The controversy over lemon sodas continues: Will they be destroyed? Synthetic sweeteners will not be allowed in The controversy over lemon sodas continues: Will they be destroyed? Stop artificial sugar Synthetic sweeteners will not be allowed in ANDREA STEFANI TIRANE — Albania has already shown the first signs that saccharin and synthetic sweeteners are to be pushed into the waste bin once and for all because of the harm they may cause consumers’ health. The Minister of Finance has just signed an order that obliges all customs checkpoints not to allow into the country syrups or other products with synthetic sweeteners, as well as concentrates of these substances themselves. Meanwhile, however, the problem remains unresolved of the large quantities of syrups already imported — mainly from Bulgaria — by private entities and still being sold today. What will happen to them: will they be blocked, destroyed, or will they continue to be sold? This is a dilemma around which contradictory requests from several ministries and institutions have long been circling without being able to resolve it. The first concern about the danger of lemon sodas and their sweeteners was raised not with regard to sugar, but to synthetic substances such as saccharin. It emerged with their first large-scale entry — until then such products in Albania had been used only by diabetics — in July 1992. And it was a consultation organized in August of that year by the Directorate of Primary Health in the Ministry of Health which, after going into technical detail, concluded — the conclusions signed by 8 doctors — that the use of saccharin and other synthetic sweeteners was undesirable for the human body. It seems these findings served as a "passport" for these substances, excluded from the food code of the European Community. And two years later — ironically, precisely in July 1994 — this time following not the alarm raised by the Financial Police, the issue of synthetic sweeteners was brought back to a special round table of specialists from the ministries of health, agriculture and food, as well as the institutes, directorates and laboratories under them. The ban on the import of synthetic sweeteners, implemented by the order just issued by the Ministry of Finance, is one of the proposals that came out of the consultation. But meanwhile the paper "war" continues over the syrups with synthetic sweeteners that are present in Albania, some of which — even though on their labels, instead of artificial sweetener, sugar is indicated — have been classified as counterfeit. Specialists from the Financial Police exchanged views with a group from their own body, and the mere fact that they have been classified as counterfeit, while the Directorate of Primary Health as well as the Directorate of Standardization and Quality (DSC) consider them not to pose any risk to the consumer and therefore believe synthetic sweeteners are not harmful to human health. Although they have agreed with the request to stop importing them, they apparently do not agree with destroying the quantities that had already arrived in Albania, because — according to them — it is impossible in Albania to determine the type of synthetic sweetener, for example saccharin, which is much more intense in taste than syrup. For this reason, in a DSC letter it is requested that "the stock of syrups currently in Albania continue to be sold until 31 December 1994". But at the Food Research Institute they express a different view. "There is no difficulty in determining the type of synthetic sweetener, especially saccharin. They told Gazeta in the administration of this institution — but we have not been asked to carry out such an analysis".

— They were careless in carrying out the duties imposed by military regulations, and now they will have to spend 5 months in prison. In practice, their negligence some time ago, according to the court, caused the theft of 8 "Kallashnikov" assault rifles. Three servicemen from a unit in the Elbasan district, one officer and two soldiers, were charged, the first with abuse of office and the others with violating service regulations. The military court of Elbasan found the charges against them well founded. According to the indictment, on that fatal night — in June of this year — the three failed to observe the strict rules that must be applied when weapons are kept on guard at the unit. The weapons had not been placed in the armory depot, but in the clothing warehouse; the anonymous thief took advantage of this situation to steal the valuable haul. The case of the five stolen assault rifles, however, continues with the sentencing of five other accused servicemen. The persons who carried out this profitable incursion into the territory of the military unit on the outskirts of Elbasan that June night have still not been identified. Despite searches organized by the district investigating authorities, no stolen weapon has yet been found, while the stolen vehicle remains among the hypotheses. Suspicion continues regarding their organized use and their possible criminal deployment, especially in the hands of robbers, since such weapons can move unhindered even through urban streets. (Me K.L)

Italian Serie A football championship Sport Milan and Sampdoria beaten Roma and Juventus "fly" Di Livio’s move (Juventus) as he scores the goal against Sampdoria On page 3 On page 5 Fourth round: Rivals tire of "Tirana" "Under 16" prepares for Austria Stockholm: seminar for coaches and national teams

Elbasan, a fatal quarrel — A quarrel between two young men in Elbasan has ended tragically. According to sources from the official news agency, 22-year-old Qemal Korra struck 21-year-old Artur Pisha hard with a knife, causing his immediate death. The Elbasan police began an investigation and arrested him. No further details about the incident are yet known. The same source reports that it happened in the evening hours when the Mallakastër Motor Park was there. Zhulali on a working visit to Skopje — Albanian Minister of Defense Safet Zhulali has departed for Macedonia. The Albanian minister will discuss with the high authorities of the former Yugoslav republic the current problems in the Balkan region and the possibilities for expanding cooperation in the field of defense. Korça mobilizes against cholera — After yesterday’s announcement of suspected cholera cases and one case declared by the health authorities, the district of Korça has mobilized to contain the epidemic. In the prefecture — which also includes the districts of Pogradec, Devoll and Ersekë — a special headquarters has been established to coordinate all anti-cholera measures. The measures aim first and foremost to maintain hygienic conditions in drinking water and public spaces.

