Paskali’s death mask is missing “Massacre” in the studio of the famous sculptor ANDREA STEFANI TIRANA — Skanderbeg has once again fallen prey to thieves. The plaster cast of the well-known bust of the legendary commander, the work of the famous sculptor Odhise Paskali, has disappeared without a trace. Five centuries ago, it was the Ottoman Turks who, enthralled by the deeds of their greatest scholar, dug up his tomb in Lezhë and stole his bones to use them as amulets. Today it is fellow countrymen who are stealing the most outstanding bust of their National Hero — apparently to make money in the new market economy — dealing perhaps an irreparable blow to the Albanian art collection. Another episode has thus reappeared of what can be described as the massacre or execution of art, one of the most painful phenomena of the transition period. Once again we find ourselves in the delict (?) hidden in the turmoil of the years '90-'92. And it is Floriana Paskali — the sculptor’s daughter — who has informed “Gazeta Shqiptare” of the tragic news about the disappearance of the original — and the days that are (?) — One of the copies of the well-known bust of Skanderbeg made by Odisse Paskali

Albania counts the wounds left by the storm TIRANA — Storms and widespread flooding have marked this weekend: many areas of Albania have been left with the aftermath. The damage recorded is almost incalculable: damaged houses, uprooted trees, landslides and blocked worksites. The most affected areas appear to have been Saranda, Durrës and Puka. The situation is more serious in Fushë-Arrëz, where houses, trees and various buildings were caught in the vortex of the cyclone. According to a preliminary tally, only one of the four large bridges was broken, along with many kilometres of road covered with rocks and damaged works that even caused the roads to be blocked. The picture in the villages of Durrës is no less troubled. Here only 10 minutes remained at the end of the storm to deal with several houses — fortunately there were no human or livestock losses — but it caused extensive damage to fields, vineyards and various fruit trees. The weather madness has not spared the south of Albania either, where the most affected victim has been the city of Saranda. Here the violent gusts of wind have lifted roof parts and the structures of the local plan. Meanwhile, a short and unnecessary rise of hundreds of tons of bread has (?) stood before a suffocating throat in January, fallen. Especially now the branches have quieted down and the damaged areas have begun efforts to repair and reorganize the situation.

Sport A French success in Sicily, at an average speed of 38 kilometers per hour Cycling: Leblanc World Champion Frenchman Luc Leblanc has won the World Championship for professional cyclists in the race held along the Valley of the Temples in Sicily. With success in Sicily, Leblanc covered 252 kilometres in 6 hours, 33' and 52" at an average of 38.347 km/h. He reached the finish line only 9" ahead of the Italian Flavio Vanzella and the Frenchman Richard Virenque. The winner himself was among the 72 participants who completed the race. Two riders took part in the 42-kilometre time trial, won by the Englishman Boardman. Among the 57 riders, Vols finished 54th with a delay of 12'35" while Nja finished 55th with a delay of 12'59". French champion Luc Leblanc

Disqualified from the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix BELGIUM — German Michael Schumacher, who finished first in the Benetton at the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, has been disqualified for a technical irregularity on the car. The winner is now Damon Hill (Williams), with Mika Hakkinen (Mc Laren) in second and Jos Verstappen (Benetton) in third. During technical checks carried out after the race, a technical irregularity was found on the winning car. It concerned the small skid block placed at the bottom of the car’s chassis. This skid block should have been fitted according to the new regulations that came into force in May, following the serious accidents involving Tamburello, Senna and Wendlinger. In particular, this final skid block was put in place when the new rules came into force during the German Grand Prix in the month before. The purpose of this new device is to reduce the aerodynamic effect of the bottom of the chassis and consequently decrease the cars’ speed. The skid block in question was a strip of synthetic material similar to wood, one centimetre in diameter, screwed to the bottom of the cars. Under the new rules, this skid block must not protrude by more than 10 percent of its diameter, that is, one millimetre. And it was precisely this irregularity that was found on Schumacher’s “Benetton”.

But Kozirev in Belgrade calls for new agreements The referendum in the Pale “Republic” concludes BELGRADE — Voting in the Serbo-Bosnian “republic” ended without incident. Around one million votes, according to official data from Pale, the capital of this “republic”, voted for or against the peace plan, which had been rejected by the government and Parliament. It is almost certain that the answer will be “no”, and this will weigh heavily on the future development of events. But the results will only be made known tonight. Not by chance, according to the first data, more people voted in the villages (areas where government propaganda is more credible) than in the cities, while the polling stations, according to the plan, were to move from Serb control into the hands of Croat-Muslims, changed as a single body toward the ballot boxes. The president of Krajina, a geographically Croatian region with many Serb separatists, Milan Martić, also voted with difficulty. It was not right, he declared with conviction, to vote for a symbolic solution, in order to soon go against the peace plan. While Pale begins to close in on its counsel, Belgrade seems no longer willing to pay for such things again. The Russian Foreign Minister, Andrei Kozirev, arrived in the Serbian capital and will leave for Sarajevo and then for Zagreb. Kozirev is expected to seek, on behalf of the Security Council, a new agreement with President Milošević. Kozirev will also seek the people with a joint contingent in Bosnia and after this trip agree and stop the war. It turns out that Milošević had been unofficially there, justifying his absence with answers that did not protect national dignity, but the real reason was to have the sanctions against Yugoslavia lifted. A polling station in Brčko (Bosnia)

