Greek PM: European 'Marshall Plan' for Greece

(ANA-MPA) -- The eurozone heads of state and government late Thursday in Brussels agreed a new 109 billion euro support programme for Greece supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and with the voluntary contribution of the private sector to "fully cover the financing gap", over which Greek prime minister George Papandreou expressed full satisfaction, calling it a "European 'Marshall Plan'" for the country. Papandreou expressed full satisfaction with the decisions taken at the extraordinary eurozone summit, speaking at a pres conference after the marathon deliberations. Thursday's eurozone summit decisions, the prime minister continued, ensure: the long-term sustainability of the Greek debt and create the conditions for full yield of the stabilisation programme for the Greek economy; put into effect an integrated support programme for the Greek real economy, aiming at the speediest possible return to positive growth rates; ensure the country's borrowing needs up to 2020 with respect to the tradable part of the debt (non-tradable is the part of the debt in the possession of central banks, eurozone countries and the IMF);

In Memorian

ONE YEAR AFTER THE KILLING OF ARISTOTEL GOUMAS

Press Release

On Sunday, August 7 at 10 am, will be in our homeland Himara, the memorial in honor of our national martyr, Aristotle Goumas. On August 12 of last year, our countryman Aristotle Goumas was brutally murdered by a group of Albanian nationalists simply because he spoke Greek.

The event was organized by the family of the murdered, the Himara Union and the local branch of "Omonia" and others organizations in Himara Region, committed to the annual memorial, while the ceremony will attend by the unveiling of a bust of Aristotle Goumas.

The placement of the portrait, in addition to softening the pain of the family will remind everyone of the sacrifice of Aristotel Goumas and the struggles of Himaras people to preserve the Greek language, Greek culture and the tradition generation.

The Himara Union

Land registration and road signs in Albania's south coast assisted by €1.5 million European Union-funded project implemented by OSCE

Photo: Protest of the people of Himara in August 2008 for their lands and properties which are attacked by Mafia. The protesters have dual citizenship, Albanian and Greek, remembering the OSCE that they are European citizens and finance this process, which must to be transparent for their generations.

TIRANA, 21 July 2011 – This EU funded €1.5 million technical assistance project, implemented by the OSCE Presence in Albania was presented today in Tirana. This project in a key touristic region of Albania aims to complete the first property registration and updating of existing registration for some 60,000 properties in coastal areas of the country from Palase Gjolek in the north to Xarre. This will give owners clear legal title and boost the potential for investment in the region. The project also includes new street signs installed in Saranda, Selenica, and Armen, and soon to be installed in six other areas (Golem, Qender Vlora, Orikum, Lukova, Delvina and Dhiver) at a cost of €103,000.

Speaking at the project presentation, Ambassador Ettore Sequi, the Head of the EU Delegation to Albania, said: “Clear property titles and legal certainty are essential prerequisites for prosperous development of the country and attracting foreign investment. Only when such a system is finally in place will Albania become an attractive location for foreign investors to establish operations leading to employment generation.”

The Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Eugen Wollfarth, stated: “The project will assist the Government in increasing security of tenure, which is crucial for the sustainable development of the coastal area. It will also provide a basis for officials and lawmakers to formulate appropriate laws, policies and procedures to establish clear property titles and to protect this right.”

The project collects and processes property-related data and facilitates public participation in a transparent process that will provide public institutions with the information required to accurately determine and protect property rights. It offers natural and legal persons the opportunity to provide documents and information demonstrating a right to property and to request legal recognition of this right. All documents and maps collected and generated under the project will be handed over to the Immovable Property Registration Office.

The project, which receives additional funding from the Governments of Greece (€100,000), the Czech Republic (€50,000) and Switzerland (€30,000), is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2011.

Note: The Himara Community and the Coastal Association stated that the registration land by OSCE, is favoring the Mafia not inhabitants of the regions. According the statement "the process is to failure because the corruption and the missing of the transparency by the the Albanian companies that menage the process, is evident.

Trans Adriatic Pipeline, Albania Sign Memorandum for SEE Security of Supply

Earlier this year TAP signed similar agreements with other IAP participants, including Croatian gas system operator Plinacro Ltd, Bosnian gas system operator BH-Gas and the government of Montenegro. TAP supports the objectives of these countries in further developing the SEE regional gas market and integrating it to the EU energy market

AUTHOR: publics.bg

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  © Aquafornia@flickr.com
  
  

Trans Adriatic Pipeline and the government of Albania signed today in Tirana a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation (MOUC) with a focus on exploring possibilities for connecting the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP), a major regional natural gas project, to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline system at a tie-in point near Fier in Albania.

