World
Albania plans to create sovereign micro state for Sufi Muslim order
Prime Minister Edi Rama says he wants to promote tolerant Islam by creating the statelet.
Albania is planning to create its own Vatican City. This one, however, will be a Muslim one.
The New York Times reported that Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, will announce plans for a sovereign microstate within its capital, Tirana, that will follow the practices of the Bektashi Order — a Shiite Sufi order founded in the 13th century in Turkey.
If all goes to plan, the so-called “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” will become the world’s smallest state, just a quarter of the size of Vatican City. The 10-hectare patch of land will have its own administration, passports and borders.
The new state would allow alcohol, permit women to wear what they want and impose no lifestyle rules, reflecting the Bektashi Order’s tolerant practices. Rama said the aim of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam on which Albania prides itself. “We should take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance and which we should never take for granted,” he told The New York Times.
A long mystic tradition in Albania
The history of the Bektashis dates back to the 13th century Ottoman Empire, but nearly a century ago, the Order’s headquarters moved to Tirana after being banned from Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic.
The Bektashi Order has a long mystic tradition in Albania. Espoused by the Janissaries, the elite soldiers of the Ottoman Empire largely recruited from Christian areas of the Balkans. The Sufi faith does not force devotees to observe the basics of traditional Islam.
Tolerance has not led to protection from persecution, however. For hundreds of years, the faithful have found themselves under pressure — whether their overlords were Christian, Muslim or atheist — which led them to neighbouring countries such as Kosovo and Macedonia since the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of the Balkans in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Bektashis are devoted to wise men, known as dervishes. Dervish Baba Mondi is the current spiritual leader of the order. He is known by followers by his official title, His Holiness Haji Dede Baba.
Baba Mondi is set to be the leader of the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order. He says decisions will be made with “love and kindness”. In an interview with Euronews in 2018, he said “being a Bektashi means being human. We have built our community basing it on the principles of peace, love, and mutual respect.”
A team of experts is working on legislation defining the new state’s sovereign status inside Albania. Rama’s governing Socialist Party will also need to endorse it.
Baba Mondi expressed hope that the United States and other Western powers would recognise his state’s sovereignty. “We deserve a state,” he told The New York Times, “We are the only ones in the world who tell the truth about Islam” and “don’t mix it up with politics.”
World
Hantavirus-stricken cruise ship arrives at Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — A hantavirus-stricken cruise ship with more than 140 people on board has arrived at Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, where the passengers and some of the crew are to disembark.
The World Health Organization, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions have said that nobody on board the MV Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus. Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.
As a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship is set to arrive at Granadilla port in Tenerife, Spain on Sunday morning, the WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expedition are coordinating the disembarkation of passengers and some crew on ground.
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor, with people ferried off in small boats. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms, and will only be taken off the ship once evacuation flights are ready to fly them to their destinations.
There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s health and interior ministers, were to be supervising the evacuation of the ship. Authorities have said the passengers and crew members who will disembark will have no contact with the local population.
Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
World
North Korea updates constitution to require automatic nuclear strike if Kim Jong Un is assassinated: report
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North Korea has updated its constitution to require a retaliatory nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, according to a report.
The Telegraph reported the change comes amid heightened global tensions following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials during a recent conflict.
Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran as part of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli military operation earlier this year, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The constitutional revision was approved during a session of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, which opened March 22 in Pyongyang, the outlet said.
ISRAEL TARGETS IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER IN SWEEPING STRIKES AS US JOINS ‘OPERATION EPIC FURY’
North Korea launched two cruise missiles and three anti-ship missiles from the destroyer Choe Hyon on Sunday, April 12, 2026, according to North Korean state media. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP)
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) briefed senior government officials this week on the update, according to the report.
The revised policy outlines procedures for retaliatory action if North Korea’s leadership is incapacitated or killed.
“If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately,” the updated provision states.
KIM JONG UN CALLS SOUTH KOREA ‘MOST HOSTILE ENEMY,’ SAYS NORTH COULD ‘COMPLETELY DESTROY’ IT
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech at the inauguration ceremony of Saeppyol Street in Pyongyang on Feb. 15, 2026. (KCNA via KNS/AFP)
Reuters previously reported that North Korea revised its constitution to define its territory as bordering South Korea and remove references to reunification, reflecting Kim’s push to formally treat the two Koreas as separate states.
That marked the first time North Korea included a territorial clause in its constitution.
Last month, Kim pledged to further strengthen the country’s nuclear capabilities while maintaining a hard-line stance toward South Korea, which he has called the “most hostile” state.
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Kim Jong Un reportedly observed missile test launches in North Korea on Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service)
Kim has also accused the United States of “state terrorism and aggression,” and signaled North Korea could take a more active role in opposition to Washington amid rising global tensions.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Iran warns US against attacks on tankers; Israel kills dozens in Lebanon
US-Iran ceasefire holds as Tehran warns Washington against attacks on tankers and Israel kills 24 people in Lebanon.
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