Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic arrived in Albania on Wednesday for the first such visit by a Serbian head of government as the two Balkan countries seek to improve fragile ties.

Vucic was greeted on arrival by his Albanian counterpart Edi Rama, who visited Belgrade six months ago in the first visit by a Tirana head of government for 68 years.

Thirty alleged gunmen were charged Monday with terror offenses after a bloody shootout with Macedonian police which left 22 dead, including eight police officers, and dozens of homes destroyed in a town close to the border with Kosovo.

The clashes in Kumanovo at the weekend were the worst in Macedonia for 14 years, and raised fears of a fresh conflict similar to the country's 2001 ethnic conflict.

Two inmates were killed and 21 others injured during fighting that broke out in an Athens prison on Sunday, the justice ministry said.

The violence erupted between Albanian and Pakistani groups of prisoners using improvised weapons in Korydallos prison in western Athens, said a source close to the investigation. The reason for the dispute was unclear.

The Albanian parliament passed a law Thursday opening secret police files on civilians that have been kept shut tight since the fall of the feared communist regime.

Unofficial sources have estimated that about 20 percent of Albanians collaborated with the notorious Sigurimi secret police, informing on "suspicious" activities of friends, neighbors, colleagues or even family members.

Two Norwegians accused of fighting with Islamic State (IS) extremists appeared before an Oslo court Tuesday charged with aiding a "terrorist organization," in Norway's first ever trial of suspected jihadists.

Djibril Bashir and Valon Avdylim -- of Somali and Albanian origin, respectively -- are accused of having fought with the IS group in Syria.

Albania's capital was rocked Tuesday by two blasts targeting a pharmacy owned by a minister's family and the apartment of a senior police officer.

No one was injured in the pre-dawn explosions described by Prime Minister Edi Rama as "terrorist acts".

Albania on Wednesday allowed the Norman Atlantic ferry, which left at least 13 people dead when it burst into flames in stormy seas near a Greek island, to be towed to an Italian port.

"Following the demand of authorities in (the southeastern Italian port of) Bari, Albanian justice decided to allow the ferry be towed towards Italy," said Albai Serani, spokesman of the Albanian prosecution office.

The death toll after a ferry caught fire in rough seas in the Adriatic rose to ten Monday with dozens of passengers still unaccounted for.

It was unclear whether the missing passengers had drowned or otherwise died unnoticed or whether the ill-fated Norman Atlantic's manifest lists were inaccurate.

A British man rescued from a burning ferry in the Mediterranean on Monday, his face covered in soot and grease, said he felt "terrified" and "helpless" as flames engulfed the ship.

Three people were killed overnight in northern Albania in severe flooding caused by torrential rains, police said on Wednesday.

A 63-year-old man and his 23-year-old daughter died after their car was carried away by flood waters while they were driving on a mountain road.