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IRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania's main opposition Democratic Party made a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Edi Rama Monday, accusing him of illegally funneling $80,000 to U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 in return for a photograph of the two men together. The Democrats brought the case to the Prosecutor General's office, saying Rama — who was then the opposition leader — paid the money in violation of U.S. and Albanian laws to gain access to a campaign event in San Francisco in October 2012. Last week Bilal Shehu, 48, a U.S. citizen of Albanian origin, pleaded guilty...

The most circulated newspaper in Europe killed a major corruption story to please Joe Biden. A new report details how editors at Bild, the outlet in question, canned an extensive investigative piece on Albanian PM Edi Rama because he and the US president are friends and political allies.Per The Washington Examiner, Albania has become a narco-state over the last decade under Rama, and Bild was getting ready to expose him further.So, who is Rama? He’s the far-left leader of Albania’s Socialist Party. Accusations against him range from drug trafficking to money laundering, to extortion and vote buying.A few days ago,...

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that he believed supporters of former President Donald Trump were “engaging in threats of violence,” while supporters of President Joe Biden were not prone to violence. Strzok said, “My biggest concern is that we have the presumptive Republican nominee for president who has and continues to engage in calls for violence from his supporters. Look, there’s an interesting data point here. Just shortly after the Michigan Supreme Court indicated they weren’t going to take this up, Donald Trump took to Truth Social and lauded their decision, talked about how they...

Now that Republicans have narrow control of the House of Representatives, the GOP is investigating the Biden administration with gusto. Still, Republicans seem not to have noticed one major foreign policy scandal that's hiding in plain sight. As I recently reported , the rising scandal surrounding retired FBI senior official Charles McGonigal is perhaps the worst in the bureau’s history. Multiple sources have told me that McGonigal, while still serving with the FBI as head of counterintelligence in New York, shook down Balkan business people, most of them Albanian, in an audacious political corruption scheme worth many millions of dollars....

Former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal started tearing up Thursday as he was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for colluding with a Russian oligarch to evade US sanctions. McGonigal, 55, was ordered to surrender by Feb. 26, 2024, made to serve three years of supervised release following his time behind bars, and was fined $40,000. After he exited the courthouse, McGonigal told onlookers, “Happy holidays.” McGonigal, who helmed the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018, pleaded guilty to the charge back in August. “[McGonigal] well knew his actions violated those sanctions,” Manhattan federal judge...

The FBI’s reputation problems have accelerated with the arrest on corruption charges of Charles McGonigal, the former chief of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York field office, one of the most powerful spy-hunters in the country - who also happened to be connected to Hunter Biden. In twin indictments last month, McGonigal was charged with taking secret cash payments from a former Albanian intelligence officer, holding secret meetings with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and attempting to remove top Kremlin oligarch Oleg Deripaska from a US sanctions list. The Albanians cited by prosecutors tie this scandal to Hunter Biden and...

For about 60 million years during the Eocene epoch, the Indian subcontinent was a huge island. Having broken off from the ancient continent of Gondwanaland, the Indian Tectonic Plate drifted toward Eurasia. During that gradual voyage, the subcontinent saw a blossoming of exceptional wildlife, and when the trove of unique biodiversity finally made contact with bigger Eurasia, the exchange of animals and plants between these areas laid the foundations for countless modern species. "Today, mainland Asia and India have all this unique biodiversity -- but did the mainland Asian biodiversity come from India, or did the Indian biodiversity come from...

The good news is that even though TB is highly contagious, the three infected elephants at the zoo did not spread the disease to visitors, including those who attended one of Rama's painting parties in which he created splatter paintings. About 5 percent of the captive Asian elephants in North America are infected. The disease can be deadly to elephants. Three pachyderms at an exotic animal farm in Illinois died from the disease between 1994 and 1996, according to the CDC. One handler in that outbreak got sick as well. At the Oregon Zoo, the first case popped up in...

"The sea, which had been beating against the shores, suddenly broke the boundary that was imposed on it by nature. The sea rushed into the city. It coursed through the streets of the beautiful city. The sea covered up everything in the city. Arjuna saw the beautiful buildings becoming submerged one by one. He took a last look at the mansion of Krishna. In a matter of a few moments it was all over. The sea had now become as placid as a lake. There was no trace of the beautiful city, which had been the favourite haunt of all...

Experts survey seabed off Gujarat for Dwarka evidence New Delhi, Aug 17 : A group of archaeological experts and Indian Navy divers have conducted the first scientific survey off the Gujarat coast to establish whether or not the ruins on the seabed are of the mythological city of Dwarka, the capital of Hindu god Krishna. "The area off the Samudranaraya temple at (present day) Dwarka is known to contain structures which have been widely reported and interpreted by renowned scholars. However, no scientific study of the area had been conducted so far," Alok Tripathi of the Archaeological Survey of India...

