The President meets intellectuals President Berisha at a meeting with intellectuals yesterday On page 3

Stefanopulos’s visits: hope and uncertainty. What politicians think Albania: Be careful about emigrants. Greece: schools Stefanopulos’s visits: hope and uncertainty. What politicians think TIRANA - Hope, criticism, objections and predictions regarding Stefanopulos’s visit to Tirana. Scheduled for 23 March, the visit of Greece’s top leader has begun to be discussed, moving from the pages of the press to Albanian political offices this time. The comments seem to follow the same track—that of optimism about a rosy future for Albania-Greece relations. Nevertheless, reservations and skepticism are also present regarding the “grayer” part of the relationship: schools for the minority and the legalization of Albanian emigrants. If there is a “yes” and an agreement on these issues, then goodbye to hostage relations between Albania and Greece. On page 3 Refugees returning from Greece; Stefanopulos above

Sports Gazette Change at the top "Tirana" swaps places with "Teuta" "Teuta" and "Tirana" have swapped places. Just one misstep by the team from Durrës in Fier and a win by the Tirana team in Lezhë have given the championship a different complexion. Dominated until a week ago by the team in blue, it will now, at least for one week, be dominated by the white-and-blue team. Just one goal by Malko was enough, and now the champions will look down on the others from the top. "Apoloni," play at least as you played against us! "Tirana" back at the top. 15 goals in the 24th week of the championship Euro goal: Borussia Dortmund thrashes Stuttgart 5-0 on its home ground On pages 9-10 From the "Besëlidhja" - "Tirana" match, 0-1

Declared an "Honorary Citizen" of Tepelenë Yesterday, a municipal decision honored the imprisoned Socialist leader Berisha will also receive him Tomorrow: Agnelli

Yesterday afternoon TIRANA - The country's old highway along the Tirana-Durrës road, halfway along the exit in the [partially illegible], Mar-

TIRANA – The country’s only highway was struck by tragedy. Ten dead—including a five-year-old girl, Marcela Berisha, and her father, Kujtim Berisha—and three injured, including another child: this was the toll of a terrible tragedy that occurred yesterday in the early hours of the morning on the Tirana–Durrës road. The only details about the incident were announced late last night in an official statement from the Ministry of the Interior, according to which an “IFA” truck suddenly left the road and entered the highway. For the driver of the car coming in the opposite direction—with the entire Berisha family inside—this proved fatal. This was followed by a horrific collision that nearly resulted in an even more tragic toll. Although the statement emphasized that an investigation was under way to determine the causes of the tragedy, it described the truck driver’s action as a “traffic violation.”

She will also be received by Berisha TIRANA – On Monday, Italian Foreign Minister Susana Agnelli will make her first visit to Albania. She is arriving for a one-day stay in our country. At the head of a delegation of senior officials, Agnelli will hold a series of meetings during her stay. Accompanying the Minister of Foreign Affairs are the Director General for Economic Affairs, Roberto Nigito, and the Director General for Immigration and Social Affairs, Pierluigi Rachele.

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On page 2

The songs for Stina ’96 have been selected Twenty-one songs are ready to take the steps of the Palace of Congresses The compositions that have passed the commission’s first—but not final—screening for “Songs of the Season the steps of the Palace of Congresses. As expected, three times fewer compositions have made it through. On page 12

On page 11 Kosovo: 15 years ago, the revolts began that sparked the first uprising in the former Yugoslavia

Again, Kumbaro with an alternative TIRANA – An aroma of tainted servants, almost in the colors of the French flag. For around 90 minutes last night, Pavlina Mani, Yllka Mujo and Luiza Xhuvani presented the dramatic premiere of Jean Genet. The author of comparatively few stage works seems simply not to have had an easy time making his first appearance in Albania. Once again, a turn toward alternative theatre has marked Arben Kumbaro’s latest undertaking. On the same stage, with few objects and dozens of guests around them, the Frenchman’s intrigue arrived in Tirana a full ten years after his death. The paradox of the confrontation took place. This time it was the actors who received the audience. In the auditorium, the spectators, “squeezed” into a row, spotted one of the protagonists in a corner of the stage. The story of the maids, which begins with the three colors of the French colonist’s flag—their explanation being white, red and blue, though this is heavily emphasized—is about two maids whose names are often confused, almost as if to suggest that their identity does not matter: a Claire and a Solange, who reveal the most difficult aspects of the female world. The idea of the eternal pairing of the criminal and the saint “colored” the pen of Genet, the author who had in fact visited Albania decades earlier, but as a thief. Chosen by a jury that has spent a good part of its time in prisons, the story has not strayed from the familiar; “The Maids” is one of his few plays, and there are only five stage works by the “thief.” For around an hour and a half, the three actors of the National Theatre intrigued with a rush of words, likenesses and cries, reason and madness. A play that seems to have placed great strain on Xhuvani and Mujo, and less on Mani, who had replaced Drida Pelingu only a few days earlier. (B. yn)

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