SCANDAL 15 months in a cell, they took him for the real criminal They were called the same, he was caught in prison On page 5

OPINION Why doesn't the U.S. embassy open? Vladimir BEJA It must be remembered that Tirana has never made agreements with the United States; in communist years it closed its eyes to the massacres in other countries. In such a case the responsibility lies with the government, which even today in '98 seems not to understand the historical meaning of this. Were they, after all, in its place, [illegible text?] of the American embassy? Were they high-ranking diplomats, political declaimers? [illegible text?] of Bush? [illegible text?] broad sector of the state police? Continued on page 2

PROSECUTOR RAKIPI: FOR ME BERISHA IS INNOCENT On page 3

read Albania for your travel companion for 1999 OJT in TIANE

Bombs and sex scandals From the Pope and the Kube to the Serbs in Kosovo, or the Frank Sinatra affair, up to Clinton's sexual scandals, here are the hottest points of the globe for the year '98 On pages 12-13

Deputies appoint the police station chiefs The Ministry of Public Order publishes in the newspaper the beginning of the police officers' work. If you ask the endless crowd of candidates, waiting their turn at the doors and counters, what they have come for, they will tell you without hesitation: for a job in the state police. Few of them admit that they have come to become police officers. The most preferred criterion is the name of that deputy, or that director, who gets you a job. [partial text] On page 5

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AUSTRIAN AIRLINES swissair+ We wish Albanians everywhere a merry Christmas and a peaceful and happy 1999.