January
TIRANA – An explosion at an Albanian ammunition disposal plant in Polican killed one worker after employees went outdoors to build a fire to keep themselves warm.
TIRANA – Albanian police close the offices of an anti-government newspaper, Tema, after the government said it wanted to use the state-owned building for a passport office. Publisher Mero Baze said the government broke a 20-year lease contract following his criticism of Prime Minister Sali Berisha for alleged economic scandals.
TIRANA – President Bamir Topi says Albania will hold parliamentary elections on June 28.
TIRANA – The Council of Europe says a new law barring former Communist secret police and their informers from serving as public officials in Albania is undemocratic.
TIRANA – Albania signed a euro1 billion project with Italy’s Marseglia Group to build an energy park, a 140-megawatt liquid biomass energy plant and two 234-megawatt wind farms.
TIRANA – Albania has awarded a 35-year concession to the British-Swiss Zumax AG group for a euro1.18 billion container terminal for ships in southwestern Albania.
February
TIRANA – Former defense minister Fatmir Mediu was charged over a series of massive explosions at an arms disposal site that killed 26 people and injured 300.
TIRANA – Albania has sold a 12.6 percent stake of cellular phone operator Albanian Mobile Communications for euro48.2 million to Greece’s Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications SA.
TIRANA – Albania’s Constitutional Court has suspended implementation of a new law barring former Communist secret police members and informants from serving as public officials.
March
TIRANA – Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha sacked his culture minister, Ylli Pango, after a report accused the minister of sexually harassing a woman looking for a job.
TIRANA – Czech company CEZ Group and the Albanian government have signed a contract for the sale of 76 percent of Albania’s OSSH power distributor for euro102 million.
TIRANA – Albania’s government has increased its guarantee on bank deposits to euro25,000 from euro5,433, which is part of an effort to build confidence in the banking system.
TIRANA – Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters gathered to protest the government’s handling of a deadly blast at an ammunition disposal factory last year.
TIRANA – A Chinese Muslim who was a detainee at Guantanamo Bay asks President Barack Obama to release his 17 compatriots _ known as Uighurs _ still held there and allow them to live in the United States.
April
BRUSSELS, Belgium – NATO says Albania and Croatia have become the alliance’s newest member nations.
TIRANA – Albania is celebrating its new membership in NATO with evening concerts and flags decorating the capital.
TIRANA – Albania’s Supreme Court has dismissed a corruption case against Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha.
TIRANA – Dutch coach Ari Haan has left Albania’s national squad after poor results in the last two World Cup qualifiers.
TIRANA – Albania has approved a bid from Kosovo Post and Telecom, or PTK, to operate a fourth mobile phone service.
TIRANA – Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis made an official visit to Albania and supported its bid to join the European Union.
PRAGUE – Albanian Prime minister Sali Berisha says EU membership is a top priority, as his country moves to join the 27-nation bloc.
May
TIRANA – Police sources say that an Albanian lawmaker of the main opposition Socialist Party, Fatmir Xhindi, 49, has been shot dead.
TIRANA – Albanian police say they arrested three Germans and two Albanians suspected of trying to smuggle 40 kilograms of heroin into neighboring Greece.
TIRANA – A former Albanian defense minister and over two dozen others are on trial over a series of explosions at a munitions depot that killed 26 people last year.
TIRANA – Albania’s Foreign Ministry says one of its senior diplomats has been arrested in Turkey on drug trafficking charges.
TIRANA – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe starts a mission to monitor Albania’s June 28 parliamentary elections.
TIRANA – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe rejects request from the Albanian government replace the head of its monitoring mission for June 28 general election.
TIRANA – Prime Minister Sali Berisha has replaced Albania’s labor minister Anastas Duro with Viktor Gumi after his Human Rights Union party abandoned the governing coalition to join the opposition for the June 28 parliamentary elections.
TIRANA – Croatian Josip Kuze, 56, was named Albania’s new national football team coach.
KALIMASH – Albania’s and Kosovo’s prime ministers Sali Berisha and Hashim Thaci inaugurated the first highway linking the countries through northern Albania’s rugged mountains.
June
TIRANA – A man was fatally shot following an argument over a party campaign poster for the June 28 general election.
TIRANA – Aleks Keka, a regional leader for the small conservative Christian Democratic Party, was killed in a car explosion, 10 days before a general election.
TIRANA – The United States and the European Union have renewed calls on Albania to hold this month’s general election in line with international standards.
VLORA – Presidents of Western Balkan countries are pushing for stronger regional ties as a step toward the area’s integration into the European Union and NATO.
TIRANA – Albania inaugurates a new highway link to neighboring Kosovo ahead of parliamentary elections.
TIRANA – Albanians started voting in parliamentary elections seen as a test of the country’s political maturity as it eyes European Union membership.
TIRANA – International observers say that despite improvement Albania has not complied with international standards in its parliamentary elections dues to the politicization of the process and the political mistrust.
TIRANA – Albania’s governing Democrats have claimed victory in the weekend parliamentary elections, but is was unclear whether Prime Minister Sali Berisha has secured enough seats in parliament to govern alone.
