Albanian army

Albania's government is for the first time to grant special protection to employees and others working with the Defence Intelligence and Security agency, AISM, which is part of the Ministry of Defence.

Albanian Interior Minister Sajmir Tahiri told parliament that he does not intend to resign and called on the General Prosecutor to investigate oposition claims about his alleged crime links to drugs smugglers.

The opposition claims Tahiri has links to drug dealers and that the police have been infiltrated by criminal elements that protect the drug traffic routes.

Albanian police have continued combing the village of Lazarat, conducting house-to-house searches to find members of the armed group that on Wednesday killed 31-year-old special forces officer Ibrahim Basha in an ambush.

Since the operation started on Wednesday, police have detained dozens of suspects, mostly young man, for questioning by prosecutors.

Albanian officer killed in Spain while trafficking drugs

TIRANA -- Albanian Army Major Sokol Feka was the pilot of a helicopter that crashed yesterday in Spain while transporting narcotics from Morocco.

Feka served in the Albanian military for 18 years and was made major in 2009. He is described as "a pilot who enjoyed the highest degree of trust."

The massive, top secret Cold War nuclear bunker of former Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha was opened to the public on Saturday, decades after it was built by the paranoid communist regime fearing an attack by the West that never came.

“The battalion that operates in foreign operations will be the first to be equipped from this year with the M4 carbine, and will no longer use outdated Kalashnikovs,” Kodheli said in a speech marking the first 300 days in power of the Socialist-led government.