The heads of the two foundations and their arrested employees are cooperating with the police Xhaferi and Driza at the office at night Leave prison to verify the documents Vefa announces another interest-rate cut: “They will go down to 3 percent. That way we will quickly return the deposits” Every night the police cars leave the prison, along with representatives of the foundations, to the offices where the receipts are kept On page 3 Vefa: “Why convert interest into leks? The current situation forces us to distribute not only foreign currency” On page 4

Foreign currencies keep rising A disaster for the local currency on the market TIRANA - The Albanian lek is going through its hardest days. Within a few days it has fallen to a low level against foreign currencies. The inability to stop the pressure for a long time has now been broken. Yesterday the dollar was exchanged on the market at 135 leks, a rate that had almost never been seen. What is even more alarming is the fact that this crisis gripping the local currency may continue, and the biggest fear is 5 February, when the return of the frozen money of the foundations has been promised. The anxiety of inflation, which would lead to a further devaluation of the lek, may cause people, as soon as they receive the money, to convert it immediately into dollars, thus deepening the abyss created in recent days. On page 4

BODE Ridvan Bode “It will be better with savings liberalization” On page 3

DEPOSITS Bank of Albania [?] National Bank Banks decide: "We will raise our interest rates" On page 4

Pogradec POGRADEC - Another sad victim of usury, V.C. years ago, a family woman, H.S. from Pogradec, has lost her mental health. She suffered a deep shock, losing her mental balance. Thus, when she had left her home to surprise her husband, who worked in Greece, she found at home more than what they currently had. The woman, after much thought, entrusted the money to Xhaferi's financial responsibility. Meanwhile, together with her two children, she was living in a rented house, also in Pogradec. She goes to collect the money on the appointed date, and the branch employee in Pogradec tells her that she has to wait until the money issue is resolved, although there was a large sum to be withdrawn. At that moment the police arrive to block the money and seize the branch’s documentation, the poster ending in closure, and the 38-year-old H.S. leaves with a newspaper in her hand and the receipt, cursing the unbearable mistakes of her Vefa. Afterwards she has passed through the crowd of people and was seen with a rather suspicious expression, showing people the newspaper and the receipt she was holding and saying, “Here is the money, here is the bank,” and she repeated this lie often. The doctor at the hospital, who does not wish to be identified, says that when they arrived at the hospital, the woman sent the patients out of the examination room and addressed the doctor: “Please examine me because I am sick in the head.” After the check-up the doctors give her a prescription with the appropriate medicines. According to them, for several days the woman has been admitted to the psychiatric hospital in Elbasan. In these tragic days, many different cases of people losing their mental balance have occurred. It seems that the lines of people buying sedative medicines in pharmacies have increased. Reshep Polisi

Yesterday at the Court, 104 protesters from the districts A “parade” of detainees: 72 people remain in cells On page 2

Food consumption drops sharply A storm in bars too: turnover drops by 30 percent TIRANA - The Albanian market is in a difficult state. Caused by a [?] of the usury foundations and their bankruptcy, it is also dragging trade toward ruin. The sharp decline in consumption has made January a black month for shops and bars. Their turnover, compared with the previous month, has recorded a drop ranging from 30 to 50 percent. Consumer spending is no longer what it was before. On page 4

The Kallafatos file is reopened, he was released by Brozi “Held a woman hostage”: Magnani trial begins TIRANA - Monday brings the case of the Jew Konstantin Kallafatos back to the Tirana court. Meanwhile today, at the Supreme Court, the trial begins against another foreign citizen, the Italian Roberto Magnani, who has been charged with kidnapping and illegal possession of weapons. Kallafatos was arrested in 1994 for drug possession; he had been sentenced to three years in prison by the court of first instance and the second instance. But later there had been the Court of Cassation, and the chief judge had overturned a charge that killed [?] and sentenced the file for full [?!]. While the Prosecutor’s Office had undertaken investigations, Kallafatos, 32, had left Albania, leaving behind a bitter dispute between the investigators and the then head of Cassation, Brozi. The investigations into Kallafatos have now been completed and yesterday the opening of the trial was scheduled at the Tirana Court, in his absence, but it has been postponed due to the preparation of all the court activities, since the judges have been engaged in reviewing the security measures for those detained in the recent demonstrations. Magnani was arrested in November last year, when he had entered a house in the town of Milot and had held a 50-year-old woman hostage for two hours at gunpoint with an automatic rifle. A.I. was heard by the special forces that came from Tirana and he promised to leave the house only when he saw that it was impossible despite all his attempts. The investigations against him, led by prosecutor Selim Malochi, have shed light on a serious criminal activity by him and by a group of Albanian citizens, who ended up in deten-

Protesters are selected: 30 released Berat On page 2

Handcuffs are snapped shut for 28 people: 15 wanted The Fier community in flames [?] On page 2

GAZETA TV GIANNI AMELIO L'AMERICA The film shot in Albania, for the first time on Italian television On pages 5-8 GIANNI AMELIO - L'AMERICA

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