TIRANA – Albania’s prime minister says he’s open to coalition talks with smaller parties after his Democrats failed to gain enough parliamentary seats in weekend elections to govern alone. Socialsit Movement for Integration of Ilir Meta joins the coalition.
July
TIRANA – Albania’s opposition Socialists charge that the ruling Democrats are improperly trying to influence the country’s lengthy vote count by declaring victory before all ballots from last week’s national election were tallied.
TIRANA – Albania’s opposition Socialists threatened not to recognize general election results, claiming government interference in the lengthy vote recounts.
TIRANA – International observers say that political interference had delayed the vote count of last month’s general election in Albania.
TIRANA – A student from southern Albania has been confirmed as the country’s first swine flu case, but he has recovered.
TIRANA – Officials in Albania have confirmed that Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s party has won re-election, following a lengthy recount process.
TIRANA – Albania will quintuple its military presence in Afghanistan and send an extra 120 troops to help boost security there before next month’s elections.
TIRANA – Albania’s governing Democrats have proposed a law allowing same-sex civil weddings in the small, predominantly Muslim country.
August
TIRANA – Albania’s police say a man shot and wounded a government official, Jak Zhupa, outside his municipal office in northern Albania.
TIRANA – Albanian authorities say four policemen and one civilian have been killed in a shootout with a fugitive wanted for murder and kidnapping.
TIRANA – Albanian President Bamir Topi says parliament will hold its opening session on Sept. 7 following the re-election of Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s conservative government.
September
TIRANA – Albania’s Socialist opposition boycott an inaugural session of parliament, claiming conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha rigged his re-election victory in June 28 polls.
TIRANA – Albanian lawmakers re-elected governing Democratic Party lawmaker Jozefina Topalli as Parliament speaker.
TIRANA – Albania’s Mother Teresa Tirana International Airport opens a new terminal, in an expansion set to increase annual passenger capacity by more than 40 percent to 1.8 million.
TIRANA – Albanian President Bamir Topi has formally instructed Prime Minister Sali Berisha to form the next government after the conservatives’ re-election in June.
TIRANA – Prime Minister Sali Berisha names his new cabinet, giving key posts to small leftist partners and reappointing a former minister on trial in connection with a deadly ammunition blast last year.
TIRANA – Albania’s Supreme Court has dismissed a criminal case against former Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu over a massive blast at a munitions disposal factory that killed 26 people.
TIRANA – Vote monitors say Albania has showed significant improvements in holding general elections in June but still fails to fully meet international standards. The OSCE noted problems at ballot counting centers during the June 28 vote, as well as examples of “attempts to influence voters, and pressure on voters or election officials.”
TIRANA – Prime Minister Sali Berisha has promised his newly re-elected government will forge closer ties with the European Union following a successful effort to join NATO.
TIRANA – Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha says his country hopes to eventually adopt the euro, adding another ambitious target for the once isolated communist nation.
October
TIRANA – Albania’s opposition Socialist Party to hold a rally next week to protest alleged vote rigging by Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s governing Democratic Party.
PRISHTINA, Kosovo – Albanian prime minister ruled out unification between his country and Kosovo, saying the two nations hope to join the European Union separately.
TIRANA – Albania has cleared all known land mines and unexploded ordnance from its territory.
TIRANA – Albania to repatriate the remains of its late King Ahmet Zog from France.
TIRANA – Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters held a rally to protest alleged vote rigging by Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s governing Democratic Party.
TIRANA – Authorities say they have charged an Albanian Muslim man for inciting terror acts through postings on a local Web site.
November
TIRANA – U.S. and Albanian researchers say they have discovered remains of a British destroyer that was damaged by mines in 1946, sparking a decades-long diplomatic spat.
TIRANA – A prominent journalist and newspaper editor, Mero Baze, was hospitalized after being beaten.
TIRANA – Several hundred Albanian journalists and other protesters have staged a rally following a violent attack against a prominent journalist and newspaper editor.
TIRANA – Albania’s Socialist opposition holds protests and an overnight rally around the country’s main government building, to press demands for a probe into allegations of vote rigging.
TIRANA – Albania’s opposition threatens with nationwide protests unless the Democratic Party’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha lets them investigate allegations of vote rigging.
TIRANA – Albanian suspected leader of a large drug-smuggling ring Alfred Shkurti, the alleged leader of the Banda e Lushnjes gang, was extradited from Turkey.
December
TIRANA – Albania says it has agreed to accept more former Guantanamo detainees, but not members of China’s ethnic Uighur Muslim minority.
TIRANA – Albanian health authorities have reported the Balkan country’s first swine flu death.
TIRANA – Tens of thousands of Albanians have held a peaceful rally in Tirana to commemorate a 1990 student uprising that helped end the country’s Communist regime.
TIRANA – Albania’s government has extended a four-year-old ban on the use of most private boats and yachts, as part of efforts to fight widespread smuggling.
TIRANA – Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha has been re-elected as leader of the governing Democratic Party.
TIRANA – Albania has signed a euro78.6 million deal to buy five military helicopters from France-based Eurocopter.
