First entry: 19 September 2015 - 16:22 Athens, 13:22 GMT
Last update: 16:22 Athens, 13:22 GMTWorld
At least 55 militants were killed when Turkish warplanes hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
camps in northern Iraq overnight, security sources said on Saturday, as
Ankara shows no sign of easing up strikes on insurgents ahead of a
November 1 election.
The jets took off from a base in Diyarbakir, in Turkey's southeast, and later returned without damage, the sources said.
Turkey's
largely Kurdish southeast has been hit by almost daily waves of deadly
fighting between PKK militants and security forces since the collapse of
a ceasefire in July.
Security forces have responded by launching
frequent bombing raids into mountainous northern Iraq where the PKK has
camps. It is the worst violence NATO member Turkey has seen in two
decades, coinciding with fighting across the border in Syria involving
government troops and Islamic State militants.
The PKK began its
separatist insurgency in 1984, triggering a conflict that has killed
more than 40,000 people. The group, which says it is now fighting for
greater Kurdish autonomy, is designated a terrorist organization by
Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
President Tayyip
Erdogan has promised the fight will go on until "not one terrorist is
left". The conflict has flared up as Turkey prepares for a parliamentary
election on November 1 following an inconclusive June vote.
Reuters
Hundreds of migrants march down a highway towards TurkeyĆs western border with Greece and Bulgaria (Picture: AP Photo)Statisticians reckon only one in five migrants claiming asylum in Europe are from Syria.
Eurostat, the EU’s official statistics agency, claims 217,000 migrants arrived in the EU in April, May and June this year.
The agency calculated that 27,000 of these were from Afghanistan,
17,700 were from Albania, 13,900 were from Iraq. Syrians made up 44,000
of these figures.
Other migrants are from Eritrea, Ukraine, Pakistan, Kosovo, Serbia,
Nigeria, Georgia, India, Vietnam, Somalia, the Gambia, Sri Lanka,
Bosnia, Libya and Russia.
Both Afghanistan and Iraq are unsettled regions with British soldiers still on the ground to help stabilise the regions. Albania, however, is at peace. A
boy cries as Syrian refugees and migrants push against a police
barricade as they march along the highway towards the Turkish-Greek
border at Edirne (Picture:Getty Images)
Some Tory MPs claimed the figures exposed ‘a lie’ peddled by the left wing media.
David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, told The Daily Mail:
This exposes the lie peddled in some quarters that vast
numbers of those reaching Europe are from Syria. Most people who are
escaping the war will go to camps in Lebanon or Jordan.
Many of those who have opted to risk their lives to come to Europe have done so for economic reasons.
Of course, the figures only show the breakdown for the beginning of this year. Refugees who want to go to Europe walk towards the Edirne city center in Edirne, Turkey (Picture:Getty Images)
Half a million people have arrived in Europe so far this year with
156,000 arriving in August alone. Many of those have risked their lives
by paying people smugglers to ferry them across the Mediterranean.
More than 250,000 of those have reached Greece and Italy while
Hungary has closed its border with Croatia and Serbia and started laying
razor wire to keep refugees away. A man carries a sleeping child (Picture:Getty Images)
After Angela Merkel declared any Syrian reaching Germany could claim
asylum, Berlin was forced to closed its border causing more turmoil.
The overall number of migrants claiming asylum in Europe has doubled compared to the same period last year. Here’s the document in full so you can decide for yourself.
Are these stats significant?
Yes. They expose the lie about Syrian refugees
No. The figures are out of date and now meaningless.
The international panel of
judges of the Basic Court in Kosovska Mitrovica has decided to release
Oliver Ivanovic from prison pending the outcome of his trial.
Source: B92, Beta, RTS
(Beta, file)
Ivanovic, who has been imprisoned for 20 months, will now be placed under house arrest.
His lawyer Nebojsa Vlajic confirmed the news on Friday.
RTS is reporting that Ivanovic will have to hand over his travel
documents to the court, and will also not be allowed to contact "certain
persons."
His co-defendant, retired MUP Colonel Dragoljub Delibasic, has also been released.
Ivanovic, a Serb politician from northern Kosovo, has been accused of
committing war crimes against ethnic Albanians in 1999 and 2000.
Protesting his innocence and demanding to be released, he last month embarked on a 16-day hunger strike.
Earlier this week, the court in Kosovska Mitrovica heard the last
prosecution witness in the case, Gani Mikulovci, who, like all other
witnesses before him, failed to implicate Ivanovic in the crimes. His
lawyer Vlajic said at the time:
"After this witness has been
heard and bearing in mind that the prosecution's list of witnesses has
been completely exhausted, it is completely clear that the public
prosecutor has no evidence for what Oliver Ivanovic and other Serbs from
Kosovska Mitrovica stand accused of."
By -
Associated Press -
Friday, September 18, 2015
TIRANA,
Albania (AP) - Soccer authorities in Albania are appealing to fans to
be on their best behavior for the Oct. 8 European Championship qualifier
against Serbia, after a match between the two sides last year was
marred by violence and interrupted by a drone carrying a nationalist
Albanian banner.
Albania Football Association spokesman Tritan
Kokona on Friday said match tickets would carry the name of the holders -
to be checked against their identity cards - and a printed message
saying: “We know how to fight for victory but also how to show a spirit
of world citizenry, fair play, rules of the game and respect for the
visiting team.”
Authorities
say 1,000 police officers will be providing security for the Group I
game at Elbasan Arena, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of capital
Tirana.