The second phase of the campaign TIRANE — There will be 280,000 leaflets distributed throughout Albania, in order to make the new preventive measures and protective tools against the "yellow disease" as widely known as possible. This campaign is a continuation of the project undertaken by "Rotari Club International" to fight the spread of this disease — Ibrahim Lulo, a specialist at the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, tells Gazeta Shqiptare — in addition to the leaflets, the second batch of 56,000 vaccines has also arrived. The entire Rotary operation in cooperation with Albanian health institutions — launched during the months of this 1994 — will be completed after three years. It provides for the free vaccination of 70,000 newborn babies in three stages. In the first 48 hours of life, at the age of 2 months, and at the age of 8 months.

The accident ruins the joy The groom’s IFA overturns: a wedding guest dies LEZHE — The joy of a wedding in Lezhë has turned into mourning. The bride’s uncle, Dod Nikoll, 36, lost his life in a road accident while traveling to attend the wedding ceremony in the village of Susel in the district. Nikolla — the bride’s father — had set off for his niece’s village, together with a woman and her child, both his cousins. Everything had gone well and the group was only a few kilometers from Susel when the tragedy occurred. On an uphill stretch, the IFA vehicle in which Nikolla was traveling stopped to give way to another vehicle. This sudden stop caused it to veer off the road; the brakes failed and the vehicle rolled backward, ending upside down in a stream. A sadly living man took Nikolli’s life.

SHKODER — In the evening, taking advantage of customers in the center, three thieves entered a merchant from Shkodra. A few days earlier, in the late hours of the night, at his trading post on the Shkodër-Gur i Zi road, an unknown 26-year-old man had grabbed him by the neck as he was entering a vehicle. While he opened the door and, thinking the customers were there to buy something and praise him for it, he was struck on the head with a lever. Then the robber smashed both windows and seized everything that was in the shop. Na. Me.

Bosnia

Haiti: Aristide convenes Parliament The Haitian president in exile, Jean Bertrand Aristide, has decided to convene tomorrow in the Parliament of Port Au Prince, for an extraordinary session, in which a decision will be taken on amnesty for the coup generals who forced him to leave power in 1991. Aristide’s decision was announced by the foreign relations department of the MKS Assembly of the MCDoës, which has seized a dozen copies of "Who will save the amnesty". Switzerland: victory against racism The Swiss people voted on Sunday against a tougher fight against manifestations of racism and discrimination. It approved the penal code and the anti-racist provisions with 54 percent, leaving untouched the part that would deal with racist propaganda or act as racist. These were approved by parliament and by the federal council in Bern, in the spring of last year. Albania in Zurich’s enterprise and employment forum in the UN Convention, created in 1965, for the elimination of all forms of racism. Millionaire lawyers The lawyers of Rodney King, the Black motorist who was beaten to death in 1991 by two white policemen, have presented their shaken client with a staggering figure: 4.5 million dollars, twice as much as the compensation set for the victim’s family. This claim was presented to the Los Angeles company, the other party in the civil trial that ended with the setting of compensation of 3.8 million dollars against King.

A group also includes Kurdish fugitives Other Albanians caught in Brindisi A group also includes Kurdish fugitives Illegal migrants from Kosovo Other Albanians caught in Brindisi BRINDISI — Evading all controls, illegal migrants keep landing. Yesterday not only Albanians. Two nights earlier, the Italian border police spotted along the coast of this inlet of Brindisi about thirty illegal migrants, many of them Albanians coming from different cities, three Yugoslav officers from the Republic of Kosovo, and six Kurdish citizens, among them a woman with her little daughter, Sulejman. The operation began after 10 p.m. on Saturday. Border police sources knew that, because of the bad weather, a total of ten motorboats had moved at night in disarray, heading along the coast. One of these was approached by a motorboat near Cape of Scesa, but last night in the waters of Brindisi, while at first the coast guard moved near the shore of Kalliani in Lecce and descended, the alarmed officers found the dinghy. The illegal migrants had split into groups in the inlet. Sixty-four others were prevented from continuing further north in Italy. After the stop, in cooperation with international organizations of illegal migrants, the tickets to one of the various destinations were bought at stations or travel agencies through the office in Pula. Problems during the operation, which ended around 7 in the morning, were caused by little Sulejman, who was only four months old. He was crying, and his mother was crying too when they were brought to the doctor. Doctors at Dr. Summa’s hospital in Brindisi were ready that night to carry out tests and found that the baby slept very peacefully, placed in a house, thus they were taken out in gas and mixed together with all the Kurdish illegal migrants. The two groups of detainees will remain, with different ferries. The Kurds and officers of the Republic of Kosovo will be returned to their countries on a plane departing from Fiumicino, after being found in Kalliar by the Foreigners’ Office of the Brindisi Questura. Angelo Seonosciuto

"Lamerica and our faults" Placido on "Domenica In" Albania in the perspective of Amelio’s film ON PAGE 2 Book fair: Albanian publications for Frankfurt From 5 to 10 October ON PAGE 2

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