Albania wants the remains of Nobel Peace laureate Mother Teresa and its only post-independence monarch to be returned to the country, the prime minister said.
Mother Teresa’s remains are in India and King Ahmet Zog’s in France.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha’s government has asked India for the Roman Catholic nun’s remains to be returned by the 100th anniversary of her birth in August.
Mr Berisha said Albania has started negotiations with India’s government, which “will be intensified this year”.
Macedonia and Albania have been engaged in a dispute over the national identity of Mother Teresa, who was born in Macedonia to an ethnic Albanian family.
She went to Calcutta, India, in 1929, and dedicated herself to the service of the poor and infirm, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. (PA)
Billionaire hosts circus show from space
Canadian space tourist and circus billionaire Guy Laliberte mixed star power, science lectures, music and poetry with water, hosting a TV/internet show from the International Space Station.
People from around the world tuned in via television and the internet as the Cirque du Soleil founder brought his crusade to preserve the world’s water resources down to Earth from his host’s chair on the International Space Station.
Former US vice-president Al Gore, U2 and Shakira were among the parade of entertainers and activists that participated back on Earth with acts performed in 14 cities on five continents.
The show was aimed at raising awareness for Laliberte’s One Drop Foundation, which seeks to draw attention to the growing shortage of clean water. (PA)
11 killed as UN plane crashes
A surveillance plane assigned to the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti crashed into a mountain, killing all 11 military personnel on board, the UN said.
UN spokeswoman Michele Montas in New York said the Uruguayan CASA212 aircraft went down in rugged terrain west of Fonds-Verrettes near the border with the Dominican Republic.
Rescue teams had to reach the area by foot because there were no roads nearby, and they found no survivors, she said.
All bodies were recovered and would be taken back to the capital of Port-au-Prince, according to a statement from the UN peace-keeping mission in Haiti.
Airport naming row
Former US President Jimmy Carter is at the centre of a row over plans to name a small-town airport after him.
The airport in Americus, Georgia, near Mr Carter’s hometown of Plains, is set to be renamed after the former president.
But some critics say that would erase local history, as the airport is currently named after Henry Souther, who helped develop it as a World War I military training base. Charles Lindbergh flew solo there for the first time, four years before piloting the Spirit of St Louis from New York to Paris in 1927.
Test-tube doctor dies
The family of Dr Frederick Wirth Jr, the doctor to America’s first test-tube baby, said he has died. He was 68.
Dr Wirth died of pancreatic cancer in Carson City, said his wife, Linda Wirth. He moved three years ago to nearby Minden, 50 miles to the south.
Dr Wirth gained national attention as the neonatologist who cared for Elizabeth Jordan Carr after her birth on December 28, 1981.