Earlier this year TAP signed similar agreements with other IAP participants, including Croatian gas system operator Plinacro Ltd, Bosnian gas system operator BH-Gas and the government of Montenegro. TAP supports the objectives of these countries in further developing the SEE regional gas market and integrating it to the EU energy market.

By having signed agreements with all four participants of the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline, TAP consolidates the framework necessary for the further development of the TAP and IAP’s interconnection. Next steps will include alignment of the projects’ schedules and technical specifications of the pipelines.

The IAP connection to TAP will provide SEE, a region heavily dependent on a single gas supplier, with new and reliable natural gas supplies from the Caspian region. What is more, it will bring major energy security and economic benefits to the region.

Recently, the significance of the IAP project was recognized by the Western Balkan Investment Framework (WBIF), which decided to grant the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline project 3.5 million Euro for the execution of a feasibility study and environmental impact assessment (EIA).

Siemens Threatens to Sue Greek Government

Siemens have announced they will be taking legal actions against the Greek government. The lawyers of the firm denied the governments’ allegations that Siemens damaged the Greek state because of bribes and laundry money.

No bribes have been paid to the Greek politicians by the Hellenic Siemens company, noted the lawyers. The engineering powerhouse Siemens denies every accusation and does not accept charges of 2 billion euro damages.

The Greek government stated that it would l take every measure so as to protect its interest. Both sides made unsuccessful efforts to reach a settlement. In the end, the decision will probably be given by the court in Munich in the forthcoming future.

Albanian Albtelekom is to be sold to the Chinese HUAWEI Technologies Co LTD

July 20, 2011

Special Report by the political analyst and journalist based in Tirana, GJERGJ THANASI

The Turkish company Calik Holding is to sell the Albanian Albtelekom to the Chinese HUAWEI Technologies CO LTD. Albtelekom was a state owned Albanian telecomunication company tracing its history to 1912, when Albania was declared independent from Turkey.

The process of privatization began some six years ago under the socialist Premier Fatos Nano. The democratic Party in opposition at that time strongly opposed this privatization Mr. Sali Berisha the head of DP caused also a diplomatic faux pass when Turkish Premier Taip Erdogan paid a visit to the Albanian Parliament. IN 2005 Mr. Berisha became Prime minister of Albania, then 76% of Albtelekom shares were sold to Calik Holding and Turkish Telekom in October 2007.In March 2008 the Turkish owned Albtelekom bought the Mobile telephone linsense called EagleMobile. It had a 13% share of the market(385 000 subscribers) within a year.

Now Albtelekom is facing serious difficulties as many of its subscribers are cut short their contracts with Albtelekom for newly established private companies which provide internet and fixed telephone service and sometimes also cable TV service. The Albtelekom charges for network maintenance and its fee for providing internet are well above the average of the market. Mrs. Anila Jani the deputy chairwoman of the Albanian Board of the Customers protection denounced such practices by Albtelekom in a workshop with journalists of central Albania, stressing the fact that the Board directed by her had reprimanded Albtelekom several times over such practices.

The Eagle Mobile’ the Albanian mobile telephone company also owned by the Turkish Calik Group is doing quite well, increasing the number of its subscribers making use also to the newly introduced option of the portability of mobile phone numbers.

The talks between Calik Group representatives and Chinese ones were stimulated by Premier Berisha’s invitation to managers of HUAWEI Technologies CO LTd: Mr.Ren Shu Lu and Mrs.Meng Wang Zhou to purchase the Albtelekom, calling it a good bargain in spite of the price being somehow high.

This invitation by Premier Berisha was made in the presence of diplomatic staff of Albanian Embassy in Bejing.
Such a possible purchase of Albtelekom by the Chinese company has raised concerns in Albania because of possible national security problems as well as the unethical behavior (instances of economic espionage against Cisco Company or Motorola ) on the part of HUAWEi in several countries ranging from Australia and Indonesia to UK and USA.

Albania: New ministers appointed

Source: Alsat

The new Minister of Justice will be Eduard Halimi, who enters the government for the first time after 6 years that the Democrats are in power. Aldo Bumci was appointed Minister of Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sport.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha completed his governmental Cabinet with two new names. The new Minister of Justice will be Eduard Halimi, who enters the government for the first time after 6 years that the Democrats are in power. Aldo Bumci was appointed Minister of Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sport.

