The secrets of the “Sude” lottery are revealed. The judges abandon the trial. Company bosses abroad Berisha begins purges in the DP. Krasniqi: Apart from Saliu, none of the old clan The secrets of the “Sude” lottery are revealed. The judges abandon the trial. Company bosses abroad VEFA: Nearly 80% of the money Berisha begins purges in the DP. Krasniqi: Apart from Saliu, none of the old clan

Political marketing delays the Government: Crime roams around Albania The State continues to remain in limbo. Albania seems to have sunk into a fog, while crime roams freely and has been given leave for an indefinite period. Fino, prime minister of the Government of Reconciliation, is appearing in two roles, in two guises: on TV, serious and well-groomed, while in the newspapers he is dressed in a tracksuit, imitating Maradona. His ministers, after greeting their secretaries every morning, go and read their fortunes in coffee cups. Perhaps they are trying to divine their career prospects after the Government falls. So this is the old, four-month-old Government, waiting to be dissolved, even though it finds time to go to the beach. On the other hand, for two weeks the marketing campaign for the new Government of Prime Minister Nano has been continuing. Publicity for Nano’s ministers has reached its peak. Although the Government has not been decreed, although it has not received a vote of confidence, although it has not drafted and presented a program, it is setting out in interviews its vision of how it will organize its work at this ministerial stage. The new ministers seem to have become pleased with themselves and continue to show themselves in every pose in the pages of the newspapers. As if the Government had been self-proclaimed by Nano’s signature alone. Meanwhile, while the State is in limbo, crime has taken center stage, protected by Kalashnikovs and its entire other arsenal of weapons; it makes the law and has thrown the State onto the mat. The geography of crime has occupied the whole map of Albania and continues to take advantage of the absence of the State. Just yesterday, crime bared its teeth in nearly twenty districts of Albania. It attacked buses, looted, took people hostage, abducted girls, and took human lives. And the State is nowhere; the State is in limbo. The old Government (four months old) is waiting for the new Government, which, although announced in the newspapers, has still not received its mandate. Berisha refuses to baptize it. The game with the CEC and the Constitutional Court will continue to keep the State in limbo. The absence of a final statement from the CEC and the 14 complaints before the Constitutional Court do nothing but give Berisha time not to relinquish the Presidency and not to baptize the Government. How much longer will Albania remain without a State? Berisha knows. If the Constitutional Court decides to hold the elections again in some area, then Berisha will not fail to take advantage of the August heat, and consequently we will not hold Parliament sessions and we will have no Government. No one knows what form the unexpected events will take. The State continues to remain in limbo.

Page 3 Special forces enter Berat, ALBA looks on, the Romanians leave Gjirokastra, anti-crime officer massacred in Elbasan Page 5 Terror in Vlora, 55 killed and 670 wounded in Gjirokastër, the “Black Masks” rob Gramsh, children steal gasoline from the Municipality in Durrës Page 7

Page 4 Dritëro Agolli: Being a deputy is too much for me, too. I am a free man. I am writing “The Dance of the Gangsters” Page 12 Tetova and Gostivari, the gray land of the makeshift republic. By telephone from the “Republika” correspondent Nazim Rashidi Page 7 Reportage. In the South, life as on the island of fear Page 14

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