The Latest Breaking News from Albania

Governments across southern Europe have issued severe weather warnings as temperatures soar past 40 degrees Celsius. The heat wave has already claimed the life of an elderly man in Albania, who was found dead in his farm south of the capital Tirana.

A jailed member of Albania’s ethnic Greek minority — recently elected to the European Parliament with Greece’s governing conservative party — has arrived in Athens en route to Strasbourg, after being granted a five-day leave from prison to attend parliament’s opening session

Albania’s Supreme Court has upheld a verdict of the lower courts keeping a former elected mayor from the country’s Greek minority in prison after he was convicted of buying votes

Dramatic scenery, gleaming lakes and unspoilt views take the fancy of our adventurous tipsters, from France to Albania

Thousands of people have paid their last respects to Ismail Kadare in a state funeral in Tirana Wednesday, with a minute’s silence held nationwide in memory of the renowned Albanian novelist and poet who died earlier this week

One of Albania’s greatest writers who explored the ugliness and dignity of this ancient and long-oppressed nation

Ismail Kadare, the Albanian writer who explored Balkan history and culture in poetry and fiction, has died aged 88. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from interviews he gave throughout his life

His allegorical stories, informed by life under state communism, drew international praise but he insisted that he was not a political writer

Doctors tried to revive the writer when he was brought to the hospital with "no signs of life", but he was declared dead at 8:40 am (0640 GMT) local time, the hospital said.