He explained that the elderly woman, identified as H.T., traveled to Syria to care for her grandchildren after her son joined ISIS and died. Following the collapse of ISIS, H.T. lived in the Al-Hol camp under very harsh conditions. Despite this, she continued looking after the minors, which included two orphaned children in her care.

According to him, her return and the return of the minors are part of Albania’s ongoing efforts to bring home citizens still trapped in Syrian conflict zones and camps.

Lamallari thanked the institutions on the Prime Minister’s special Task Force for handling the repatriation.

He stated that Albania will keep working to bring back all remaining citizens from Syria. This process will follow strict safety and legal rules while ensuring proper care for minors.

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Municipal teams and civil emergency services are working across the southern Albanian region of Gjirokastër to deal with the impact of the floods after a stream overflowed its banks, Rama said.

The government head shared images from the site showing ongoing clean-up and mitigation efforts. Education Minister Mirela Kumbaro, who also serves as the ruling Socialist Party’s political coordinator for the region, and Gjirokastër Mayor Flamur Golemi were present on the ground, authorities said.

The Gjirokastër region has faced multiple disruptions in recent days due to severe weather. On Tuesday evening, the Fico stream overflowed in the city of Gjirokastër, causing flooding and depositing large volumes of debris on roads and in several areas, officials said.

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The Ministry of Defense reported that 12 members of the Armed Forces and a firefighting vehicle from the Mengël Regional Defense Detachment, Elbasan were involved in this action to put out the fire.

“After a lot of efforts, the fire on Krasta Mountain in Elbasan has been brought under control. Currently, the firefighter forces and relevant structures involved in the operation continue their intensive work for the complete isolation and extinguishing of the remaining fire spots. Also, there is being monitored the terrain so that to prevent any possible reactivation due to the wind,” read the press release from the Ministry of Defense.

“Civil protection structures, in cooperation with local authorities and in full coordination with the National Civil Protection Agency, are on standby to protect the community and natural resources,” concluded the press release from the Ministry of Defense, which also shared photos from the work of the fire service. /a.f/p.s./

According to data provided from the National Operational Center for Civil Emergencies, there are efforts underway to put out the fire that broke out in the village of Kakodhiq in the municipality of Delvina, which because of the high temperatures and wind spread towards the villages of Derviçan and Goranxi in Lower Dropull.

25 members of the Armed Forces have joined the operational structures of the local government to extinguish the fire.

The work also continues for the isolation of the fire near Lura lakes. /r.e/p.s./

“Thanks to yesterday’s intervention of our troops in the village of Dadia it was reduced the fire, it was eliminated the risk to the houses and it was saved a farm from the fire, while intensive efforts are underway to control and extinguish other wildfires”, wrote Peleshi.

Maliq and Korça fire services have been contributing for days in Alexandroupoli, Greece to extinguish fires as part of the Albanian force of the National Protection Agency.

49 fire fighters, 5 fire vehicles and 4 support vehicles from the Armed Forces and the cross-border municipalities of Korça and Maliqi have been engaged in the firefighting operations in Greece.

About 74,000 hectares were burnt in northeastern Greece, 13,000 of them in Dadia National Park alone, Greek media reported.

The European Commission described it as the largest wildfire in the history of the European Union. /p.s./

“Russia chose to go to war and I strongly believe that we should all do everything we can to make this terrible choice as costly for Russia as we can. I am proud that in this confrontation between democracies and dictatorship, between a free European people and a Russian tyranny, Albania is playing an important role, beyond its potential and making an important contribution, especially in the field of diplomacy. Through the OSCE and NATO where our proposals have been concrete and bold, to the UN Security Council where we have taken the co-penholder position with the United States, our country is at the forefront of efforts to support Ukraine and increase costs and isolation for Russia,” Xhaçka said.

“As you may have followed in the media at the moment, Albania is fully aligned with the EU and is implementing in its territory the restrictive measures adopted by the European Council against Russia for violating or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. We are currently completing the legal basis for implementation of these measures. As you all know, there are two main categories of sanctions, economic and individual. We have approved sanctions related to the freezing of assets of 654 individuals and 52 entities”, underlined Xhaçka.

