The election date is announced; the Prime Minister receives Vranicki The President warns that Parliament will be dissolved. Nano: “The government will not fall. There are avenues for consensus” Parties on alert threaten. The OSCE and the United States criticize the law that the DP passed in Parliament The President begins his election tour in Kavajë: Order must now work to disband the Committees. We will win the elections On page 2 Fino lands at Rinas smiling: “I have America’s support.” The road to Tirana is fully secured and guarded by soldiers On page 3 Concern in Vienna. Vranicki in the capital this morning. “The law should not have been passed without the consensus of all the parties” On page 3 Nano meets urgently with Fino: “The government has no reason to leave. Negotiations for consensus on the law will resume” On page 2

District Council on alert, help requested from the capital Vlora in chaos, deserted roads[?] New clash in the city; another Greek man is killed VLORE - Chaos reigns in Vlora and armed gangs are committing [hligjina?]. The departure of police station chief Milto Kordha has thrown police work into disarray. Yesterday morning, during an armed clash, a 42-year-old Greek citizen was found [gjeturnë?], and two other citizens were wounded. The bandits attacked an armored Fiat, but the motives for this attack have not been confirmed. Yesterday, an emergency meeting was also held at the District Council about the situation that has arisen and the measures that must be taken to overcome it. Council chairman Mehdi Xhelili says that, although assistance has been requested from three departments in Tirana—the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Justice—no response has yet been given. Local newspapers have also requested protection from ‘Alba’. On page 5

BRINDISI – The possibility of recovering the victims of the Otranto tragedy has not yet been determined, while the first body recovered remains unidentified and the chances of identifying it are slim. “At the current stage of the searches, no decision has been made on whether the ship will be recovered,” Italian prosecutor in the case Leonardo de Castris said yesterday, “because this will depend on the records of the work and searches carried out at sea. It is not certain that the ship must be brought up at all costs. Attempts to identify the first body brought up from the shipwreck at a depth of 790 metres are also proving difficult. “It is completely unidentifiable,” the coroner explained. “We can confirm only that it is the body of a woman, but it has suffered extensive damage and is disfigured in many areas. The autopsy has not yet been carried out, and yesterday the coroner limited himself to an external examination of the body. According to him, the body has sustained extensive damage from being in the water, but there are no signs of wounds.” The police have meanwhile managed to obtain photographs. The woman was still dressed and wore a pair of black shoes, a dark skirt and a pair of thin nylon stockings reaching just below the knee. She also wore a metal watch, a chain around her neck and a ring on one of the fingers of her left hand. The body was examined at the Brindisi morgue, which had been surrounded since the early morning by a group of Albanians who had survived the sinking on the day of the tragedy. Before the examination began, a police inspector had also taken statements from seven Albanians about their relatives.

BERAT With an antitank weapon against the villa: Three people injured On page 5

KAKAVIJË On the brink of catastrophe: the border crossing, bandits’ territory On page 5

INTERVIEW/ Pollo and Nano apportion responsibility TIRANA. “We will continue negotiating with Fino”; the socialist leader has also left open another path for the grey Albanian politician. Tired of bringing the government back to a phase of resolving the crisis, Nano also believes in negotiations with international organizations. In an interview with the BBC, the head of the Albanian Socialists expresses hope that a political solution will be found, without attacking from the sidelines. But PD Secretary General Cen Pollo seems certain as he declares that the final chapter was closed after his vote in Parliament. “There were no options from the other parties or from Prime Minister Fino,” says Pollo, who justifies the urgent vote that was cast. As a result, PD cannot have a special role in the government’s new policy, since his party is entirely committed to consensus and to ensuring it over time” [the rest of the text is unclear]. On page 2

The opposition sounds the alarm: “What about Fino’s law?” Yesterday was a day of negotiations. The parties together. Arbnori: “There has been no violation” Yesterday’s meeting of the parties TIRANA. Albanian Socialists are urgently seeking to restore Parliament’s support. “Don’t do this, Pjetër,” they reportedly asked in the Prime Minister’s office; they referred to the mayor of Tirana, who rushed yesterday to the speaker’s office to submit his party’s official request. Arbnori asked for a phone number, promising to notify him himself later. The PS’s efforts and concern about influencing the dispute in Parliament come precisely on the day when the head of that institution publicly declared that the new law had been passed illegally. Meanwhile, yesterday all nine MPs who are members of PD once again confirmed their political position: “We will not back down from the choice embodied in the law that PD passed.” On page 2 Yesterday’s meeting of the parties (Photo: P. Ilo)

SPORT On page 6

FROM THE WORLD On page 2