These posts were left vacant before May 8 elections, when Lulzim Basha and Ferdinand Xhaferraj competed in the race for the municipalities. Bujar Nishani left the post of the Justice Minister to replace Lulzim Basha, and Ferdinand Xhaferraj was not replaced by anyone, by leaving the Ministry of Culture for 115 days in the hands of the deputy ministers.

Halimi is not new in the justice system. Until 2009, he headed the Chamber of Advocacy. Meanwhile, Bumci, who is known as a former member of KOP, in the first mandate of the Democrats, in 2005, was appointed as Justice Minister.

Both candidatures were signed by Prime Minister Sali Berisha and they were consigned to be registered in the Presidency, and latter to be decreed by the head of the country. The last parliamentary meeting for this season will be Thursday, and as a consequence, decrees will be voted in this session.

Albania unable to hold elections, EU admits

Published 20 July 2011

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Albania Albanian elections

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In an unprecedented statement, EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle lamented yesterday (19 July) the failures of the Albanian electoral system, urging the EU hopeful to undertake deep parliamentary reform.

Ashton and Füle lamented the fallout from the recent mayoral vote in Tirana (see 'Background') and used simple and unusual wording to convey the message that the electoral system in Albania needs "urgent" and "thorough" reform.

"The elections in Tirana were not good as they demonstrated beyond doubt that the electoral framework needs to be reformed," the top EU officials stated.

In their written message, Ashton and Füle call on the Albanian authorities to follow the recommendations of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's specialised body set up to provide urgent constitutional assistance to Central and Eastern Europe.

"It is time for political forces in Albania to overcome the political stalemate and return to a level of political dialogue that would allow the proper functioning of key democratic institutions, notably the parliament," the two representatives state.

EU officials recently denounced the "lack of political maturity" in Albania, who officially says it would like to achieve EU candidate status by the end of this year.

In an unprecedented gesture, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso cancelled a trip to Albania last May, signalling that patience with the EU hopeful was wearing thin in Brussels circles.

EU insiders had hoped that Croatia's recent successful closure of the accession negotiations would give new momentum to the remaining membership hopefuls in the Western Balkans: Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo. However, with the exception of Serbia, the region's EU hopefuls appear to have provided more disappointment than success recently.

Albania has experienced a difficult transition to democracy partly due to the fact that under communism, the country was a de facto autarchy which had almost no contact with the outside world.

Scene of violence from the January protests

Background:

Every Albanian election since the fall of communism in the early 1990s has been marred by accusations of fraud, but the last parliamentary and mayoral elections left the country in political paralysis.

National elections, held on 28 June 2009, saw Albania's dominant post-communist politician Sali Berisha clinch a second four-year term as prime minister. The opposition Socialists refused to accept the results and accused his government of corruption and vote fraud.

Turkey to "freeze" EU ties during Cypriot presidency

Source: Tanjug

ANKARA -- Turkish PM Recep Erdogan has said his country would "freeze" its relations with the EU when Cyprus takes over as the organization's presiding country.

Recep Erdogan (file)

Turkey, which in the 1970s invaded the northern part of the island, does not have diplomatic relations with Cyprus.

"We will not have any sort of discussion with the Cypriot president. Our contacts with the EU will be frozen," Erdogan told a Turkish daily.

Erdogan is due to visit northern Cyprus, where local Turks declared a state, recognized by Turkey.

The Republic of Cyprus, meanwhile, is due to take over the EU presidency in mid-2012.

Turkey, which does not recognize the government in Nicosia, said it was in favor of speedier UN-sponsored talks held between the two sides.

Unless a solution is reached for the Cypriot problem by the time Nicosia takes over the EU presidency, reports suggest that Turkey's EU membership bid will suffer further setbacks.

Turkey was given EU candidate status in 1999, and started accession negotiations six years later - without any significant progress to date.

Serbian Ministers Prefer Greek Holidays

Greece remains the top summer destination for Serbian ministers, while some opt for Montenegro and one is is not going anywhere.

Bojana Barlovac

Belgrade

Santorini, Greece

Strikes in Greece have not prevented most of Serbian ministers from packing suitcases in order to spend another holiday in their favourite destination, Greece.

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and his wife are to travel to the Chalkidiki peninsula in Greece in the first week of August.

