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WHAT IS IN THE DEAL?

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The air base is named after the small town of Kucove, 85 kilometers (52 miles) south of the capital Tirana.

Officials said the new air base will serve as a modern hub of operations, for training and hosting an array of fighter jets.

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Source: https://apnews.com/article/albania-nato-air-base-kucove-29ddaadba4be1ea0513055e035d7a3dc

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People mourning Saturday in Durres, Albania, at  the funeral for members of the extended Lala family who died in Tuesday’s earthquake.Credit…Malton Dibra/EPA, via Shutterstock

TIRANA, Albania — The search-and-rescue operation for earthquake survivors in Albania has ended, the prime minister said Saturday, with the death toll at 51 and no more bodies believed to be in the ruins.

The 6.4-magnitude quake, the country’s deadliest ever, struck on Tuesday and was centered slightly west of the capital, Tirana. Hundreds of aftershocks, some with a magnitude of more than 5.0, have shaken already damaged buildings and terrified residents.

Prime Minister Edi Rama said preliminary figures showed that more than 1,465 buildings in the capital, Tirana, and about 900 in nearby Durres had been seriously damaged by the quake. About 2,000 people were injured.

The 51st victim was a 20-year-old woman who died on Saturday. She had been struck on the head by falling bricks in Tirana. Most fatalities occurred in the coastal city of Durres and the nearby town of Thumane.

In Durres on Saturday, President Ilir Meta, Mr. Rama and hundreds of residents attended the funeral of nine members of an extended family who were killed when a four-story villa collapsed. One young man survived and has been sent to Italy for medical treatment.

Preliminary figures estimate that the disaster made at least 4,000 people homeless. About 2,500 people from damaged homes have been sheltered in hotels, while others have been taken to neighboring Kosovo or have moved to eastern areas of Albania.

The prime minister has pledged that by next year all the homeless will be in “stronger homes.”

Shoddy construction and corruption in Albania’s building industry have been blamed for much of the damage. A bill has been drafted that would sentence all investors, architects, and supervisors to seven to 15 years in prison for violating construction norms.

The government has set up a fund to compensate families of the dead, with each family getting one million lek (almost $9,000); it also includes special pensions for older people and scholarships for children. Government and private calls for donations have collected about 15 million euros (about $16.5 million) in three days.

Pop stars of Albanian origin, including the singers Dua Lipa, Rita Ora, and Bebe Rexha, have made appeals on social media. Ms. Ora said she would help build a home for a homeless family and “directly help these families as much as I can!”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/world/europe/albania-earthquake.html

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At least 13 people have died. One man was killed after jumping from a window in panic, a defense ministry spokeswoman said.

The quake hit 34km (21 miles) north-west of the capital, Tirana, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Hours later, a separate earthquake struck the city of Mostar in Bosnia. There were no reports of casualties.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on Twitter: “We have victims. We are working to do everything possible in the affected areas.”

More than 600 people have been treated in hospital, Albanian state media reported, including more than 300 in Tirana and in the coastal city of Durres.

Schools will be closed for the day.

Buildings in Thumane have been left completely destroyed by the earthquake – Reuters

Emergency workers told Albanian media that one of the dead was an elderly woman who had managed to save her grandson by cradling him with her body.

The defense ministry spokeswoman confirmed firefighters and army staff were helping residents caught under the rubble in Durres, where four people were killed.

Three of those who died were in the town of Thumane, 40km to the north-west of Tirana and close to the epicenter. There are fears more people are trapped under rubble.

The man who jumped from the balcony was killed further north, in Kurbin. Another person died in Lezha.

A man in Durres told local news channel News24 that his daughter and niece were among those trapped inside a collapsed apartment building.

“I talked with my daughter and niece on the phone. They said they are well and waiting for the rescue. Could not talk to my wife. There are other families, but I could not talk to them.”

Rescuers in the city were seen trying to free a young boy trapped in the rubble.

Besar Likmeta, a journalist based in Durres, told the BBC: “I can see right now the firefighters using their bare hands and trying to cut through concrete and iron slabs of the collapsed building.

“There are Red Cross crews and police special intervention units and army. But there is no clear count of how many people might still be missing.”

Albania was ill-equipped to deal with the situation, he said and had appealed for outside help.

People search through the rubble of a building in Thumane, Albania – EPA

There have been a number of aftershocks, including one of 5.3 magnitude, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.

The Balkans are in an area prone to seismic activity.

Tuesday’s earthquake has been described by authorities as the strongest to hit Albania in decades.