The first leg of the qualifier was abandoned in Belgrade
last year because of the extensive violence that included a brawl among
players and a pitch invasion by home fans. Albania was awarded the match
by forfeit 3-0.
Albania is third in the group with 11 points from
six matches. Portugal leads with 15 points, followed by Denmark with 12
but having played an additional game. The top two qualify automatically
with the third-place team entering a playoff.
Deaths
at sea and a chaotic refugee influx reflect the failure of European
Union leaders to settle on a common immigration policy, says one of
Italy’s top elected officials.
Laura Boldrini,
the president of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, has unusually strong
credentials to discuss the immigration crisis gripping Europe. She
worked for a quarter century at United Nations humanitarian agencies,
serving as spokeswoman in southern Europe for the U.N. High Commission
on Refugees.
Boldrini, 54, saw global migration
at the front lines: the Italian island of Lampedusa, where seagoing
migrants and refugees wash up, dead and alive, on the tides of despair
and poverty; the refugee centers in Sicily where human traffickers
exploit teenage Nigerian girls forced into prostitution; and the Greek
coasts that are beachheads for an unprecedented wave of refugees from
Syria and Afghanistan.
In 2013, she was elected
to Italy’s Parliament as a candidate of today’s governing center-left
coalition. Two days after she took office, she was catapulted into the
presidency of lower house of the Legislature, the equivalent of the
United States' Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Boldrini
recently was in New York City and spoke with ProPublica about the
immigration drama. European Union leaders have since moved closer to
approving a plan to accept 160,000 refugees, though many see it as insufficient. This interview has been translated from Italian and edited for brevity.
What are the roots of Europe’s immigration crisis and what are the solutions?
I
am not surprised that these migratory flows have increased. Last year,
we attained the terrible record of 60 million refugees in the world,
the highest number since World War II, because conflicts have
increased. Sadly, solutions are not in sight. There is intense donor
fatigue, which reduces the level of aid in the refugee camps, and this
pushes people to travel further and risk their lives. There are
protracted crises such as Syria. In the refugee camps, whoever has some
savings left decides to attempt the big leap. We have to understand
that, during these past five years, nations such as Turkey, Jordan, and
Lebanon have accepted millions of refugees in their nations.
Immigration
is the offspring of unresolved crises, the first collateral effect and
the most visible one. In Europe, we are surrounded by instability. We
have a nation like Libya a hundred miles away from us. A nation divided
with a government in Tobruk, another in Tripoli, and then the tribes.
We also have Syria, Iraq, the Horn of Africa. Somalia, still a hostage
to al-Shabaab (the Islamic terrorist group). Eritrea, which has a dictator named Afwerki who forces young men and women to do indefinite military service and does not permit any freedom of expression.
Europe
right now is not succeeding in responding to the challenges it
confronts. We have to take advantage of this moment of difficulty and
the opportunity it presents. In 70 years we have done a lot to construct
our European identity. In a short time, we have undertaken an
extraordinary journey. We have freedom of movement. When I was a girl,
there were internal European borders. Our young people can study in any
country. We have judicial cooperation. So this is positive, but it is
no longer enough.
Now we have gone halfway, we
have reached a ford in the river. Because today, without a strong
Europe, we don’t count for anything compared to the rising global
giants. We have to cross the ford and re-start the motor of European
integration, a motor that has stopped. But that means we have to give
up something. We have to give up power to the European institutions. We
have to share sovereignty. We need a single economic policy. A single
European industrial policy. And an immigration policy.
Advertisement — Continue reading below
It’s not possible that only Italy and
Greece receive migrants and that Germany is the only place where people
go to request asylum. Or Sweden. If we are a union, we have to
cooperate.
What are some concrete responses to the migration crisis that Europe should implement?
We
have to develop a coordinated asylum system. And have the same
standard in all countries: European teams that manage the asylum issue.
The same thing in Greece as in Norway as in Sweden as in other nations.
If an Eritrean comes and asks me for asylum in Italy, he gets the same
treatment as he would in Sweden. Today, on the other hand, if the same
person requests asylum in one country he gets a certain response; if
that person makes the request in another country, he gets a different
response. So it’s clear that they all want to go where they have the
best chance of getting asylum. This leads to asylum-shopping in the E.U.
We
have to act on several levels. We have to continue to save human lives
at sea. Not everyone agrees with this. But it’s inhuman to think that
if you have a passport, you get saved, and if you don’t, you drown. But
there are people who say that. I am proud that my country has taken
the lead on this issue. We did Mare Nostrum
(an Italian rescue operation in the Mediterranean) alone for a year at
a cost of nine million Euros a month. Then it became European. Today
we have Operation Triton.
Next:
How do we reduce the number of people who risk human life at sea? We
have to give an alternative, because if people know there is an
alternative they won’t risk their lives. The most concrete idea is to
act in transit countries with a certain level of stability. You could
create centers where international agencies do work—which, in fact,
they are doing now, but with very limited resources. They do the
screening of asylum requests and then offer quotas to nations that
adhere to the program. You can do this in Tunisia, Egypt. It could be
done by E.U. offices, not just UNHCR.
Today’s
Islamic terrorists are less likely to arrive by sea as illegal
immigrants than they are to be born in Paris or London or Rome. But
there is at least some risk of bad people taking advantage of the
chaotic immigration flows to reach Europe. Can Europe absorb and
integrate so many people from war-torn Muslim countries?
We
can’t lower our guard. We have to be alert. We have to know who these
people are. Of course, often they don’t have documents. So you have to
work with fingerprints. I also would say that if you want to carry out a
terrorist act, you don’t want to risk not making it. You want to be
certain that you will arrive in Europe, and you can’t have that
certainty if you try to come illegally by sea.
