Police launch investigation into the two unknown assailants, but as of yesterday: “No comment” Two mysterious armed men cause panic at the Court Alarm and tension around the building where Hajdari’s attacker was expected to go on trial. RENEA intervenes immediately TIRANA - “Attempted assassination of Gafurr Mazreku at the courthouse.” This was the first alarm broadcast yesterday morning over police radios as they waited for Mazreku, Azem Hajdari’s attacker, to arrive at the courthouse. An incident shrouded in mystery, near the Justice Institution, has given rise to initial suspicions of an assassination attempt. Two people, armed and wearing masks, entered an apartment a few meters from the courthouse. The cries of one of the victims brought the neighbors out into the stairwell. The frightened intruders quickly fled. RENEA forces and a bomb-disposal unit immediately cordoned off the entire area around the courthouse. Was this a plan to carry out an attack on Mazreku? The time the accused was due to arrive, and the incident’s proximity to the courthouse, have cast suspicion on what happened. Suspicion has also grown after it emerged that the masked men had demanded nothing from their victims. According to reliable police sources, the possibility of an assassination attempt is the police’s main line of investigation. Diagram of the scene “Pjetër Budi” School Police station where Mazreku was [?] Tirana Court Where the assailants were “Zhan d’Ark” Boulevard On page 3

Is the news to be measured in seconds? Fatos Baxhaku At last, the conflict known as the RTSH dispute, which had continued until Tuesday evening, has subsided. Yesterday morning people could not understand what was happening in the confrontation outside RTSH, with people whose faces showed signs of pain after days of hunger strike. After many, many discussions, the opposition agreed to withdraw its people from the hunger strike, while the state was forced to “back down” in the face of the consortium of Hajdari, Minoritet, Vëllësit and Mëmisë. The parties now seem calm: a commission will monitor things day and night, stopwatch in hand. “The more you appear in parliament, the more you will appear on the country’s national television”; politics has chosen this way of addressing one of the country’s most pressing problems. The RTSH journalists themselves, who in the end are obliged to… implement the latest invention of Albanian politics, have not been taken into consideration. It is not known how suitable the new system of timed information will be. When RTSH has to deal with reality in competition with private stations that have begun to disappear from the scene, its managers may begin to think seriously. Ordinary citizens will have a wider choice: they may switch from RTSH’s timed station to whichever station is more listenable and actually informs them. One simple, familiar word will mark the difference between “timed” and “untimed.” That word is variety, something that cannot easily be tied to the decisions of some commission. Politicians would do well to show greater respect for a profession without which their own work would make little sense: journalism. Until now—and stopwatch-timed?—information, regardless of the normal principles of this profession, has been carefully cut down… Society moves forward normally when everyone does their own job. Those who inform have rarely changed their profession into politics. They understand, no matter how much there is to it, that it is not quite the same thing.

VEFA and the time for dialogue Arian Çani More than a real conflict, the dispute between the Government and VEFA seems to have been a mutual “handshake.” The long marathon of replies, accusations and mutual attacks is expected to end today with a simple meeting between Malaj and Alimucaj. It could hardly have happened otherwise, as both sides have consistently claimed to be seeking the culprit. For a while, it seemed that everything would end badly and that VEFA and Malaj would never reach an understanding. Justice entered the fray, and Vebiu also came out vindicated; it is still unclear which way the scales will tip. Meanwhile, the heart of the matter—the return of the money deposited by Albanians who put their savings into this company—remains unresolved. Perhaps for this reason, and only on this point, today’s meeting between the two “enemies” is expected to revive some hope. VEFA’s acceptance of the third state administrator, who has been acting… was the Government’s main concern in this matter. VEFA’s main concern, meanwhile, was its refusal to accept the administrators of its “palace.” Under these circumstances, anything could have happened; anything could have happened, except that a real conflict between the two sides would probably have served no one. Because the Albanians’ money would once again have remained unpaid. Malaj has invited Alimucaj to a duel several times, choosing the television studio as the arena. Alimucaj, meanwhile, has rejected the Minister several times and invited him to his home. Albanians, who anxiously await the return of the money frozen by who knows whom, still do not understand what is happening. Insults, accusations, attacks, calculations and recalculations of figures, debts and the blocking of money in banks: it has all been very strange to follow. Perhaps today will be different. Alimucaj will get into his car and go to the Ministry to meet Malaj. Perhaps the time for negotiations has come. Someone may think that a big “deal” will be struck at this meeting. Someone else may say that the arguing will continue and that they will once again fail to reach an understanding. But at least they will meet. And that is something.

KOSOVO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS Kosovo on the streets Yesterday’s protest in Pristina (REUTERS) On page 4

Following the Government’s decision, VEFA’s President accepts dialogue

After the Government’s decision, VEFA’s President agrees to dialogue / Today’s meeting with the Minister about the administrators After the Government’s decision, VEFA’s President agrees to dialogue Alimucaj knocks on Malaj’s office door Today’s meeting with the Minister about the administrators TIRANA — After a long period of televised and written monologues, Alimucaj and Malaj will finally have a chance to meet. The Government’s unwelcome decision to appoint administrators at VEFA has compelled Alimucaj to ask for a meeting with the Minister of Finance. VEFA’s President has also requested a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Transparency Process, Farudin Arapi. Both officials have welcomed Alimucaj’s request for a meeting. (REUTERS) Vehbi Alimucaj; Minister Malaj

The state: Let Gjallica return TIRANA—The Transparency Group, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Fino, will ask the Prosecutor’s Office to change the arrest measure against Shemsie Kadrisë and Bashkim Drizës. The bosses of “Gjallica” and “Populli” have sent a letter to chief administrator Arapi. “We want to come to Albania to take part in the transparency process, but only if the arrest measure against us is changed.” On page 2

Vranicki returns to Albania On page 2

TIRANA — Kastriot Islami gathers the voices of the ministries. That is to say, under Minister Islami’s direction, the spokespeople of all the ministers will supply news not only to ATSH, newspapers, radio or television, but will also “report” to the press office at the Prime Minister’s Office. The Minister of State alongside Nano asked the spokespeople yesterday what their names were, since the minister could not know them all. He asked what schools they had graduated from and urged them to strengthen their professional skills. Islami told the spokespeople that the information they wrote would now also go on the Internet and that every day they would be required to inform the Prime Minister’s Office about what was happening in their departments. Islami’s meeting with the Government’s spokespeople took place after the minister’s initial introductions to them, and he spoke to them about their future role. All the ministries and newspapers, and the print media, will have to see and read the information the spokespeople send in a different light. To begin with, in order to make the spokespeople’s major assets better known, Islami decided to take two important measures: their information would be sent over the Internet, and they themselves would appear before the press two or three times a week to hold press conferences. In this way, at least, the work of the respective spokespeople will be made easier; instead of wasting time with journalists, they will “get on with” the work of tackling this country’s problems. So the spokespeople are expected to become more powerful. Well, let’s see who will be the first to appear before the journalists? Arian Cani

The cold wave hits the cities On page 6

The Italians break the Russian ice On page 7

The story of the six-monthers comes to an end On page 4