Tirana - After slipping across the Greek border into the arid mountains of southeastern Albania in the dead of night, Hidaja Salah and his fellow travellers are blinded by the headlights of a police car.

Tirana - Inside the halls of Albania's quiet Supreme Court building, a clock on the wall has stopped.

Tirana - Albanians cast ballots on Sunday in tense municipal elections that have become the flashpoint of a democratic crisis, with the opposition boycotting the vote and refusing to recognise its results.

Tirana - Albania's president on Tuesday denounced as politicised a decision by the country's top election body to back holding local polls this weekend, over-ruling his decree scrapping the vote.

Tirana - Albania's top election authority on Monday backed holding local polls this weekend, rejecting an effort by the president to cancel the vote amid a whirlwind of political turmoil.

Tirana - With an ex-minister on trial for drug trafficking, an opposition leader suspected of money laundering and hundreds of judges probed over graft, Albania is wrestling against a corruption plague threatening its EU membership hopes.

Tirana - Albania's ruling Socialist Party on Thursday voted down a move by President Ilir Meta to scrap local elections he viewed as undemocratic because of an opposition boycott.

Tirana - Albanian President Ilir Meta on Saturday cancelled local elections scheduled for June 30, a decision promptly rejected by Prime Minister Edi Rama who said the polls would go ahead.

Tirana - Ismail Kadare draws the curtain to bring a shaft of light into the Tirana apartment where he wrote furiously during the dark days of communism -- a space visitors can now explore first-hand after his former home was turned into a museum.

Tirana - Police in the Albanian capital Tirana on Sunday fired tear gas and water canon at demonstrators demanding the resignation of socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Tirana - Molotov cocktails in the streets and a mass resignation in parliament -- Albania's volatile political scene is exploding just as its European future is on the table, threatening Tirana's dreams of joining the bloc.

Tirana - After years of scouring documents, tapes and then the slopes of a mountain above Tirana, Jovan Plaku found the remains of 13 people in a forest where he believes his father was executed by Albania's former communist regime.

Tirana - Albanian police on Tuesday arrested a 28-year old man following a request from Italy where he is sought for "terrorist activities".

Tirana - Several police officers were injured Saturday in Tirana during the opposition protest calling on Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Tirana - The Balkan countries are hurting from the stalled integration process with the European Union, where member states are growing weary of enlargement, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told AFP in an interview.

Tirana - Security at the Albanian capital's airport was under scrutiny Wednesday after a Hollywood-style robbery on its runway that left one gunman dead while his accomplices fled with millions of euros.

Tirana - Police in Albania used tear gas and water cannon against stone-throwing anti-government demonstrators in the capital Tirana Saturday, as they tried to force their way into the parliament building.

Berat - On a sloped, cobblestone street in southern Albania sits a small shop, empty except for a dozen framed panels on the walls bearing photos and stories from 500 years of Jewish life.

Tirana - Albanian police used teargas Tuesday to disperse hundreds of opposition protesters who tried to prevent ruling Socialist MPs from entering parliament.

Tirana - After emerging from his hiding place inside a truck packed with children's toys at a British port, Alban Tufa saw the police and realised his attempt to slip into the country had failed.