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Cat and mouse black out city
A cat chasing a mouse in Tirana's main power station caused a 72-hour blackout across parts of the Albanian capital. The two animals ran into the high-voltge cables and got electrocuted.
Albanians complain bitterly about the power cuts that have plagued them for decades, and are mostly blamed on drought and the dilapidation of the communist-era grid. A cat chasing a mouse in Tirana's main power station caused a 72-hour blackout across parts of the Albanian capital. The two anim... more -
Albanian arms dump blast kills 9, injures 243
An army base stocking obsolete munitions destined for destruction detonated a chain of massive explosions yesterday, killing at nine people and injuring more than 240. Nearby villages and passing cars were hit by shockwaves from the blast, which began as workers moved stocks of bombs, bullets and shells stored at the base, a collection point for the arsenal amassed by Albania's Stalinist-era dictatorship. The process of dismantling the 100,000 tonnes of 40-year-old weapons has been a condition of the country's hoped-for membership to NATO.
The force of the explosion was so strong that it was felt at the seaside resort of Durres, 20km away. People living in the nearby village of Gerdec took shelter in concrete bunkers while others fled to the hills. It even shattered windows in an airport several miles away forcing an evacuation.
A Reuters cameraman described people trying to escape: "Terrified people are leaving the area on foot along the highway, women and children. Cars with broken windows have been abandoned on the highway." An army base stocking obsolete munitions destined for destruction detonated a chain of massive explosions yesterday, killing at nine p... more
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