Albanian police seize 300 kg of marihuana

Saranda. Albanian police have seized 300 kg of marihuana, Makfax agency reported.
The drug was found in a motor boat on the coast close to Saranda, Southern Albania. The report says the marihuana was grown in the country. One person was detained.
The motor boat was found five meters away from the sea at a moment when it was being prepared to sail off for the island of Corfu, Greece. It is supposed that the traffic was organized by an international channel.

Albania’s Topi: elections will take place as scheduled

TIRANA – President Bamir Topi on Tuesday (April 21st) rejected speculation about a possible postponement of the June 28th parliamentary elections due to difficulties in issuing new ID cards. He also urged all political parties to stop arguing over the success of the process. “These debates are harming the process and are a wrong step for Albanian politics,” Topi said.

In other news Tuesday, a court in Vlora sentenced ethnic Greek Vasil Bollano, mayor of the southern town of Himara, to six months in prison for abuse of power. He faced charges of ordering the removal of road signs in Himara in December 2007, when he had argued the signs should have Greek words as well. Prosecutors say Bollano’s move resulted in damage of nearly 170,000 euros. The mayor must pay a fine of 3,800 euros and cannot hold public office for three years. Parties representing the Greek minority in Albania criticised the verdict as “politically motivated and xenophobic”.

Ethnic Greek Mayor Jailed In Albania, Road Signs Changed

TIRANA – An Albanian court has sentenced an ethnic Greek mayor to six months in prison for abuse of power for ordering Albanian-language road signs to be replaced by Greek ones, officials said Tuesday.
Vasil Bollano, the mayor of Himara, a town some 140 kilometers south of Tirana, was also ordered to pay a fine of EUR4,000, said the district court in the nearby town of Vlora.
Last month Bollano had ordered all Albanian signs on the coastal road leading to Himara, a region with a strong Greek minority, to be replaced by ones written in Greek, judge Shkelzen Selimi said.
Bollano, the head of the ethnic Greek minority organisation OMONIA, was also banned from any public service for three years, the court said.
Relations between Tirana and Athens are often strained by problems faced by the Greek Orthodox minority, who Albania said number 60,000, compared with Greece’s estimate of around 300,000.

PTK wins Albanian mobile licence

TIRANA – A consortium led by Post and Telecom Kosovo (PTK) has been announced as the winner of Albania’s fourth wireless network licence. As no other company fully met the criteria for the tender, the Albanian government decided to accept the offer from PTK, pending a vote by parliament.

The consortium offered over EUR7 million (USD9.09 million) for the licence. The new licensee will compete against Vodafone Albania, Greek-owned Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) and newcomer Eagle Mobile, which launched in March 2008.

FBI’s newest ‘Most Wanted’ terrorist is American

WASHINGTON – For the first time, an accused domestic terrorist is being added to the FBI’s list of “Most Wanted” terror suspects.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, Calif., is wanted for the 2003 bombings of two corporate offices in California.

Authorities describe San Diego as an animal rights activist who turned to bomb attacks and say he has tattoo that proclaims, “It only takes a spark.”

A law enforcement official said the FBI was to announce Tuesday that San Diego was being added to the “Most Wanted” terrorist list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the announcement ahead of time.

San Diego would be the 24th person on the list, and the only domestic terror suspect.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko declined to comment on the pending announcement.

The move to add a domestic, left-wing terrorist to the list comes only days after the Obama administration was criticized for internal reports suggesting some military veterans could be susceptible to right-wing extremist recruiters or commit lone acts of violence. That prompted angry reactions from some lawmakers and veterans groups.

An arrest warrant was issued for San Diego after the 2003 bombings in northern California of the corporate offices of Chiron Corp., a biotechnology firm, and at Shaklee Corp., a nutrition and cosmetics company. The explosions caused minor damages and no injuries.

A group calling itself “Revolutionary Cells” took responsibility for the blasts, telling followers in a series of e-mails that Chiron and Shaklee had been targeted for their ties to a research company that conducted drug and chemical experiments on animals.

Officials have offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to his capture, five times the reward amounts offered for other so-called eco-terrorists wanted in the U.S.

In February, the FBI announced San Diego may be living in Costa Rica, possibly working with Americans or people who speak English in the Central American country.

Law enforcement officials describe San Diego as a strict vegan who possesses a 9mm handgun. On his abdomen, he has images of burning and collapsing buildings.

The FBI’s “Most Wanted” terrorist list is distinct from the much longer-running “Ten Most Wanted” list. Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is on both.

There is another American already on the list, but he is wanted for his work overseas for al-Qaida. Adam Yahiye Gadahn grew up in California but moved to Pakistan and works as a translator and consultant to al-Qaida.