As
for the second point you raise—radicalization—that is one of the most
serious problems. And it gets worse if people are excluded. If they are
made to feel that they don’t belong to a community. So I think we have
to invest great effort and resources in policies of social inclusion.
Because if a youth doesn’t have any future and feels excluded, cut-off,
pushed aside, marginalized, he wants something to believe in. And
there are these merchants of terror who peddle dreams.
You
call for a “United States of Europe” with stronger E.U. institutions
and more political integration. But the climate in Europe seems to defy
profound change. Is it really possible to reform the E.U. to make it
more effective and cohesive on fronts such as immigration, security,
and justice?
How does the European system work now? The strongest entity is the European Council,
which is comprised of heads of state. Decisions are made by heads of
state and heads of governments, and each seeks to defend their own
national interest. And therefore they are not dealing with how this
reduces the power of the European institutions. Instead, they concern
themselves with their own immediate consensus. They follow the poll
results, the dictatorship of the opinion polls.
We
can’t abandon the European dream. This is the critical moment to push
harder. If there is fear, those who want to destroy the dream will win.
On the day you entered politics, you had an experience that was emblematic of Europe’s crisis.
I
decided to run for office in response to a request. It was a surprise.
I was working in Greece. It was on a very rough day. I was in Athens
at a center run by Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World).
There
was a long line of people at the medical center, but I noticed many of
them were Greek (rather than immigrants). The director of the center
told me, yes, the number of Greeks continued to increase. The economic
situation was so tough they couldn’t go to the hospital because they
had to buy medicines there, and they didn’t have enough money. So
already in 2013, the Greek crisis was manifesting itself.
And
while I was talking to the director, a group of people arrived who
were shouting. There was an African youth who was weeping desperately.
We went outside and saw that this African youth’s face was all bloody
and swollen. He had been beaten up by an extremist group. In Greece,
these far-right groups form gangs, and when they see a person of color,
they beat them up to make an example of them. He was just walking by.
This happened in broad daylight.
What affected me
the most was what the victim’s African friends said. They were saying,
in French: “That’s enough, put an end to it, what do you want? They
beat you up, that’s what happens in Greece. You’re black, it’s normal
that people beat you up.” There was an acceptance of this brutality.
That evening, I was writing about this incident on my blog for the La Repubblica newspaper when Nichi Vendola
called. (Vendola was the president of the Puglia region at the time
and leader of the Left Ecology Liberty party.) I didn’t know what he
wanted. I burst out talking and told him about the whole horrible day.
Then he said: “In fact, you have prepared the terrain for me. Today we
are experiencing this situation in the entire Mediterranean. We want to
give a new emphasis to the issue of rights. And since that’s what you
have always worked on during these years, we want to present you as a
candidate for political office.”
I told myself:
I’ve worked for 25 years for the U.N. I have seen so many humanitarian
crises in the world, from the Balkans to Afghanistan to Sudan.
Pakistan. Iraq. I have seen the best and worst of the human race.
Today, I have the possibility of doing something with all this
experience, of using it in my country at the time when my country is
living a difficult moment.
This post originally appeared on ProPublica as “Q&A: Can a Divided Europe Handle the Refugee Crisis?” and is re-published here under a Creative Commons license.
Russian
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and US Secretary of Defense Ashton
Carter have agreed to re-establish military-to-military contacts between
the countries, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.
"The ministers noted therestoration ofmilitary-to-military contactsandagreed to further continueconsultations," Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Russian and US defense chiefs also discussed the situation in the
Middle East in a phone conversation and agreed that the stances of the
countries concerning the situation in the region are quite similar, Maj.
Gen. Konashenkov said.
"They agreed to further discuss mechanisms
for deconfliction in Syria and the counter-ISIL campaign," the Pentagon
said as quoted by Reuters. The Pentagon added that the phone
conversation lasted almost an hour.
US
Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Russia had proposed
military-to-military contacts with the United States on the situation
in Syria.
US Defense Department Press Secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday that
the United States had suspended military-to-military relations
with Russia over Moscow’s alleged involvement in the crisis in Ukraine
adding that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter had not had any talks
with Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with Assad’s government
fighting against many opposition factions and extremist groups,
including ISIL and al-Nusra. Russia, unlike many Western countries,
considers Assad to be the legitimate authority in Syria, and has
provided humanitarian aid and military equipment to the country.
An international US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL positions in Syria without Damascus' consent.
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) – Russia’s military participation in operations in the fight
against the Islamic State in Syria could be discussed in a bilateral
format should such a request surface, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said Friday.
“If there’s a request, then it would naturally
be discussed and reviewed in the framework of bilateral contacts and
bilateral dialogue. This is so far difficult to discuss hypothetically,”
Peskov told journalists.
Syrian
Foreign Minister said Thursday that Damascus may ask Moscow to send
troops to fight alongside the government forces against terrorist groups
in the war-torn country if necessary.
Moreover, Syria's envoy to the United Nations said earlier that
Russia had every right to carry out airstrikes against ISIL on the
country's soil.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with the government
of President Bashar Assad fighting against many opposition factions and
militant groups, such as ISIL and the Nusra Front.
Catalonia
will hold regional elections on September 27. A coalition of
pro-independence parties has pledged to set the processes in motion for
the autonomous region to separate from Spain by organizing an official
independence referendum if they won a majority.
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) — The European Union will force Madrid to recognize a
Catalonian secession from Spain should local parliament and government
agencies in the region unilaterally declare independence, the
coordinator of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) in the State
of Florida told Sputnik.