Also, the minister added, “We have decided to ban entry into Albanian territory of persons listed by the EU, while in relation to our visa policy towards Russia we are considering the cancellation of all agreements on the movement of Russian diplomats and officials and businessmen. We have also adopted the EU economic sanctions, which include restrictive measures in finance, energy, transport and technology.”

Yesterday, we also lined up and started adopting legislation to implement the Council decision on further restrictive measures related to finance and aviation.

“Further on, yesterday Albania adopted the restrictive measures aimed at Belarus for its role in this war.”Finally, Albania will no longer participate in any sporting activity that the Russian Federation faces until the end of the occupation of Ukraine”, said Xhaçka.

“Where Albania’s role has been particularly prominent in this effort to support Ukraine is in the Security Council where we have just begun our two-year term. As Ukraine’s co-penholders with the United States, we have joined forces with other countries to present and negotiate a draft resolution urging the Russian Federation to withdraw its armed forces from Ukrainian territory and end the aggression against that country “, said Xhaçka.

“Our joint efforts yielded a positive result: the draft resolution initiated by the United States and Albania was co-sponsored by 81 member states, thus consolidating a broad and unified front in support of Ukraine.

She added, “I have instructed all Albanian teams, in the UN, OSCE, the Council of Europe, the Human Rights Council and every other international or regional forum, to adopt the same proactive approach in support of Ukraine and in denouncing of Russia. I believe that it should be made clear to the Russian Federation and its leadership that nothing will be as it was, no sector, no field of activity can be business as usual until this aggression stops and Russian troops leave Ukraine”.

“Albania is doing everything it can, to the maximum of its capacities. As far as I know, your countries are doing the same. The reason why I invited you here today is to explore what we can do more, how we can improve our cooperation even more, and how we can create more synergy at every level as we tackle this crisis that threatens not just Ukraine but everyone ne ”, said the minister.

“I want to draw your attention to our region and the possibility of tensions here. For a long time we have been calling on our partners, especially in the EU, to be more strategic in their relations with the Western Balkans. The events in Ukraine are proof that our concerns were justified,” concluded Xhaçka./p.s./

“We have made important steps forward in these 7 years, but they are steps of a marathon and not a sprint, because our effort for Albania is a marathon”, said Rama.

According to the prime minister, it would be good if many of the problems we still have today were solved in the past, but this is something that belongs to those who should have solved those problems in the past.

“If these had been resolved 15 years ago today we would be discussing other things. We would not be discussing yet to end the ordeal of drinking water,” said the prime minister.

The prime minister said that when he came in charge of the municipality of Tirana, only 78 lamps were lit at night in all of Tirana.

“The pillars were either gone or left in vain without lights”, he added.

The prime minister promised that this is the last election campaign we are discussing about drinking water. Because, he said, there are 100 projects and over 120 construction sites that work today to guarantee that in all urban centers of Albania, where there is residential intensity to have drinking water 24 hours.

“Kruja has started to be supplied and in a few days there will be water 24 hours. It is a closed matter,” he said.

We Albanians, Rama continued, have lost many chances and time in our entire history, because we have not learned in the past to give importance to small things and win small battles, battles that big countries are used to win.

We always, he said, start from big solutions and love them right away and therefore we waste time and do not appreciate the significance of every little thing that needs to be done today.

“If we do what we do today, the future is certain. And what we have done is exactly this: we have tried every day in these two terms to do well the present-day tasks. What were the present tasks when we took on the responsibility of running the country? It was for us to put an end to the theft of electricity, to put an end to the tale: we will lower the prices, and even have the electricity for free. No, this is not possible. This is a lie that has held us hostage for years until the moment when we started to put an end to it,” Rama stated./p.s./

“Congratulations to the UN Secretary General and the co-chairs from Sierra Leone, Sudan, Germany and Canada for this successful activity,” said Xhaçka.

She stressed that “Albania strongly supports all efforts to prevent conflict and build peace and describes the fund as an essential instrument for peace and security.”

“The multilateral approach, based on rules, for conflict prevention and peace building is one of the main priorities of Albania, as a candidate for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, for 2022-2023,” said Minister Xhaçka.
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