SHIK employees: Monitoring officials TIRANA - “Surveillance operations have been conducted outside the rules and on individuals other than those normally monitored.” The information was given yesterday by reliable sources close to the National Intelligence Service. The report concerns an incident that took place two months ago, but was kept secret from everyone. Two SHIK employees were caught red-handed while monitoring several prominent figures, in violation of all the strictly established rules on surveillance. “Our two employees who were caught red-handed were removed from that duty, and it has been established that they were monitoring prominent figures for purposes entirely different from those of their normal work.” On page 5

Ultimatum to the leaders in Tirana: Hunger strike “Our local leaders have forgotten us.” Students are joining them, too. Capital of revolts on the verge of a fierce protest Petro Koçi: “We will intervene quickly. We will not allow the situation to escalate. The people of Vlora are like everyone else.” TIRANA - Vlora is rebelling against the Socialist Party. “You have forgotten us, so we will protest fiercely.” A group of around 40 socialists from across the city of Vlora, including members of the Eurosocialists, is expected to escalate its protest against the leaders of the Vlora branch of the Socialist Party to the maximum. “The possibility of a hunger strike cannot be ruled out.” The Vlora socialists’ ultimatum is aimed above all at the local leaders of the Socialist Party. “They give jobs only to their relatives and friends and forget that we were at the forefront of the revolts.” The Socialist Party grassroots’ harsh threat appears to have worried the socialist leaders in Tirana, too. “There are leadership problems, but we will intervene quickly,” Organizational Secretary Petro Koçi said last night. According to him, many socialists across the country have recently also raised claims and concerns about employment. On page 3

On page 2 War in Kosovo: We are not expecting refugees

VLORA On page 6

ALARM IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT On page 3

DURRËS / 35 children rescued

TIRANA - Yesterday, Parliament approved the 1998 state budget by an absolute majority. All the proposals put forward by the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Economy, Anastas Angjeli, were approved.

“The staff should resign” TIRANA—The Whites and Blues are going through their hardest days. Following Monday’s protests by the supporters’ association, their revolt has reached the offices of the Municipality. “We don’t want [unclear]. We want everything to start from the A. For them we close only this [unclear] deserves me. Brojka has also promised to do everything possible to ensure their demands are met. In this way, the “rebellion” against the team they love has taken on new proportions. Earlier, a statement

Police escort to protect the 30 beauties TIRANA—The contenders for the beauty crown are leaving the Adriatic coast and the antiquity of Durrës to travel south through Albania. The 30 beauties set off yesterday morning together with the filming crew. The tourist center of

DURRËS / 35 children rescued DURRËS—Fire at the orphanage in Durrës. An ordinary thief took advantage of the evening darkness and lack of light to steal food and clothing from the city orphanage. To light the room he had entered, he started a fire, which came close to being fatal for the 70 children aged from 0 to 3. Residents of nearby houses raised the alarm and were the first to come to the children’s aid. Police have detained the person suspected of causing the fire. On page 6

TIRANA—Yesterday, of votes. All the proposals by the chairman of the parliamentary Economy Committee, Anastas Angjeli, were approved. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Culture were “forced” to provide funds to other ministries whose needs were considered more important. The Ministry of Defence is to retain [unclear]; it is the Ministry of Transport and Public Works. VAT accounts for 40 percent of state budget revenues. Prime Minister Nano and Finance Minister Malaj described the budget as a realistic one that would lead Albanian finances towards normality. The PD economists did not share this opinion, describing the budget as unachievable and restrictive for the economy. On page 8

We want everything to start from A. In other words, we want fundamental change, starting with the coaches and ending with the management,” they declared at a meeting with the mayor of Tirana, Albert Brojka. In this way their problem has spread even further. On Monday afternoon they were at the club premises and forcibly threatened the team to start Shehu’s match, while yesterday their “headquarters” became the Municipality. In addition to changes, they asked Tirana’s number one to hold a club general assembly, which they asked to attend. From conversations with them, it is understood that their request will be fulfilled on Monday, and Brojka has promised to do everything so that Tirana rises to where it deserves to be. the team they love has taken on new proportions. First came a press statement calling for the immediate resignation of the current staff, then the disruption of training, and yesterday a meeting with the mayor of Tirana. They now seem determined. “There is no reason for Tirana to be in this state. The causes are internal. The player roster is good, and the lack of qualification, or even the elimination from the Cup, is not due to the players but solely to the team’s poor leadership and management,” they declared. “We are determined to see our protest through to the end and very much hope for Brojka’s support; he has always stood by us,” they concluded.

SPECIAL IN FIGURES The Prosecution: “The crimes of the disastrous year” On page 4 On page 5 the filming crew. The tourist center of Llogara will welcome feminine grace and delicacy. They are being escorted on their journey to the southern cities by seven police cars provided by the Ministry of the Interior. The Albanian “fairies” will challenge the devastation in the south with video clips that will contrast with the recent destruction. The date of the show has also been set: it will take place on March 7 in the city of Tirana. The fairies will touch the beauty of the Riviera to name the single winner of feminine beauty ’98.

TIRANA—“We have not left DÇPK,” said yesterday at a Balli conference the Ballist who leads this political formation. Gjergo had supported a possible alliance between Balli and the PD. “I’m not dealing with Sefo,” Gjergo said. “The PD must get rid of the corrupt gangsters if it wants to seek alliances.” In Gjergo’s view, Balli cannot form alliances only with the PD and the others. Nevertheless, Balli leaders have said that, depending on the election results, they will also engage in dialogue with the Congress. On page 3

Thousands of Albanian words disappear from the index cards TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON OF THE INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS TIRANA—The pests of the “new science” have appeared. The Institute of Linguistics’ long-standing effort to catalogue all the cards containing words and linguistic units has brought to light the troubling problem of thousands of word cards being eaten by cockroaches crawling across the shelves. There are around 2 million linguistic units—rare and everyday words, synonyms and multiple meanings—all carefully arranged on index cards held by the Institute. In fact, it was thought that they were held there. According to sources at the Academy of Sciences, several kinds of insects had rendered thousands of these cards unusable. Meanwhile, the damage caused is considerable, other sources close to the Academy say, given that most of the computer diskettes containing a second copy of the data have also become unusable, damaged by a virus. The presence of the destructive insects was noticed only after the diskettes broke down, causing alarm over the permanent loss of 2 million linguistic units to spread throughout the institute. The cards are the foundations of Albanian linguistics. Although the damage has not yet been assessed, it is thought that thousands of words and their corresponding explanations have disappeared from the Institute’s collection. To restore the words, collect them again from scratch and catalogue them accurately in several copies—including re-entering the data on computers—specialists say it will take many years and [unclear]. This [unclear]—only cockroaches, acting secretly and entirely parasitically, can cause thousands of Albanian words to disappear without a trace. It is not known whether these cards were affected because the insects specifically preferred the words of this language, since available information has not established that cockroaches in libraries and enclosed places like the sweet taste of honey. Nevertheless, all this has happened; the Albanian linguistics card catalogue now has many gaps which, partly because of the cockroaches and partly because of the dust and the gnawing of oblivion, will remain empty for a long time. Sokol Shameti