According to ANC's Julia Strubell, Brussels would "force Spain
to recognize Catalonia's independence… as the EU does not want a long
drawn out political and economic conflict inside its borders."
She added that hypothetical Catalan membership
in the bloc is a separate issue but "a pragmatic organization like the
EU will not want a wild state, which China, for instance, would love
as a European partner."
"The agreement [between the bloc and the Catalan authorities] will
come quick, either in the form of freedom of movement or full
membership," Strubell pointed out.
Many
in Catalonia have long sought independence from Spain, accusing Madrid
of constraining the region's economic and cultural autonomy and
of unfairly distributing resources in the country.
Over 80 percent of Catalans who participated in an unofficial
November 2014 vote supported seceding from Spain. More than two million
people out of an estimated 5.4 million eligible voters took part in the
informal, non-binding ballot. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has
repeatedly said that Catalonia’s secession would be illegal.
"After over two years living in the United
States, I have seen clear support for democracy among American people.
In this freedom-oriented country, it is hard for them to understand why
Catalonia hasn’t been allowed to decide its own future through a
referendum, as Quebec or Scotland," Julia Strubell said.
Commenting on potential international recognition of Catalan
independence, should it be declared by local authorities there, Strubell
said that smaller states are more likely to be the first to acknowledge
the step.
"I imagine (without any inside information!) that smaller countries
would be the first to recognize Catalonia’s independence. Ireland,
Denmark, Baltic States, Slovenia, Israel…" the ANC coordinator in the
State of Florida said.
As the United States inches toward
the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana, Albania has a
different plan for what to do with the drug: destroy as much of it as it
can. And on Wednesday Albanian police announced
they’re closer than ever to doing just that, after destroying 690,000
cannabis plants — 99.2 percent of the country’s total — since the
beginning of this year. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.
That’s 140,000 more plants than were destroyed last year, when police
said they’d wiped out 550,000 of them, along with 102 tons of
marijuana, the market value for which was around $8.5 billion — more
than two-thirds of Albania’s GDP. Albanian-grown marijuana has long been
a key part of the international drug trade in the region, much of which
is run by violent criminal rings. Local officials believe that
destroying the marijuana could help cut off financial flow to these
groups, even if it will damage the economy in regions where prosperity
has relied on marijuana production. Albania’s crackdown on the drug
trade intensified as
the government became more eager to join the European Union, where they
are now an official candidate for accession. To destroy the drug trade
is, in the government’s eyes, key to increasing the tiny country’s
likelihood of official EU membership. And Washington seems to agree.
The U.S. tapped a federal prosecutor and an FBI agent to assist
Albanian police in their efforts to destroy the crop, which they track
using aerial maps. But however successful Albanian officials claim the
destruction of these plants to be, the process hasn’t been smooth
sailing all along.
In June, a police officer was shot dead by a disgruntled drug grower
when authorities launched a raid 125 miles south of the capital of
Tirana.
“The fight against drugs knows no end,” Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri said Wednesday. “It has a high cost and it is extremely difficult, but it continues.”
First entry: 17 September 2015 - 16:45 Athens, 13:45 GMT
Last update: 16:45 Athens, 13:45 GMTPolitics
Greece responded using tough language to allegations by Hungary that Athens does not do enough to guard the country's borders and prevent migrants and refugees arriving in central Europe.
Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Konstantinos Koutras accused Hungary of “brutal
cynicism” and said that what is required is “humanity, cooperation,
solidarity and coordination” for tackling the migrant crisis. Here is the full statement of the Greek Foreign Ministry:
“We
find it difficult to witness either the wave of statements from
Hungarian officials against our country or, and mainly, what the UN
Secretary General characterizes as the “unacceptable” conduct of
Hungary’s forces of order against the refugees, including infants, who
are living through the drama and misery of war.
The use of
violence and armed patrols, and the driving of innocent victims of war
into Balkan minefields do not constitute conduct appropriate to a member
state of the European Union.
It is obvious that the burden of
the current, unprecedented refugee crisis cannot be shouldered by one
country alone – in this case, Greece, which is doing everything humanly
possible. These urgent circumstance require humanity, cooperation,
solidarity and coordination with the other European partners, and not
brutal cynicism, provocative statements, the use of violence, or a
return to Cold-War walls.”
The Prime Minister ofAlbania,EdiRama,is reportedby the local media,he has launcheda 'Cold War"withUSAAmbassadorDonaldLu, for the cause of the listofSenior Corrupted Officialsin charge of theincriminatedState.
The OSCE admitted that a leaked report that accused
Albanian politicians of corruption and ordering murders was genuine,
but said it was not the organisation’s official view.
Gjergj Erebara
BIRN
Tirana
OSCE Head of Mission in Tirana Florian Raunig. Photo: LSA
The OSCE said on Saturday that the report alleging wrongdoing by 36
Albanian MPs, prepared in October 2014 and leaked last week to the Lapsi.al website, “contained information circulating in the country and was not the official view of the organisation”.
The report claimed that the MPs, including Prime Minister Edi Rama,
the speaker of parliament Ilir Meta and the former Prime Minister Sali
Berisha, had accumulated hundreds of millions of euros through corrupt
practices.
According to the report, Rama has an estimated wealth of 200 million
euros hidden in offshore accounts, money allegedly accumulated through
bribes in exchange for construction permits between 2000 and 2011, when
he was mayor of Tirana.
