Albania protesters clash over Trump-linked project

Police clashed with protesters outside Albania's parliament on Tuesday as demonstrations continued against a Trump-linked luxury tourism project planned in a coastal nature reserve.

Several hundred protesters gathered outside entrances to the National Assembly as lawmakers returned from their summer recess. An AFP journalist saw some protesters try to break through riot police cordons as lawmakers left the building, and some threw eggs, tomatoes and bottles at lawmakers' cars as they passed through a police-secured corridor.

Police did not disclose the number of arrests. Protesters who later went to a police station to demand the release of detainees put the number at around 20.

The protest marked the 101st day of demonstrations against the planned luxury hotel complex, which is linked to US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. The project is planned in a protected area and on an uninhabited island.

Scientists and activists say preliminary work has already caused irreparable damage to a once pristine stretch of Albania's coast and destroyed nesting sites of birds and loggerhead turtles, which are threatened with extinction.

Protesters, waving Albanian flags and carrying cardboard flamingos as a campaign symbol, again demanded the repeal of a protected areas law that they say was tailored to benefit the investor.