A bid by an Australian archaeologist and other sailors to recreate an ancient voyage in a traditional reed boat has struck trouble in the Arabian Sea. Nautical archaeologist Dr Tom Vosmer and seven other sailors had set off from Oman for a two-week voyage in the Magan, a 12-metre-long sailing boat made of reeds, rope and wood, but capsized within hours. "Water leaked into the Magan causing it to capsize, but a support ship from the Omani royal navy accompanying the boat intervened and rescued the sailors," a source from Oman's culture and national heritage ministry which organised the trip...

The defunct underwater wing of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is set for a revival with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the government keen to establish the scientific veracity of Dwarka, the mythological submerged capital of Lord Krishna's kingdom, and the Rama Setu, a set of limestone shoals believed to date back to the Ramayana... "The National Institute of Oceanography has the expertise. They will be training our fleet of young divers," said Dr RS Fonia, ASI joint director general. The ministry of culture, the nodal ministry for ASI, is also looking at options to bring on board...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The classical definition of a hero is a person who puts himself at risk for the benefit of others. That certainly describes Adolfo Calero, who died June 2 at the age of 80. The obituaries of this remarkable man hardly do justice to his courage, perseverance, faithfulness and humility. Here is the Adolfo Calero I knew, admired and called a friend for nearly three decades: A graduate of Holy Cross High School in New Orleans and the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., he was a devout Roman Catholic and educated to be a...

Although the campaign of elections is not officially opened yet, Prime Minister Sali Berisha has launched the tour of inaugurations, promising the Albanians to increase the investment and the improvement of their lives regardless of where they reside. In the picturesque village of Daias in the municipality of Petrela, where with an investment of 52 million is build a road and a new school, Prime Minister Berisha said that the government has funded any project that every village in the country have the infrastructure like that of the city. According to the Prime Minister Berisha, Petrela municipality, where during 5...

French anti-terror magistrates wrapped up an investigation into four Islamists who may have helped British shoe bomber Richard Reid in France. Le Parisien reports the suspects include the head of a Paris mosque, the leader of a Pakistani community and two other men. Reid spent several days in Paris before boarding a Miami-bound plane in December 2001 with explosives stuffed in his sneakers. Last year, Reid was sentenced to life in prison by a U.S. court for trying to blow up the flight. One of the French suspects, Imam Kamel Lakhram, reportedly acknowledged to French authorities Reid had slept at...

Paris court convicts three aides to shoebomber ReidA top French court jailed three men for terrorist conspiracy on Thursday after finding them guilty of helping "shoebomber" Richard Reid, who narrowly failed to destroy a U.S. airliner over the Atlantic. (snip) Jacqueline Rebeyrotte, presiding judge at the main Paris criminal court, sentenced Ghulam Rama to five years in prison and expulsion from France once his sentence was served. (snip) His co-accused, Frenchmen Hakim Mokhfi and Hassan El Cheguer, both aged 31, were each jailed for four years, one year suspended. The court ordered them released as they have been in preventive...

An idol of Lord Rama -- about 1000-years-old -- was found at Sidha Ashram in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh. The idol of 11th century AD was found by intellects and archaeologists taking part in nine-day Ram Vangaman Path Sarvekshan Yatra started from Satna district's Chitrkut area from March 1, official sources said today. "This is the most ancient idol of Lord Rama found ever," claimed Archaeology Experts R K Chaturvedi and R A Sharma, member of Prof Awadesh Parasad Pande headed Sarvekshan Yatra team. The idol of the deity was holding a bow and arrow indicating his readiness to...

A lone llama has been roaming the fields of Pitt Meadows since last week, managing to evade capture and creating a stir in the suburban community. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and residents have tried unsuccessfully to capture the llama, which has been visiting farms looking for food. Macky Bains, who owns a cranberry farm and a turf farm, says the llama has damaged his fields and overstayed its welcome. "It was running around on the grass and it was chewing up the turf, and we have got some netting on the fields to hold the...

PARIS: A Paris court on Tuesday ordered that a Pakistani national placed under investigation at the weekend for allegedly helping accused "shoe bomber" Richard Reid remain in detention, court sources said. Ghulam Mustafa Rama, along with two Frenchmen, is being investigated on suspicion of having "conspired to prepare a terrorist act". One of the French nationals was placed in preventive detention on Monday. Reid, 28, was caught with explosives in his shoe on an American Airlines jet from Paris to Miami in December, and has pleaded not guilty to charges in the United States of terrorism, attempted murder and attempting...

AYODHYA, India (AP) -- Suresh Kumar Pal helped destroy an ancient Muslim mosque here a decade ago. On Friday, he intends to defy a Supreme Court order and lay the first stones of a Hindu temple at the heart of renewed sectarian bloodshed. ``We can't fight the might of the police, but we will try. We live on Lord Rama's land, so we have to do our duty,'' said Pal, a Hindu, who had brought a few bricks with him for the planned temple, whose construction is bitterly resisted by Muslims. He echoed thousands of Hindus who have gathered on...