General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters took to the streets again Sunday to demand new elections despite repeated calls from Western powers to sit down for talks. At least seven police officers and a demonstrator were injured in scattered violence during the protest.
The center-right Democratic Party-led opposition supporters gathered at the main government building accusing center-left Socialist Party Prime Minister Edi Rama of corruption and links to organized crime. They want Rama to resign and an interim Cabinet to take the country to an early parliamentary election.
“The whole of our battle is for a free and fair election, for European values,” said Democratic leader Lulzim Basha.
Flares, smoke and firebombs were hurled at the government building during Basha’s speech.
Then Basha led supporters to parliament where a small group of supporters with their faces covered continuously smoke bombs and noisy firecrackers.
Police eventually used water cannons and tear gas when a small group tried to get closer to the building.
Interior Minister Sander Lleshaj said seven police officers were injured. An opposition supporter was injured by a firecracker that exploded near his legs outside parliament.
Opposition protests have been going on since mid-February. Rama’s Socialists say the opposition is hurting the country’s image as European Union leaders decide whether to launch full membership negotiations with Tirana.
The EU, U.S. and other Western institutions have asked the opposition to avoid violence and to hold talks instead to resolve the country’s political deadlock.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who was on a brief visit to Tirana on Sunday, called on both sides “to resolve any differences through dialogue and established political processes.”
“Political violence contradicts our democratic values. It is absolutely unacceptable,” he said at a news conference four hours before the rally.
The opposition has relinquished its seats at parliament and is boycotting Albania’s June 30 municipal election.
The Socialists, who have enough parliamentary seats to run on their own, have launched their electoral campaign saying they can’t violate the constitution and change the election day.
___
By LLAZAR SEMINI Associated Press
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — More than 100 long-finned pilot whales that beached on the western Australian coast Thursday have returned to sea, while 29 died on the shore, officials said.
CALIFORNIA - The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation ceremony and dozens more college students were arrested at other campuses nationwide Thursday as protests against the Israel-Hamas war continued to spread.
NEW YORK — The third day of witness testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial concluded Thursday after Trump's lawyers got their first chance to question a witness on the stand.
ATLANTA — As Donald Trump seeks a return to the White House, criminal charges are piling up for the people who tried to help him stay there in 2020 by promoting false theories of voter fraud.
ATHENS - Voters should see the whole picture when they go to cast their ballot in the European Parliament elections on June 9, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview on Thursday.