Tirana - Her face swollen and arms darkened by bruises, Ana's eyes dart anxiously around her flat in eastern Albania, where she is trapped with a violent husband whose blows have worsened during the pandemic.

Gjirokast - Snaking beneath a fortress in southern Albania, a covert tunnel network built during the communist era captures the secrecy and paranoia that defined the long rule of tyrant Enver Hoxha.

Tirana - Thousands of Albanians formed an enormous queue of cars at the Greek border Friday as they rushed to re-enter the country for work ahead of new virus rules, police said.

Divjak - The blue crab may be pretty but it is a menace along Albania's coast.A source of daily anguish for Balkan fishermen struggling to make ends meet, the invasive species is upsetting the region's ecosystems.

- Sabire Plaku gets short of breath when she climbs the hill that leads to the last intact statue of Albania's communist former dictator Enver Hoxha.Every morning, the 85-year-old checks that nobody has touched the effigy, which depicts him as a warrior....

Tirana - Kosovo President Hashim Thaci on Sunday defended his record, a day before flying to The Hague to be questioned by war crimes prosecutors over his role in the 1998-99 conflict.

Tirana - Kosovo President Hashim Thaci on Friday accused international justice of "rewriting history" after he was charged with war crimes linked to the 1990s conflict with Serbia.

Tirana - Elona Demollari does not know when her big day will come, but she is trying on wedding gowns anyway as Albanians yearn for the return of the big, brash weddings that are a cornerstone of social life in the poor Balkan country.

Tirana - Albanian police on Sunday clashed with protesters including opposition supporters angry over the demolition of the national theatre and detained nearly 40 people.

Arta - With tourists home, boats docked and factories silenced under a coronavirus lockdown, Albania's pink flamingos and curly pelicans are flourishing in the newfound tranquility of lagoons dotting the country's western coastline.

Tirana - Inside a dark shack outside Albania's capital, 18-year-old Mirela tries to soothe her newborn with the only food she has: a can of powdered milk scrounged from a rubbish bin. "But what to do after that?

Man - In a gleaming compound built from scratch on an Albanian hillside, thousands of Iranians dedicate their waking hours to toppling the regime in Tehran 3,000 kilometres away. They believe the end of their exile is near.

Tirana - The widow of Albania's former communist dictator Enver Hoxha, considered the power behind the throne and herself personally implicated in executions and deportations during his regime, died on Wednesday aged 99, her family said.

Mamurras - When a powerful earthquake struck Albania more than two months ago, buildings collapsed like houses of cards atop sleeping families.

Tirana - Albania will not "stay at Europe's door and cry" for it to open, Prime Minister Edi Rama told AFP, stressing that the Balkan state must focus on its own future while Brussels sorts out thorny questions over its admissions process. The country of 2.

Gjirokast - Inside the stone walls of a 13th-century fortress, Albanian and Russian actors are striving to re-enact a little-known but troubling chapter of their shared history for the big screen.

Tirana - After media interest helped mobilise the evacuation of an Albanian boy from northern Syria last month, families of other children of Islamic State fighters are pleading with Tirana to redouble its efforts and bring the rest home.

Durr - The search for survivors of a deadly Albanian earthquake was called off on Saturday as eight family members, including four children, killed in the port of Durres were laid to rest.The 6.

Mamurras - Albanian families buried their loved ones on Friday and the country mourned the 49 people known to have died in this week's earthquake, as officials grapple with the destruction left in its wake. Entire families were crushed by their homes when the 6.

Mamurras - Emergency workers on Wednesday pulled dust-covered corpses from the ruins of an earthquake that has claimed 30 lives in Albania, as aftershocks hampered the second day of search efforts for survivors.The 6.