The former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, currently an opposition MP,
is described in the report as someone who used his power to enrich his
family. The report quotes BIRN investigations about his daughter’s businesses.
The speaker of parliament and Rama's junior coalition partner, Ilir
Meta, is described as being suspected of having mafia links and of
ordering at least two murders.
The OSCE Head of Mission in Tirana, Florian Raunig, confirmed the
authenticity of the report but stressed that it was only for internal
use.
He said it was not intended to be seen as proven fact, but “simply a
collection of information obtained by Albanian media and allegations
that circulate in public”.
“I wish to express my regret that this information has become public –
without authorisation – and subject to misinterpretation and political
manipulation,” Raunig said in a press statement.
“The information made public doesn’t represent OSCE policy or our
official views and it is not an evaluation or a judgement and has not
served as the basis for other reports,” he added.
The perception that leading politicians are involved in corruption or
have mafia links is widespread in Albania. However, no high-level
public official had been been convicted so far.
The current head of the opposition, Lulzim Basha, was put under
investigation by the prosecution in 2007 for alleged abuse of power,
which allegedly cost the state about 230 million euros.
In April 2009, the Albanian supreme court closed the case against
Basha, arguing that the prosecutors had exceeded the investigation’s time limits under the statute of limitations.
The current speaker of parliament Ilir Meta was charged in 2011 but was acquitted by the high court a year later.
Prime Minister Edi Rama had never been charged or put under investigation.
Berisha had his daughter Argita Malltezi put under investigation for money laundering in 2008 but this investigation was later closed.
An anticorruption watchdog has referred the Chief
Judge of the Appellate Court of Tirana to prosecutors for investigation,
claiming he has accumulated assets of 1.7 million euros in a suspicious
manner.
Gjergj Erebara
BIRN
Tirana
Alaudin Malaj. Photo: LSA
The High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets and
Conflict of Interests, HIDAA, on Monday said it had referred Judge
Alaudin Malaj to prosecutors, claiming he had accumulated 1.7 million
euro in assets in a suspicious way and had set up a network of
construction companies to launder the proceeds.
The Inspectorate, created in 2003 to monitor the wealth of high
officials, on Monday said suspicions had arisen due to the large number
of transactions conducted by Malaj family members.
“In its first declaration of 2003, the subject (Malaj) had total
assets of just 60,000 euros but at the end of 2014, his wealth totalled
1.7 million euros,” HIDAA said.
Contacted by BIRN, Malaj refused to comment on the allegations.
HIDAA's audit of assets, reviewed by BIRN as part of an investigation into the wealth of judges,
showed that his family wealth increased sharply after 2010, when his
wife left her job at the national postal service to work as a manager in
two construction companies, Rigers Construction sh.p.k and Algan shpk.
At the same time, the Malaj family increased its wealth by declaring a
100,000 euro apartment in Tirana and another worth 35,000 euros on the
seaside. Malaj's wife obtained two more apartments as gifts in 2012.
The justice system in Albania is perceived as highly corrupt. A
previous investigation by BIRN showed that no corruption cases filed
with the prosecutor’s office over the past decade concerning the
judiciary ended in a conviction.
The review by BIRN of the assets declarations of the 25 judges of the
Appellate Court of Tirana showed that over the past 10 years, these
judges had collectively carried out real estate transactions worth more
than 5 million euro. (Click here to read our previous investigation).
The assets declarations reviewed by BIRN also show that their net wealth grew exponentially from year to year.
BIRN discovered that over the eight years, the 25 judges spent over
840,000 euro on cars alone. Only four of the 25 judges from the court do
not own cars, despite having an annual salary of just 1.58 million lek
(€11,200).
Albania's parliament is currently working to reform justice system as part of the obligations for the EU integration process.
However, the process is slow due to disagreements between political
parties, while the opposition says that behind the reform plan, the
ruling coalition is trying to take control of the justice system.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told the Italian
daily Corriere Della Sera that if Albania could take in half a million
Kosovars in the late 1990s, Europe could surely deal with the current
refugee crisis now.
Gjergj Erebara
BIRN
Tirana
Edi Rama. Photo: LSA
Prime Minister Edi Rama, who was visiting Puglia in southern Italy,
told the online edition of Corriere Della Sera on Tuesday that Albania
would welcome Syrian refugees - although refugees crossing the Balkans
towards Germany had largely bypassed Albania so far.
“Albania is a small country and it is difficult for us to give
advice. We have not been confronted with such a challenge because they
prefer to go toward north towards Germany," he said.
But when we hear about walls... against refugees, we think about 1999
when we received half a million Albanians from Kosovo," he added. "If
we were able to accommodate them, surely Europe can do it [now],” Rama continued.
Albanians have had a long history of mass emigration to EU countries
during the last decades and some Albanians have recently organized
collections of donations for Syrian refugees.
Albanians are also the second biggest group of asylum seekers behind
Syrians in Germany currently. During August, 8,306 more Albanians filed
new asylum claims, Germany said last week.
However, the Middle Eastern refugees currently trying to reach
Germany through the Balkans do not cross Albania, which lies far from
the main route most of them take.
Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri says 99.2% of cannabis plants seen on aerial maps have been destroyed so far this year.
15:20, UK, Wednesday 16September 2015
A cameraman looks on in 2014 as police burn 1.6 tones of cannabis
Albania says its campaign against the drugs
trade is going well with most of the marijuana plants in the country
being destroyed.
Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri said 99.2%, or 690,000
cannabis plants in 44 hectares (109 acres) seen on aerial maps, have
been destroyed so far this year.
