Tirana, Albania
Albanian officials last year stumbled upon 16 tons of mustard and arsenic gases stored in a bunker, The Washington Post reported this week. Paranoid communist dictator Enver Hoxha—who believed the U.S., the Soviets, and the Yugoslavs were all going to declare war on his country—bought the lethal chemicals from China in the 1970s. After his death in 1985, the location of the stockpile was forgotten. The Albanian government secured the site as soon as it was rediscovered, and alerted U.S. and U.N. officials. But the discovery raised fears that other stockpiles might be lying unguarded somewhere. “It’s not that the Albanians would use them,” said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “but a terrorist group could learn of them and then try to pick the low-hanging fruit.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How did the Wagner Group recruit young British men for arson attack?Today's Big Question Russian operatives have been using encrypted messaging apps to groom saboteurs across Europe
-
The best graphic novelsThe Week Recommends These inventive illustrated books will transport you to another world
-
How a UK wealth tax could workA levy could be on the agenda as Rachel Reeves attempts to get the nation's finances back on track
