The head and co-founder of one of Albania’s biggest private banks has been shot dead in the capital Tirana.

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama has rejected a request from the United States for the tiny impoverished Balkan nation to host the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

Cork City Ballet has come a long way since its foundation, as evidenced by the fact that international stars are willing to accept invitations to perform here.

An Albanian political candidate was shot and a supporter of a rival party killed in an exchange of gunfire near a polling station, police said yesterday, as the country held elections already marred by a dispute that could leave the outcome up in the air.

A bus carrying university students on a pre-graduation trip toppled off a mountain cliff in southern Albania yesterday, killing 12 people and injuring another 21, authorities said.

A bus carrying university students has fallen off a cliff in Albania, leaving 11 people dead and 22 others injured, authorities said.

A bus believed to be carrying high school students has fallen off a cliff in Albania, police said.

Germany extended their lead at the top of Euro 2012 qualifying Group A to move closer to the finals in Poland and Ukraine next year with a comfortable 4-0 win over Kazakhstan tonight.

Albania’s political crisis escalated as the government and its opposition traded blame for the deaths of three protesters during a violent demonstration against an administration accused of deeply-rooted corruption.

Heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures have swept across Europe killing at least eight homeless people, closing major airports and causing hundreds of road accidents.

Fourteen people have died and 12 others have been injured, many seriously, after a bus fell off a cliff in Albania.

DUBLIN is the 42nd most expensive city in the world to live in, according to a worldwide survey of 214 cities.

Twenty-two opposition Socialist MPs and 180 supporters have launched a hunger strike to press the government to allow a partial recount of an election they claim was tainted by vote-rigging.

SPAIN gave further proof of why they are one of the favourites for World Cup glory this summer after seeing off France 2-0 in Paris last night to continue their run of form.

Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington has been hit by a raft of withdrawals ahead of the friendly against Albania on Wednesday in Tirana.

Promising Everton defender Shane Duffy has rocked Northern Ireland by deciding to change his allegiance, the Irish Football Association have confirmed.

Promising Everton defender Shane Duffy is one of three uncapped players in the Northern Ireland squad to face Albania in a friendly in Tirana on March 3.

IRISH airports were among the worst-performing in Europe last year, with analysts blaming the tourism tax for a 13% fall in traffic.

Northern Ireland will take on Albania in a friendly international on Wednesday March 3.

INDIA flatly rejected yesterday a demand by the Albanian government for the return of the remains of Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, buried in the eastern city of Calcutta.

Albania wants the remains of Nobel Peace laureate Mother Teresa and the only post-independence monarch to be returned to the country, the prime minister said.

NEXT Friday we will vote on the Lisbon Treaty. It will be by far the most important vote any of us will cast in very many years if not decades.

SOMEONE should start compiling the new Irish football thesaurus.

A 30-YARD screamer right at the death ensured that Ireland versus Australia ended, appropriately enough, with a rugby scoreline but there was nothing grand about the slamming defeat which the Irish footballers endured on their first ever outing at Thomond Park.

ALBANIANS have voted in a general election that is seen as crucial for the country’s European Union aspirations, with surveys showing the two main rivals neck and neck.

ALBANIANS have voted in a general election that is seen as crucial for the country’s European Union aspirations, with surveys showing the two main rivals neck and neck.

An explosive device killed a conservative politician as he drove through northern Albania today, 10 days ahead of the country’s parliamentary election, police said.

A six-strong Irish senior squad departed from Dublin airport this morning ahead of the Shkodra Memorial Cup which gloves off in Tirana, Albania tomorrow.

A British charity worker accused of sexually abusing children at an orphanage he founded has been jailed by an Albanian court for 20 years.

IN Tirana for Ireland’s World Cup qualifier against Albania back in 1993, I came across the kind of book you don’t find in Eason’s every day.

A human rights watchdog said today that new evidence has emerged to warrant an investigation into claims that ethnic Albanian guerrillas in Kosovo killed Serbs and sold their organs at the end of the war in Kosovo.

Rescuers were preparing today to enter the heart of a massive blast site at an Albanian army ammunition dump, where a chain of explosions killed at least five people and injured 243.

A massive explosion at an Albanian army ammunition dump near Tirana today killed at least four people and injured 215, including many children, authorities said.

A massive explosion at an Albanian army ammunition dump near Tirana today killed at least four people and injured more than 170, including many children. The country’s prime minister said he feared there could be many dead.

A powerful explosion at an army depot near Tirana today injured more than 150 people, including many children, and damaged the city’s nearby international airport, authorities said.

A boat carrying 20 people celebrating the birthday of five-year-old twins sank in a lake near the capital Tirana early today, killing 16 people, including the children.

JENS LEHMANN is set to start for Germany against Wales on Saturday after coming through yesterday’s training session unscathed.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush, receiving a hero’s welcome as the first American president to visit Albania, said yesterday it was now time for neighbouring Kosovo to be given independence.

US President George Bush received a hero’s welcome as the first American president to visit Albania today, and said there cannot be endless dialogue about achieving independence for Serbia’s province of Kosovo.

An explosion at a coffee bar near the US embassy in Tirana injured a waitress and caused slight damage today, Albanian police reported.

Italian officials today said they intend to prosecute a Turkish man for hijacking a plane, despite his appeal for political asylum on the grounds that he is being persecuted as a Christian in Muslim Turkey.

The Turk who hijacked a Turkish Airlines plane to Italy feared for his safety because he converted to Christianity and wanted to deliver a message for Pope Benedict XVI but had no physical letter, Italy’s interior minister told politicians in Rome today.

The two Turkish hijackers of a Turkish Airlines jet carrying 113 people from Albania to Istanbul have surrendered to Italian police, Ansa News Agency reported tonight.

A Turkish Airlines plane carrying more than 100 passengers from Tirana, Albania, to Istanbul, was hijacked today and landed at Italy’s Brindisi airport, company spokesman Ali Genc said.