Political ads paid for by anonymous ‘dark money’ were viewed more than 50 million times ahead of Albania’s April parliamentary election, according to data analysed by BIRN. hree weeks ahead of Albania’s fiercely contested parliamentary election in April, a Facebook page entitled ‘Untold Stories of Albania’, ran an excerpt from …

A BIRN data analysis shows that Albania’s ruling Socialists dominated the social media campaign before the country’s last parliamentary election. Experts worry about the effect on public debate and democracy. The crowd cheered and online viewers held their breath as the plane glided in to land at the Zayed-North Wings …

A massive fire that broke out at an oil refinery near Iran’s capital and sent a huge plume of black smoke into the sky over Tehran was extinguished on Thursday, after more than 20 hours, a news agency reported. The semi-official ISNA agency quoted the country’s deputy oil minister, Alireza …