Edlira Prendi

The Albanian Defence Ministry has postponed an auction of old Russian and Chinese-made military planes following an unexpectedly large number of requests to take part in the bidding.

Earlier this month, the ministry put out a routine announcement of an auction on February 22 to sell 36 planes and four helicopters parked in military aerodromes.

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.

Albania working to improve its military

Manpower and equipment upgrades are key challenges to improve the country's military capacity.

Albania Defence Minister Mimi Kodheli inspects a military command post during a training exercise. [Albania Ministry of Defence]