THE MAYOR On page 2

AFTER XHANI’S RESIGNATION On page 23

Misha The South welcomes Fatos Nano with cheers and rejects Lakrori’s proposal to vote for Majko as party leader. Yesterday in Përmet and Këlcyrë, the people of this area would never have imagined that the former leader of the PS had been threatened with death by the Italian mafia on 14 September ’98. Nano himself had another major surprise in store for these residents, just a few weeks before the Socialists’ Congress. Yesterday Nano spoke slowly and in simple words, which is why the many participants at the conference were seen sitting open-mouthed for quite some time. “Through a former VEFA employee, now appointed to a senior government post in Majko’s Prime Minister’s Office, the Italian mafia sent Sali Berisha the message to continue the protests against the Nano Government, instructing him that the accusations should be of corruption and treason. It has now been confirmed that overseas mafia organizations, alongside Bukoshi’s gangs, took part in the events of 14 September.” These words and direct accusations against Majko and his staff were the new feature of Nano’s campaign yesterday in southern Albania. He said the main aim of the 14 September riots was to bring down the Government and physically eliminate the Prime Minister. According to Nano, the repeated accusations against him of corruption and treason “are now coming from Prime Minister Majko’s own mouth.” “Am I right,” Nano asked the meeting’s participants, “to ask now whether certain factions within the PS were accomplices in the events of 14 September, aimed at bringing down the Nano Government?” These were the former socialist leader’s final words, which electrified the room with emotion; immediately, the participants erupted in an unceasing [cheer?]. Maqo Lakrori, currently State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also took part in yesterday’s conference in Përmet. Lakrori supported and proposed Prime Minister Majko’s candidacy for party leader. But the reactions from the room were very harsh, provoking laughter and objections from several speakers. “Take back the ‘Majko’ proposal,” voices were heard calling from the room. Former Interior Minister Petro Koci was also very outspoken, telling the representatives that “the leader of the PD must be considered a serious threat to democratic life”; “Majko-Meta, at the meeting on 20 December, put Berisha aboard the lifeboat,” Koci said. Nano returned once again to his recurring resignations, saying that “he had felt driven away not by the comrades fighting for the ideals promised to the electorate on 29 June, but by some people who were in love, above all, with the seats of power.”

The frightening book is published Stalin concealed the Holocaust On page 20 The frightening book is published. Stalin concealed the Holocaust.