Police men climbing a mountain near the village in last year's raid
Mr Tahiri said drug growers had moved to high mountainous areas to plant cannabis, using small planes to take it abroad.
"The fight against drugs knows no end," he said. "It has a high cost and it is extremely difficult, but it continues."
Video:Police Burn Village's Marijuana
The southern European country is a major producer of the
plant and the authorities started their fight against the drugs trade
last year.
Police have so far destroyed about 550,000 cannabis plants
and 102 tons of marijuana with an estimated market value of €7bn
(£5.5bn) - representing more than two-thirds of the country's annual
gross domestic product.
The clampdown on the drugs trade began when police stormed
the southern village of Lazaret with armoured personnel carriers, coming
under automatic weapon and rocket fire as drug growers defended their
crops.
Video:Pot Goes Flying In High-Speed Chase
Last year's raid on the village, which lies 200km (125
miles) south of the capital, Tirana, resulted in a policeman being
killed.
Italy and the US have congratulated Albania's leaders on
their success so far and promised continued support - they have law
enforcement staff in place to help local police.
Prime Minister Edi Rama says the police operation against drug cultivation has cost the criminal gangs billions of euros.
First entry: 16 September 2015 - 20:53 Athens, 17:53 GMT
Last update: 20:53 Athens, 17:53 GMTElections 2015
Syriza leads by 4% over New Democracy according to a new poll published on Wednesday.
According to the survey by Prorata for the paper Efimerida ton Syntakton, Syriza leads with 28%, and New Democracy follows with 24%.
Extreme right-wing Golden Dawn is third with 7.5%, followed by Communist Party KKE, Potami, and Pasok, all on 5%.
Popular
Union and Centrist Union follow with 3%, whereas the Independent Greeks
with 2.5% do not pass the threshold to enter parliament.
Undecided voters are 15%. Read also Opinion poll: New Democracy edge ahead of Syriza New opinion poll shows virtual dead heat
France
will not hesitate to reinstate temporary border controls, and it is
ready to do so in the coming days, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls
said Wednesday.
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) — EU member states have been struggling with an unprecedented
influx of refugees as hundreds of thousands try to enter the bloc,
fleeing violence in their crisis-ridden home countries.
Several EU states, including Germany and Austria, have reinstated
border controls, with many others sending reinforcement to their
frontiers.
"This spring we have already introduced
temporary border control [in the past]. And we will not hesitate to do
it again if we need to in the coming days or weeks, as the rules of the
Schengen states permit to do this when circumstances require it," Valls
said, addressing the lower chamber of the country’s parliament.
Earlier this month, French President Francois Hollande announced that
the country would accept an additional 24,000 asylum seekers.
First entry: 14 September 2015 - 23:30 Athens, 20:30 GMT
Last update: 23:30 Athens, 20:30 GMTPolitics
Political
figures may well be "hidden" behind the dummy companies and money
routes revealed by the "Lagarde list," whistleblower Herve Falciani said in an interview with the Greek newspaper 'Vima' published on Sunday.
"I
am certain that all the mechanisms that were followed by the list's
system will show that behind the companies and front men and all the
circles of money are hidden political figures," he was quoted as saying,
adding that the new government presented a "unique opportunity" to deal
with the major problem of corruption.
The former HSBC employee
had testified to four Greek prosecutors in Paris on Friday, as part of
their investigation into Greek bank account holders revealed in data
stolen by Falciani in 2008, regarding 130,000 of the bank's customers.
The
list, which in Greece is referred to as the "Lagarde List," was passed
on to Greek authorities from the then finance minister and current
International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde.
Falciani's testimony and his interview with ERT on Saturday were also seized upon by SYRIZA,
who stressed that the parties that had dominated politics in the last
40 years were unlikely to allow much progress in the investigation.
"If the next government lets the prosecutor work, we will succeed [in uncovering the truth]," the party added.
Speaking
to ERT, Falciani had described the prosecutors who interviewed him in
Paris as "tense" and thanked them "because what they did was very
courageous".
"And I see the same thoughts, the same effort that I
witnessed in the Tsipras government. It was very difficult for the
Tsipras government to move on but also for the prosecutor," he said,
noting that they had also discussed ways to uncover new leads. "We
agreed that if the next government lets them work, we will do that," he
added. ANA MPA
The Albanian police say they
have destroyed more than 650,000 cannabis plants worth more than EUR 7
billion since the beginning of the year.
Source: AFP, Tanjug
Albanian police spokesman Ardi Bada also told AFP that
279 suspects had been detained in the same period, while "searches for
another 90 suspected offenders are still going on."
Bida added that they were helped by Italian counterparts "who provided information as well as helicopters for some operations."
According to AFP, the police said the cannabis growers are "trying to
hide the crop in more isolated areas of the mountainous Balkan country,
where access by road can be very difficult."
In June last year
the police carried out a large-scale operation in Lazarat, "a village in
southern Albania known as 'a cannabis kingdom' for its industrial-scale
production of the drug," when one officer was killed in a shootout.
AFP quoted an Italian police report that said the village was producing
about 900 tons of cannabis annually, worth some EU R 4.5 billion,
before that operation. The 4.5 billion figure is "equivalent to almost a
third of Albania's gross domestic product," noted the report.
First entry: 13 September 2015 - 18:43 Athens, 15:43 GMT
Last update: 18:43 Athens, 15:43 GMTSociety
At least 28 people seeking a better life in Europe drowned Sunday as they attempted a wind-swept sea crossing from Turkey to Greece.
Greece's
coast guard said the 28, including four infants and 10 older children,
died when their wooden boat containing more than 125 people capsized
near Farmakonissi.