A decision by the Municipality SHKODËR — It seems that hard times have come to Shkodër for everyone who drinks alcohol. This is also shown by a decision of the city municipality. According to the official news agency, the municipality of the largest northern city has decided to declare all amateur users of alcoholic drinks “abusive”. The municipal decision recently approved prohibits the sale of this type of drink to intoxicated persons. Some time ago, the same measure was taken in Elbasan by the municipality there. Faced with the “excesses” of alcohol abuse in Albanian cities and people’s complaints, the matter has finally reached the ears of the highest authorities, and so also in Shkodër. In many cases drunk persons have been the cause of public disorder and even of many quarrels that have ended tragically.

Large quantities seized LUSHNJE — More than about the pharmacies of the city of Lushnja. Three of them sold a large quantity of expired medicines that have now been seized by state authorities. The official news agency reports the seizure and notes that the value of the expired, unchecked medicines is 317 thousand lek. Thus, three pharmacies in Lushnja cared more about not losing their profit than about the health of their customers, whose health in this case, instead of improving, was very likely harmed even more by the use of medicines that should have been out of use. In the same district, in Divjakë, a private pharmacy had 46,458 lek worth of medicines seized. According to the official authorities, it was operating without a licence.

TIRANA — The number of Albanian emigrants expelled from Greece is increasing at alarming rates. The figures given speak of more than 1,500 people who appear every day at the various border posts. By Sunday evening, the refugees returned to Albania numbered more than 25,000, while the wave of expulsions — which began on 15 August, the day a police operation was carried out against Albanian citizens of Greek origin — seems not to intend to subside. Indeed, the threats from government circles in Athens, despite the concessions achieved for dialogue, continue to harden, insisting on the release of 5 members of the minority.

Terrorism CAIRO — Security measures have already begun in Cairo to protect the delegations and the representatives at the UN Conference on Population and Development, while thousands of Egyptian official information services decided to strengthen the death threats from the clandestine extremist organisation “Jamaa Islamiya” against participants, who have called the conference postponement unacceptable. On Friday, an extremist attack against a small bus of Spanish tourists in Egypt, carried out by “Jamaa”, cost the lives of six children and two adults. The attack was condemned by the Egyptian organisation for the defence of human rights and by the Muslim Brotherhood, which also condemned the acts of violence by armed groups. This organisation also criticised the role of some representatives of “Al Ahram”, the main Islamic theology centre in Cairo, based in Cairo.

MILAN — An Albanian woman was kidnapped and raped by five compatriots in an apartment in Piazza Padova, in Milan. The girl herself reported the five Albanians after managing to escape through the window of the apartment, which was on the ground floor. The young woman, stopped by a police car a few minutes after leaving the house, had no documents with her and said she was 18 years old and had been born in Elbasan. According to the young woman, the five Albanians took her from a hotel in the Lombard capital, where she was staying together with her brother, and put her in a grey Volkswagen Golf, taking her to an apartment in Piazza Padova where they locked her in and raped her.

INSTEAD OF HELPING HER, THEY FILMED HER DROWNING — A woman dies trying to save her daughter and husband, who were at risk of drowning in a water-filled pit, while dozens of tourists filmed the scene with video cameras instead of raising the alarm. This happened on Monday, but the incident was only made known two days ago in Mont Saint Michel, in Normandy. Mont Saint Michel, where one of France’s most famous abbeys stands, is linked to the mainland by a road that is cut off by the tides from the shore. The island, at low tide, is surrounded by large sandy areas where thousands of tourists go. MEXICO: ZEDILLO ELECTED PRESIDENT — Ernesto Zedillo, candidate of the ruling Revolutionary Party, was officially declared the winner of the presidential elections on 28 July. Zedillo won 50.7 percent of the vote, so he will be President of Mexico for six years. 15.4 percent went to candidate Diego Perndadon of the conservative Community Party and 16.6 percent to rival Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the left-wing Democratic Revolutionary Party. MONARCHY SUSPENDED IN NEW ZEALAND — Members are determined to abolish the monarchy, but to allow a period in which many members were divided, and according to a poll conducted on Sunday by Independent On Sunday, 80 percent of those interviewed in this survey declared that the monarchy should be abolished and that they would let New Zealand become a republic. To avoid the decision at the same time, Charles and Lady Diana must divorce, as (?) has been seen. USA.—FROM J.O.F. WAR-AGAINST-SMUGGLING PROGRAM EXPANDS — [?] Smuggling in the world. The government of [...] a joint programme in the USA, as well as with Russia, apparently over many of these laboratories, which can be used for building nuclear weapons.

The Albanian football championship begins Tirana team leads ON PAGE 3 Professor Marco Dogos writes the history of the conflict Kosovo’s pain in a book ON PAGE 2