Deputy Minister Ahmet Ceni, appointed two days ago, received 50 thousand dollars from “Silva” Page 3 Scandal over Majko’s new appointments. Deputy ministers implicated in bribery involving the pyramid schemes are appointed. MPs react.

BY TEODOR KEKO A new, unprecedented tragedy once again shook our souls: “As many dead, missing and forever traumatized as you like,” as a citizen of this country put it, in search of a human life. Among them, babies and children too... Today, we all repeat the question: what is happening to us? For those who wish and dare to look the truth in the eye, there is an answer, one that also explains many other fundamental phenomena in our society today. We Albanians are considered by the world to be incorrigible criminals. We Albanians, meanwhile, have been put in a ghetto by the world. We have to pay even the wealth our parents struggled to give us in order to obtain a legal visa, with which we could start our lives in the world as human beings. Faced with the terrible poverty and insecurity in Albania, everyone wants to leave and work in a country where people work and make a living through work. But when the world calls you a GYPSY, you are forced to board the dinghies and, if you start your life this way, you have begun not only by breaking the law, but also by no longer paying any heed to death from that moment on. Anyone who succeeds in this adventure no longer respects the law and is no longer afraid of death: in other words, they have embarked on the wrong path. Those who have led us down the wrong path are the wicked, who think that Albania is the world, those who think that Albania becomes glorious only WHEN THE ADRIATIC IS FILLED WITH THE BODIES OF WOMEN, GIRLS, BOYS… But our government is also to blame for the severity of our tragedies: not only is it taking us from poverty to poverty, from unemployment to unemployment and poverty, it also lets us be locked into a ghetto, as if we were animals shut up in a zoo. What is our government focusing on, if it does not see our lives and our fate? Does this government have a macro political-social plan, or does it work only on macroeconomic plans? And what does the economy mean to this government when everyone wants to run away because poverty, crime, unemployment and death have flourished in the country? Who will be made happy tomorrow by today’s economic reforms, the stones or the wood? We do not want stones—or wood. We have not asked our governments for bread! We want freedom, work and peace. We want to begin life as people who respect the law, not be forced to begin it as lawbreakers!

The businessman held hostage for 5 days rewards them Çean Çiuau Vej challenges the state’s depleted coffers The businessman held hostage for 5 days rewards them Chinese man gives 10 thousand dollars to the police who freed him Çean Çiuau Vej challenges the state’s depleted coffers Page 2 From now on, the police will have one more incentive to take responsibility for freeing someone who has been taken hostage. Chinese businessman Çean Çiuau Vej, who was taken hostage three days ago by six people, challenged the Albanian state yesterday. A source from the police directorate said that he had given 10 thousand US dollars as a reward to the police team from precinct No. 2, which secured his release, and to the senior police officials.

Customs report Kakavie, where smuggling originates 578 customs officers have been transferred in the past 5 years Page 10

Milo scandal Pashko: Majko is faster than Nano “Assistance will be provided, but the conditions are now being met” Page 5

Majko letter 400 Albanians sentenced to hunger strike We demand extradition to our homeland and normal conditions Page 32

Television debate Telenorba violates the law with a contract A foreign media outlet challenges parliament Page 27

U.S. Marines during a NATO exercise Photo REUTERS U.S. Marines during a NATO exercise. Photo REUTERS