The island lies midway between Samos and Kos,
two of the favored targets for smugglers sending thousands of migrants
and refugees daily to Greek islands off Turkey's coast.
Officials
said 68 others were rescued while 30 more swam to the barely populated
island. Coast guard officials said the boat may have been toppled in
part because of wind gusts exceeding 50 kph (30 mph).
Sunday's
tragedy came just a day after two other boats capsized and at least five
people — four children and a 20-year-old man — were presumed drowned.
The coast guard said they still were searching for those bodies.
AP
First entry: 12 September 2015 - 07:30 Athens, 04:30 GMT
Last update: 12 September 2015 07:30 Athens, 04:30 GMTElections 2015
New
opinion poll conducted by GPO for the Greek TV station MEGA shows that
Syriza and New Democracy are running neck-and-neck in the runup to the
September 20 national election.
The
poll puts Syriza at 26%, New Democracy at 25.8%, extreme right Golden
Dawn at 6.5%, Pasok at 6%, Communist party KKE at 5.7%, To Potami at
4.4%, Popular Unity at 3.6%, the Union of Centrists at 3.3% and the
Independent Greeks at 3%.
10% of respondents were undecided.
First entry: 13 September 2015 - 08:41 Athens, 05:41 GMT
Last update: 08:41 Athens, 05:41 GMTPolitics
Greece's radical leftwing Syriza party on Saturday welcomed the election of Jeremy Corbyn as head of Britain's opposition Labour as a "message of hope".
Headed
by former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, the party said Corbyn's
election was a key step which would "considerably" bolster Europe's
anti-austerity front.
"Corbyn's election as a
leader of the Labour party, as a result of the mobilisation of thousands
of new members and his dedication to the need of the containment of the
neoliberal politics, is reinforcing considerably the pan-European front
against austerity and is sending a message of hope to the European
people," the party said.
Corbyn, who on Saturday won a
landslide victory in the race for the party's leadership, is steadfastly
opposed to the austerity programme of British Prime Minister David
Cameron.
The shock victory means the 66-year-old socialist now
becomes Britain's most leftwing political leader in over 30 years,
although his election is likely to exacerbate sharp divisions within the
party.
Ivica Dacic has warned
ethnic Albanians from the south "not to compare the ZSO with the
formation of an association of municipalities with Albanian majority."
Source: Beta
The Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) should be formed in Kosovo under the Brussels agreement, while local Albanian leaders on Thursday announced they would set up their own "the association of municipalities" in the southern part of central Serbia.
Commenting on these announcements during a rally in
Medvedja ahead of early local elections there, Dacic - who is Serbia's
foreign minister and first deputy prime minister, and leader of the SPS
party - said that Albanians in Serbia must not be discriminated against,
but that they must respect the Constitution.
"We are warning
them not to make any parallels on Saturday in Preseveo with the
Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija, we are warning
them not to play with fire and to respect the Constitution and order of
the Republic of Serbia. The fact that Serbia is in favor of dialogue
does not mean it is weak, on the contrary, it is strong, the strongest
it has been in the last 20, 30 years," the minister said.
He added it was a lie that Serbia had "recognized Kosovo's independence" by negotiating with Pristina in Brussels.
"Today I heard that the Albanian prime minister say that Serbia
recognized Kosovo and Metohija by conducting negotiations in Brussels.
That's a lie. I want to tell Albania and Albanians that Serbia wants
good relations in the region and guarantees equality to the Albanian
national minority, but Serbia will not allow anyone to humiliate it and
endanger its territorial integrity," said Dacic.
According to
him, the Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo and Metohija and the
signing of the Brussels agreement have been "the biggest success of the
ruling Serbian coalition."
"Serbia will use all its strength,
political and diplomatic skills and other means, to protect the
interests of the Serb people in Kosovo," said the minister.
He
added that "Serbia is now respected and valued in the world, while only
representatives of the opposition speak badly about it."
"They are not the opposition to the ruling coalition, they are in opposition to their country," Dacic said.
Commenting on the demands of opposition leaders for early parliamentary
elections, the Socialist leader said that these came "from a marginal
group that calls itself the opposition."
"It makes me sick when
Pajtic, Tadic, and Ceda Jovanovic demand elections. They are demanding
elections, and praying to God that it does not happen, because they
would experience a disaster (in elections). When I hear them talk, I
want to ask for early elections myself, just to give them this
treatment, to cure their complexes, of which they are not aware. The
people passed their judgment on them two or three years ago. There is no
return," Dacic said.
In addition to the president of the SPS,
the election rally in Medvedja was also addressed by leaders of the
Party of United Pensioners of Serbia Milan Krkobabic and United Serbia
Dragan Markovic Palma, as well as vice president of the SNS party and
Minister of Justice Nikola Selakovic
The Roman Catholic Church "is not rushing to declare
Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac a saint," Francis said during his meeting,
according to Nikolic.
Nikolic told Tanjug late on Friday that he "had a very
open discussion with the pope about Stepinac" during which he told him
that the Croatian Catholic cardinal had played "a very bad role" in the
Second World War.
"He (Stepinac) should at least not have
remained silent as someone was killing more than a million citizens just
because they are not of (Roman) Catholic faith," Nikolic said.
Stepinac was the Croatian cardinal during the time of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) - a Nazi-allied entity responsible for running death camps for Serbs, Jews, and Roma.
According to Tanjug, the president said that the pope "told him at one
point that he was in no rush to declare the cardinal a saint."
