Albanian parliament gets earful over French corn

TIRANA (Reuters) - Tempers popped over corn when guards in Albania's parliament grappled with two lawmakers who tried to bring supposedly sterile samples of a French variety into the chamber.

"I told them these objects were not allowed in and blocked the door, but they hit and punched another officer," guard commander Arben Nika said in a statement after the tussle with two opposition legislators on Thursday.

"I fell down and my leg bled," he said.

Agriculture Minister Jemin Gjana told the chamber that the corn, imported from France, had yielded a sterile crop in only two areas of the poor Balkan nation.

The two MPs tried to bring in samples of the corn they said had been planted in other regions but were prevented from entering the building.

(Reporting by Benet Koleka, editing by Adam Tanner, John Stonestreet and Michael Roddy)