GJIROKASTËR, IN ASHES A gas cylinder explodes at the neighbour’s Kadra’s house burns down On page 16 Fear of attacks / Jaho Sahiti is staying in Kosovo

Why did the country suddenly plunge into darkness, at least those affected by the local outages, the debates in energy policy are broken off Experts speak Gas flow, tax reduced by 5 percent Why did the whole country suddenly plunge into darkness and urgently in the neighbouring countries and the Albanian energy system On pages 2, 3

editorial The three pillars of hope Arben Cani What is this so that it does not happen again? At 8 o’clock yesterday morning, at the Ujërat e Ftohta point, as part of the disconnection of a section of the high-voltage line, most of the country was plunged into darkness for a moment. By now, in most cases, this misfortune has become part of everyday life. Since this episode had just happened three days in a row, with tired eyes from the frequent switching on and off of the lights from morning to evening and, of course, with a completely inadequate response from KESH, our citizens felt powerless and angry. Prime Minister Ilir Meta and the senior official of KESH quickly declared that “there were no problems with the import line.” If it were that easy, then why were hundreds of thousands of families and dozens of enterprises throughout the country left without energy? Was it a technical problem? Was it negligence? Was it a lack of coordination? Or, even worse, was it a deliberate strike against a system that has long been kept afloat only thanks to improvisation? Albanians deserve to know the truth. If there was no sabotage, then we are dealing with a scandalous management of the crisis. If there was sabotage, then the situation is even more serious, because it shows that the country’s strategic infrastructure is unprotected. What happened yesterday should serve as an alarm. KESH, the government and the security institutions must give clear answers and take concrete measures. We can no longer continue with reassuring statements and technical explanations that no one believes. On page 3

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stole the solidarity tax Poçi dismisses 116 police officers On page 6 Tele-Bingo on 23 November 1999 • 1 Tele-Bingo at 10,000 lekë (6 lines) • 5 Tele-Bingo at 1,000,000 lekë (6 lines) • 1 Magic-Bingo at 500,000 lekë (6 lines) • 1 Start-Up at 300,000 lekë (6 lines)