Snezana Samardzic-Markovic, Minister of Youth and Sports, will spend her vacation on the Greek Island of Corfu. Milan Markovic, Public Administration and Local Self-Government, and Verica Kalanovic, Deputy Prime Minister, also plan trips to Greece.

Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac and Minister of Economy and Regional Development Nebojsa Ciric have already spent their summer holiday with their families at beaches near Athens.

On the other hand, two ministers have chosen vacations in neighbouring Montenegro - Oliver Dulic, Minister for Environment and Spatial Planning, and Kosovo Minister Goran Bogdanovic.

Ivica Dacic, Interior Minister, is likely to get some rest in Serbia's own countryside, while Jovan Krkobabic, Deputy Prime Minister, will most likely go to the northern Serbian town of Kacarevo.

Srdjan Sreckovic, Minister for Diaspora and Religion, has already spent ten days in Turkey with his family.

Milutin Mrkonjic, Minister of Infrastructure, is the only minister who is too busy to go anywhere. He has announced he is spending the summer in working mode.

No one seems to be going to Croatia, in spite of billboards reminding Serbs that Croatia is "So beautiful and so close".

Last year, some ministers, including Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic, were vocal in saying they would never choose Croatia as their summer destination. "Neither this or the next or any other year will the Croatian coast see me," he told reporters last year.

Serbian ministers on holidays abroad cannot use their official mobile phones for private calls. Their bills, which are paid by the state, are limited to 5,000 dinars (about €50) and have no roaming option.

Drugs smuggled from Albania found in abandoned car

Police confiscated nearly 56 kilos of cannabis from Albania found in a private car that was abandoned by its 27-year-old driver, an Albanian national, following a car chase on Ioannina-Kakavia motorway in the northwest, close to the Greek-Albanian frontier, authorities said on Monday.

The driver of the car failed to stop for a routine police check and sped off leading to a car chase. A search is underway for the arrest of the 27-year-old.

NEW SPECIAL EDITION OF WIKIPEDIA

1997 rebellion in Albania

10 Civil War Days

Evacuation of U.S. citizens during Operation Silver Wake
Date March 1997 Location Albania Result New Parliamentary Elections[1] Territorial changes Albania
Belligerents
Rebels Armed civilians who lost their money Socialist Party of Albania Armed Gangs from Southern Albania Defected Albanian Army Salvation Committees	Government of Sali Berisha Albanian Secret Police (SHIK) Part of the Albanian police Republican Guard Voluntary Forces from Northern Albania Italian Armed Forces (Operation Alba) German Armed Forces (Operation Libelle) United States Armed Forces (Operation Silver Wake) Greek Armed Forces (Operation Alba) and humanitarian aid[2] NATO
Commanders and leaders
Rebels leaders Skënder Gjinushi Gramoz Ruci Zani Çaushi Albert Shyti Leka I Arben Imami Ridvan Peshkëpia Neritan Ceka	Governement allies Sali Berisha Bashkim Gazidede Safet Zhulali Col Henning Glawatz Lt Col Dimitrios Tzimanis[3]
Strength
Unknown	30.000 soldiers 7.000 soldiers (ALBA) 803 soldiers[4][5] > 100 soldiers (Libelle)
Casualties and losses
3800, civilians and members of army, police and secret police

Part of 1997 rebellion in Albania.

Fighting Groups

Forum for Democracy • Committee of Public Salvation • Government of National Salvation • Operation Alba • Volunteer Forces

Gangs of 1997

Gang of Çole • Gang of Gaxhai • Gang of Altin Dardha • Gang of Pusi i Mezinit • Gang of Cërrik • Gang of Lushnje • Gang of Tepelena • Gang of Haklaj Family

Massacres in 1997

Massacre of 28 February 1997 • Massacre of Qafë-Gjashta • Massacre of Levan • Massacre of Cërrik • Massacre of Ura Vajgurore

Tragedies of 1997

Tragedy of Otranto • Tragedy of Qafë Shtama

Stealings

Stealing of Krraba State Treasury • Stealing of Northern State Treasury

Rescue missions

Operation Silver Wake • Operation Libelle

Agreements

6 March 1997 • 9 March 1997

UN Resolutions

Resolution 1101 • Resolution 1114

Important events

Opening of the depots • Desertion of 4 March 1997 • Attack of 7-8 March 1997 on Gjirokastër • Visit of Romano Prodi • Albanian parliamentary election, 1997 • Albanian monarchy referendum, 1997

See also

Pyramid schemes in Albania • Role of media in 1997 • Literature on the events of 1997 • Conspiracy theories about 1997 This box: view · talk · edit

During the riots in the city of Vlorë, men broke rocks to hurl them at police.

