Freedom at last for Mark the bear

TIRANA - Austria may have angered its Balkan neighbours by shutting the Schengen door to passport-free travel on some of them, but it did welcome one Albanian migrant with open arms.

Mark is elderly, overweight and doesn't smell too good but the bear got the royal treatment after arriving at an Austrian sanctuary.

Having been cooped up in a cage in a Tirana restaurant for two decades, Mark deserves a break.

Unable ever to hibernate while at the eatery, he is likely to sleep out his first few months in his new home.

Once in the sanctuary, Mark will get the veterinary care and proper food he needs "so he can recover quickly and enjoy a life worthy of a bear", said Sajmir Shehu, the Four Paws project coordinator in Albania.