Serious accident on Mount Dajti . Two senior Tirana Municipality officials killed. Page 5.

Veterinarians announce a new danger in the Albanian market during the year-end holidays. Their use causes serious health concerns in the human body Veterinarians announce a new danger in the Albanian market during the year-end holidays. 90 percent of turkeys have been raised on cortisone. Their use causes serious health concerns in the human body. Page 7.

EDITORIAL. Even if we were to believe any part of Marxist-Leninist theory, undoubtedly the most fitting maxim for this purpose would be: “Power is the highest peak of the state”. On the contrary, the very concept of the latter was redefined, at least theoretically, after the removal of communist dogma from the messianic Albanian mentality, invoking at least the idea of its reach to the very limits of the territory and through all its social links and strata. But is that what is happening in Albania? Not even in Tirana! At this year’s end, the Albanian capital resembles a madwoman in tatters who, wandering the streets with fashionable makeup on her face but wearing torn clothes and rags, nev-… [partly illegible] …ertheless on her emaciated body, cannot gather around herself anyone but street urchins who laugh, whisper and mock her for her intellectual poverty. This is happening because the more time passes, the more the authority and responsibility of power over the spaces—even the geographical spaces—of the state it has undertaken to administer shrink. As if by some absurd mechanism, initiated in the buffoonish heads and sterile minds of those who think they really are in power simply because they are officially called so, the Albanian state, although it is not fighting any war, is rapidly relinquishing entire territories of its sovereignty. The process is proceeding so quickly that, in Tirana alone, after two months of governance by Edi Rama and his staff, the “heart of Albania”—“its pride”—the capital of a whole string of cities which, more than cities, resemble large villages full of mud and darkness, feels the Municipality’s authority in only a few square metres, as much as its Centre covers. There are lights there, noise there, and there will also be police, with all sorts of things, to keep order on New Year’s Eve. The others, without authority and in darkness, without police and at the mercy of fate.

The price remains unchanged even after the Government’s decision. . Retail outlets are keeping prices high. Albania reaches the end of the year not only without electricity, but also without gas. The Government, aware of the serious situation in the electricity sector, has for several days been urging citizens, through the Ministry of Public Economy and Privatization, to buy as much gas as possible in order to solve the problem of cooking and heating. Page 3.

Distant statements about the supposed meeting. . The head of the majority mocks dialogue. Dialogue between the government and the opposition on the eve of the beginning of the new millennium remains up in the air. This was confirmed yesterday by four… cipërisht the leaders of the political parties, who refused to speak openly about sitting down together at a dialogue table. Page 2.

Shot dead 50 metres inside Greek territory . Trafficker killed by police. The shocking news reached the Ismaili family in the village of Zogaj, in the Skrapar district. N. Ismaili, from the village of Zogaj, received a telegram from Bilisht; its main message was that his 20-year-old nephew A.L (the victim’s initials) had been killed 50 metres from the Albanian border, where he and several friends had sold drugs in Greece and had gone that day to collect the money. Page 8.

Bajram . The holiday gave over 3 million lekë to beggars. Pages 12, 13.

Alarm spreads among money changers and currency exchange agencies. . Counterfeiters are offering high exchange rates. Page 7.

New Year . 100 police officers to protect “Skënderbej” Square. Page 4.