1997 in Albania

The 1997 unrest in Albania, also known as the Lottery Uprising or Anarchy in Albania,^[6] was an uprising sparked by Ponzi scheme failures. Albania descended into anarchy and violence in which the government was toppled and some 2,000 people were killed.^[7][8]

Contents [hide] 1 Causes 2 Overview 3 The political situation before the Rebellion 4 Usury 5 Hunger strike of students of the University of Vlora 6 10 Civil War Days 7 International Intervention 8 Snap elections June 29 9 The consequences of the crisis 10 North-South conflict 11 Gangs 12 Chronology of events 12.1 January 1997 12.2 February 1997 12.3 March 1997 12.4 April 1997 12.5 May 1997 12.6 Victory of the Socialists and the removal of Berisha 13 Aftermath 14 References 15 Further reading

• MORE SEE:
  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_rebellion_in_Albania

Main article: pyramid schemes in Albania

Pyramid schemes also known as rentier firms' started their operations in 1991. Their activity was based on obtaining a quantity of

Albania's Labyrinthine Local Elections

Ledion Krisafi
July 17, 2011

Opposition lawmakers protest the decision to count votes previously considered invalid, in Albania in May.

After two months and countless debates and legal proceedings, the local elections are finally over, or so it seems. Against all facts and expectations that pointed towards a revote in Tirana, the Electoral College on July 8 confirmed Lulzim Basha as the new mayor of Tirana with 93 votes more than his opponent, Edi Rama.

The Socialist Party, headed by Rama, won the major cities including Tirana, but dubious legal proceedings by the Central Electoral Commission, heavily criticized by OSCE-ODIHR, changed the result—which on May 14, when the counting process in Tirana finished, saw Rama winning by just 10 votes.

There were two main problems in Tirana. One votes were counted that were found in other ballot boxes. Two, in the final result from the Central Electoral Commission there are more votes than voters.

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For the first issue there are no clear answers in the electoral code, but in the local elections of 2007 these votes were considered invalid. The same thing happened again in 2011. According to the preliminary report by OSCE-ODIHR mission in Albania, these votes were considered invalid until May 14 when the counting process finished and Basha lost by 10 votes.

"Counting team members were apparently trained to consider any such ballots as invalid, and miscast ballots were considered invalid in Tirana through the conclusion of counting for the Tirana mayoral race on 14 May," the report said. In the voting centers there were people assigned especially for instructing voters to cast the vote in the proper box, otherwise the vote would be considered invalid. During the counting process all over Albania these votes were considered invalid and the process went smoothly and without problems.

In Tirana the situation changed after Basha lost. In a press conference immediately after the final votes were counted, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said that his party's candidate had won, and he demanded from the Central Electoral Commission to consider valid votes that until then were considered invalid. CEC obeyed because its majority is controlled by the Democratic Party. It counted only 117 ballot boxes.

Tirana's race until the end was approximately 50-50. In these 117 boxes that the CEC opened, the votes were 70-30 for Basha. According to Shekulli newspaper in Tirana, which contacted a mathematician, for this to happen the probability was 1 in 200 million. These ballot boxes and others that were opened later had severe problems—security codes missing, votes of one electoral center found in a ballot box that had nothing to do with it, broken ballot boxes, votes found outside the envelope where every invalid vote should be—and everything was found correct by the Central Electoral Commission.

Tom Countryman, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, during an interview with Voice of America said, "The question of counting the miscast ballots was not well handled. We've said throughout the process that the rules must be clear and that they must be applied in a transparent and fair manner. … The rules about counting the miscast ballots were made only after election day. The legal basis for making this decision is not clear to us. I understand the argument put forward by the Central Election Commission, but this is an argument that could have been made and should have been made prior to the elections, and on the basis of a consensus among all the parties. The way it was handled here has unnecessarily put a shadow on what was otherwise a very positive process."

The OSCE-ODIHR mission in Albania said that "the legal basis for opening the ballot boxes was unclear" in their preliminary report. Alexander Arvizu, U.S. ambassador in Albania, during a TV interview said that the Central Electoral Commision worked according to party lines and this was disappointing. Asked by the interviewer to assign a grade to CEC on a scale of 10, Arvizu said "five or six." He also said that CEC should have announced a result on May 14 when the counting process finished and Rama won by 10 votes, which didn't happen.

