Tense situation in Qyteti Studenti. Strikers: We will not leave alive unless Majko resigns. Winter break for students begins today Phone calls that got the strikers out of the hall. Students: here is how the masks got us out P. 2

Dalip GRECA Albania will suffer for a long time from perversity, as people are trampling on the remaining national values in the name of progress. These people, brought back from exile to govern the state and its central institutions, after daubing some sheets of tin beside the fathers’ selves, after exhibiting some bunkers in the West, after writing some homosexual love stories, devised the degradation of the Albanian press, sparing not even their own newspaper. The tragedy of this whole story lies in the fact that talented artists also fell into the trap set by perverse bosses, those who need them in the background and those who remain in the dark. The painter Bashkim Zahaj, through his own fault, emerged as the most sullied figure in this story. Apparently, he appeared in three different settings: the first was on Wednesday on Klosi’s Television, where he said that the press can also be used for other needs, to…[?] his own urine. The second, rather pathetic copy appeared on Thursday at his first face-to-face meeting with the press, where he put on a show in the presence of Minister Uligini and another boss, who wanted the set changed, but there was no money. When one of the publishers gave him 200 dollars instead of the 10,000 lekë he had received to make changes to the stage, he asked for the car; when the press found him and the furniture too, he brought the truth to light: there is something to do with the artistic realization. The third copy appeared at the third meeting with the publishers, an hour before the festival began, where he was blocked with…[?]

Yesterday at the hunger strike, some went in, others left Former Police Director held hostage for 7 hours in Lazarat Government keeps the “file” on the students’ strike secret Majko: It was a bill that would have weighed on us. We enforced the law P. 5 Photo: P. Ilo

RP leaders meet the Greek “Atlantic” Nano returns to Albania with the secret of his illness 100 more scholarships for studying Page 3

Saddam Hussein: “We will fight in the name of Jihad” The life and career of Saddam Hussein Tension in the Persian Gulf Pages 10–11

Serbian convoy heading toward Prizren Pejë: Albanians in handcuffs Serbian artillery, explosions at the border P. 12

Berisha: My own people sold me out. The DP chairman obeys the law. Democrats on strike alongside the students

20 years in prison for killing one’s father Taxi driver from Tirana taken hostage in Krujë Attack on Omonia leaders Page 6 Money for the Patos-Ruzhdie road burned Van hijacked; explosion rocks the Port of Durrës Page 7 Former director Xhillari: the Prime Minister dismissed me P. 8 Klosi digs his own grave while still alive Mula and Tukiqi in Paris ANNOUNCEMENT The Second Conference of the Republican Minority Forum will meet on Saturday, 19.12.98, at 10:30, at the Palace of Congresses.