep-rooted problem is not going away.

The revolution will be broadcasted: the burgeoning podcast scene in Bulgaria may have a way to go, but it’s gaining momentum fast and already has the potential to transform a dire media landscape

As the healthcare system in Albania strains to deal with the pandemic, air ambulance operators have boomed, transporting sick patients to private hospitals in Turkey and elsewhere, BIRN can reveal.

The fresh wave of infections threatens health systems across the region with collapse, worrying patients and medics alike.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

At an EU-backed summit, political leaders from the Western Balkans adopted an action plan for creating a common market and a joint environmental agenda for the region.

In a sign of warming relations between the two countries, Albania and Serbia on Monday signed a deal enabling citizens of both countries to enter the other one with only their ID cards.