In 1979, a magnitude 6.9 quake hit Albania leaving 136 dead and more than 1,000 injured.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50555776

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© EPA-EFE/MALTON DIBRA

ATHENS, September 22. /TASS/. At least 52 people have been injured in a series of earthquakes that rocked Albania on Saturday, Albanian Daily News reports.

According to the news portal, everyone injured was rushed to hospitals, doctors are providing all the help necessary. The port city of Durres and capital Tirana were hit the hardest.

The Greek Iefimerida newspaper reported that a powerful 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck Albania on Saturday, destroying at least ten buildings and injuring dozens of people. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre said that the quake’s epicenter was reported one km to the west of Durres, 35 km away from Tirana while occurring at a depth of 10 km. A series of aftershocks ensued, wreaking more havoc.

The tremor could be felt in Greek cities near Albania such as Ioannina, Thessaloniki, Larissa as well as on the island of Kerkyra (Corfu) in the Ionian Sea. North Macedonia and a number of Italian regions also experienced the quake.

The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed sympathy and solidarity with the people and government of Albania on Saturday.

Source: https://tass.com/emergencies/1079248

The post At least 52 injured in string of earthquakes in Albania – news portal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Albanian authorities say more than 340 aftershocks have followed the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the country on September 21, injuring 105 people and damaging hundreds of buildings.

The aftershocks and safety hazards kept many residents of the capital, Tirana, and the port city of Durres out of their homes on September 22, as authorities inspected damaged buildings and raised emergency tents.

Many people fled their homes when the quake hit at 4:04 p.m., with at least 500 spending the night in temporary shelters.

The quake damaged about 600 homes and temporarily knocked out power and water facilities in Tirana, Durres and some other western and central districts, officials said.

The Defense Ministry said it was the strongest earthquake to hit the Western Balkan country in 30 years.

Prime Minister Edi Rama said he had phone calls from his Italian, French, German, and other European counterparts offering assistance.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gave the quake an initial magnitude of 5.6, while the Albanian Geosciences Institute reported it as registering 5.8 with an aftershock 11 minutes later measuring 5.3.

The USGS put the epicenter of the quake at Durres, about 25 kilometers west of Tirana.

Reports said the quake was felt in neighboring Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/albania-earthquake-followed-by-hundreds-of-aftershocks/30178005.html

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Security and human rights ministers from the Balkans and neighbouring countries agreed at a meeting in Sarajevo on Thursday to create a database which will be compatible with similar systems in Europe in order to track migrants.

“We must be able to see if those people [migrants] previously stayed in Europe,” Bosnian security minister Dragan Mektic told media after the meeting.

“We will see if it is possible for us from the Western Balkans to become part of FRONTEX [the European Border and Coast Guard Agency],” he added.

Mektic explained that migrant readmission agreements between countries must be respected and said it was important to strengthen of state services like the border police.

“We also have to think about the joint return of migrants to third countries or countries of origin, so that each state strengthens the border service and the guards,” he said.

The meeting was attended by representatives of most countries on the so-called Balkan Route – Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Austria and Slovenia.

It involved two panels, one dedicated to security and the other to the humanitarian aspects of the crisis.

Bosnian minister of refugees and displaced persons Semiha Borovac told media that Bosnia has managed to respond adequately to the recent influx of migrants entering the country.

“The priority is the creation of accommodation capacity. We have shown that migrants can get all the necessary assistance,” Borovac said.

Bostjan Sefic, state secretary at Slovenia’s interior ministry, told media that since November 2017, the number of illegal immigrants has been constantly increasing.

“The situation is under control, but it is time for joint activities to ensure that everything is under control. The trend is negative and we must immediately approach the realisation of concrete measures of protection,” Sefic said.

He argued that it would not be good if EU members are forced to adopt unilateral measures and therefore it was essential that countries in the region cooperate to ensure stability.

Bosnia has faced a migrant crisis that peaked in late May after almost 5,000 illegal entries were registered since the beginning of the year.

The International Organisation for Migration, the UN migration agency, also warned on June 1 that migration flows through the Western Balkans are still on the rise.

From January to the end of May, authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania registered more than 6,700 new migrants and asylum-seekers, a more than two-fold increase on the 2,600 migrants and asylum-seekers registered in the three countries over the whole of 2017.

Read more:

‘New Balkan Route’ for Migrants, Refugees Causes Alarm

Bosnia Deploys Police to Border to Stop Migrants

Arctic Weather Freezes Migrant Flow Across Bosnia

Source: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/countries-of-the-region-to-work-jointly-on-migrant-crisis-06-07-2018

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