The second problem had to do with the total number of votes in the final result by the Central Electoral Commission. In the final result by the Central Electoral Commission for Tirana, there were 870 votes more than voters. Lets take two examples. In the electoral center number 1696, according to the result, 456 people voted, while the total number of valid and invalid votes was 483—27 votes more. In another electoral center, number 1736/1, according to the results by CEC, 681 people voted, while the total number of valid and invalid votes was 689—8 votes more. This happened in 109 electoral centers.

In these local elections this was not the first time when there were more votes than voters. It happened in Kolsh and Armen. In these two cases the number of votes and voters was not the same, so the Electoral College called for revoting. In Armen only one vote more than the total number of voters was found. These two cases are identical with Tirana. The difference between two candidates in the final result by CEC was 93 votes, while the difference between votes and voters was more than 800.

The Socialist Party demanded the Electoral College to declare invalidity as it had done in the other cases. All the facts and former precedents went towards a revote in Tirana. The Electoral College didn't accept the party's demand because it was beyond legal deadline, which is also dubious.

A political party has the right to contest the result no more than three days after the result is announced. The first result by the Central Electoral Commission was on May 23. On June 13, the Electoral College, after an appeal by the Socialist Party, urged CEC to count all invalid votes in Tirana. The May 23 result that declared Basha winner was annulled. After all the ballot boxes were counted, CEC announced the final result in June 28, so the Socialist Party had the right to contest the result no more than three days after it was announced, which it did. Surprisingly, the Electoral College said that is was beyond the legal deadline, the same Electoral College that in other similar cases had declared invalidity and revote when the number of votes was more than the voters.

In a press conference hours after the Electoral College's decision, Chairman of the Socialist Party Edi Rama said, "Justice is dead."

Clinton expresses strong support for Greece

(ANA-MPA) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday expressed the U.S. government's strong support for the efforts of the Greek people and the Greek government to overcome the debt crisis, during a press conference following her meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis.

Their meeting was the first in a round of scheduled meetings between Clinton and Greece's leadership during her visit to Athens, where she arrived late on Saturday from neighbouring Turkey after attending a meeting of the Contact Group for Libya.

Clinton underlined that the government of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou had faced tough decisions and expressed Washington's support for his determination to carry out reforms.

Doing nothing would have far worse consequences than the current difficulties, she added, expressing her faith in the strength of the Greek people.

Lambrinidis stressed that the Greece of today bore no relation to the Greece of the past and he emphasised the need for European solidarity in order to overcome the crisis.

(ANA-MPA) During one-on-one talks lasting half an hour, followed by a meeting between Greek and U.S. delegations, Clinton and Lambrinidis discussed the economic crisis and issues of foreign policy, focusing mainly on the situation in Libya, the Middle East, the western Balkans, the Cyprus issue and Greece's relations with Turkey.

After her meeting with Lambrinidis, the U.S. Secretary of State attended a working dinner with the prime minister at his offices.

Arriving for the dinner, she conveyed her family's warm regards to Papandreou and, on a lighter note in response to questions posed by a U.S. journalist, expressed her excitement that the U.S. women's soccer team will be playing in the World Cup final against Japan on Sunday night.

She said that U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden and her own daughter Chelsea would be in Frankfurt to watch the game and support the U.S. team, while she would be watching the game from Athens.

Clinton is also scheduled to hold meetings with Greek President Karolos Papoulias and Greece's finance minister Evangelos Venizelos. A meeting between Clinton and Greece's main opposition New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras is scheduled to take place on Monday. (ANA-MPA)

Tirana, the municipality expects the new leader in silence

Municipality of Tirana quietly awaits the new mayor, Lulzim Basha. Because the change of mayor, many employees have submitted their resignations, and the others are about to make the last preparations to leave their offices. Nowdays in the offices and corridors of the municipality reigns the silence.

The winner for the municipality of Tirana, Lulzim Basha, is expected to start the work on Thursday or Friday.

Chairman of the CEC has forwarded his decision to the municipal secretary. Thus, the secretary of the municipal council, Vladimir Gjonaj has 5 days to collect the council with 55 members. In this meeting the new major will be sworn.

After 12 years, Edi Rama will not sit in chair of the mayor to leave the place to the new mayor, Lulzim Basha.