Nikolic also said that Stepinac "after that" endured "communist terror" -
and that the Catholic Church may deduce from this he was "a beatified
martyr" - but added that "Orthodox priests endured the same, hundreds
were killed."
According to the president, Serbia, "which is a
bridge between Russia and the EU, and China and the EU" could also
represent "a bridge between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman
Catholic Church."
"I think I came across a man who knows much
and who understands everything, and who accepted almost every one of the
claims and suggestions I had to offer. This was a meeting between
people who immediately understood each other well," Nikolic described
the conversation he had at the Vatican.
He added it covered
"relations between Serbia and the Vatican, establishment of a real
dialogue between the two churches, the Middle East and North Africa
migrant crisis, its causes, consequences, and solutions, as well as
climate change."
According to Nikolic, there is "a common
position that Christianity is endangered in the world, that there is no
time for quarreling among religions and faiths, and that dialogues where
various religions are in concord with citizens could prove that
dialogue itself can achieve much."
"I think this visit,
although once postponed (due to aircraft malfunction) was well prepared
and serves as a preparation to one day arrive to the point where
relations between Serbia and Croatia guarantee that the head of the
Roman Catholic Church and (Serbian Orthodox) Patriarch Irinej could meet
in Belgrade, Subotica, Prizren, and anywhere they wish," the Serbian
president said.
Nikolic also remarked that "the Roman Catholic
Church remains firm in its decision not to recognize the unilaterally
declared independence of Kosovo and Metohija."
Speaking about the pope, Nikolic told Tanjug:
"I think this is a man who is reconciling many peoples and religions in
the world, but his position here is implacable that the Roman Catholic
Church remains completely firm on the principle of non-recognition of
the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo and Metohija."
He added that Pope Francis is "carefully monitoring everything that is
happening in Kosovo and Metohija, aware of what the scope of the
persecution of Christians and Roman Catholics had been there."
The president added that the pope was also aware of how free Roman
Catholics are to "profess their faith, customs, tradition and culture in
(central) Serbia," and that he also "knows what Serbia of today looks
like, and is completely prepared to cooperate with it."
Nikolic
informed his host about the history of the Serb heritage and
Christianity in Kosovo and Metohija, about the Serbian Orthodox
monasteries built by the nation's medieval rulers, and, in reference to ethnic Albanian violence targeting Serbs, their property, and holy places in March 2004 - "about the catastrophe that happened in 2004."
"I gave him a book that proves all that, recordings, I told him this is
ours, that this is who we are, and that there is no way for us to
renounce it," the president said, adding that the pope "absolutely
agreed with everything."
Nikolic also presented Francis with a
copy of (Tsar) Dusan's Code - a legal system enacted in the Serbian
Empire in 1349 - as a rare example of a constitution in the 14th century
Europe - as well as a book entitled "The Christian Heritage of Kosovo
and Metohija," which he said "meant a lot, and will also be sent to all
UNESCO member-states."
The president revealed that the pope -
as he was telling him about some Serbian monasteries in Kosovo being
saved in 2004 thanks to Italian soldiers - "listed their names."
"Cordial discussions"
The Vatican's press service said earlier in the day that
Pope Francis and President Nikolic demonstrated "in the cordial
discussions, the good existing relations between the Holy See and the
Republic of Serbia."
"The parties considered issues of mutual
interest regarding the relationship between the ecclesial and civil
communities, with particular reference to ecumenical dialogue and the
contribution of the Catholic Church to the common good of Serbian
society," said a statement, and added:
"Attention then turned
to Serbia’s progress towards full integration in the European Union, as
well as various situations of a regional and international nature,
including the condition of Syrian and Iraqi refugees and displaced
persons, and the importance of promoting a shared solution to the
current crisis."
Italy's ANSA news agency said that the pope
and the Serbian president spoke for 35 minutes, and that Nikolic
presented a copy of Dusan's Code to his host, along with an illustrated
monograph dedicated to Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Kosovo.
Beside the refugee crisis, other topics included Serbia's opposition to
the membership of the so-called "Republic of Kosovo" in UNESCO, and the
formation of a mixed commission of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the
Roman Catholic Church that would consider historical facts from the
Second World War era and the role of Catholic Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac
in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
The Serbian
president's press service said earlier that Nikolic would during the
visit present Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin with the Order
of the Republic of Serbia on a sash - a decoration for exceptional
contribution to development and affirmation of friendly relations and
cooperation between Serbia and the Holy See.
Refugees, Serb heritage
While in Rome today, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic
also met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who told him that
Serbia serves as an example to all of Europe as regards the refugee
crisis, noting that Italy will not back a change in the status of the
Serbian heritage in Kosovo.
The two presidents also discussed
Italian corporate investments in the Serbian economy and the numerous
common problems in the region.
Even though it is a transit
country for migrants, Serbia is striving to act responsibly pursuant to
fundamental civilizational principles and common European values, a
statement from the press office of the Serbian president quoted Nikolic
as saying.
The attempt by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and
Metohija to portray the cultural and spiritual heritage there as
Kosovo's own is certainly not an initiative aimed at protecting those
monuments, and Serbia will fight against it, the Serbian president
noted.
The Italian president said that Serbia's conduct in the
refugee crisis serves as an example to all of Europe, and at the same
time praised the constructive relationship that Serbia is building with
the countries in the region.
Italy is ready to assist in the opening of the first chapters in the EU accession talks, he said.
Protecting cultural and religious monuments is in the interest of the
entire international community and Italy will not back a change in the
status of the Serbian heritage in Kosovo and Mattarella said.
