Mother Teresa's Remains Fought Over By India, Albania

India and Albania have engaged in a row over where Mother Teresa's remains should be buried. India rejected Albania's demands that her remains be sent to Albania, BBC reports.

"Mother Teresa was an Indian citizen and she is resting in her own country, her own land," Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.

A spokeswoman for the nun's Missionaries of Charity described the Albanian request as "absurd".

Mother Teresa was an ethnic Albanian, was born in Skopje, which is now part of Macedonia, and spent much of life working for the poor in Calcutta.

The Nobel laureate, who died on September 5, 1997, was buried at the Calcutta headquarters of her Missionaries of Charity order, reports the Times of India.

Next August will be the 100th anniversary of her birth, and Albania is expected to intensify its efforts to reclaim her remains before the anniversary.

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