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Macedonian police officers walk through a narrow street in their first patrol at the ethnically mixed village of Opae, 27 kms (16 miles) northeast of Macedonia's capital Skopje, on Monday, Oct. 22, 2001. In a key test of Macedonia's peace process, the first ethnically mixed police units were deployed Monday to areas seized by ethnic Albanian rebels during clashes with government troops earlier this year. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Macedonian and ethnic Albanian police officers talk with ethnic Albanians during their first patrol in the ethnically mixed village of Lopate, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Macedonia's capital Skopje, Monday, Oct. 22, 2001. In a key test of Macedonia's peace process, the first ethnically mixed police units deployed Monday to areas seized by ethnic Albanian rebels during clashes with government troops earlier this year. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Macedonian and ethnic Albanian police officers talk with ethnic Albanian children during their first patrol in the ethnically mixed village of Lopate, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Macedonia's capital Skopje, Monday, Oct. 22, 2001. In a key test of Macedonia's peace process, the first ethnically mixed police units deployed Monday to areas seized by ethnic Albanian rebels during clashes with government troops earlier this year. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Macedonian police officer walks with an ethnic Albanian man while patrolling the ethnically mixed village of Opae, 27 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Macedonia's capital Skopje, on Monday, Oct. 22, 2001. In a key test of Macedonia's peace process, the first ethnically mixed police units deployed Monday to areas seized by ethnic Albanian rebels during clashes with government troops earlier this year. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

French soldiers and members of the NATO mission in Macedonia -TFF (Task Force Fox) on APCs pass by a gipsy boy on a road in Skopje, October 22, 2001. OSCE observers on Monday escorted Macedonian police patrols who were part of the first ethnically mixed units to move into tense areas formerly held by ethnic Albanian rebels. The mission of TTF soldiers is to protect the OSCE observers in Macedonia. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

Sofia Mayor Stephan Sofianski (in the center) made the first welding of the gas-supply system in Bankya. CEO of Overgas Saho Donchev (right) pledged that the residents of the district will have natural-gas heating as early as the next winter. Photo Marina Angelova

AP

By Katarina Kratovac
Associated Press Writer
Monday, October 22, 2001; 7:18 PM

TEARCE, Macedonia An explosion shattered the police station in a restive ethnic Albanian village late Monday, just hours after Macedonia's first ethnically mixed police units began patrolling. The police missions were considered a key test to the country's peace process.

The blast blew off the roof of the building that served both as police station and municipal office in Tearce, 20 miles northwest of Skopje, said sources close to the police who spoke on condition of anonymity. No one was injured.

The explosion underscored persisting tensions in this Balkan country, where six months of clashes between government troops and ethnic Albanian rebels ended in August when political leaders for the rival sides signed a Western-engineered peace accord.

The ethnic Albanian rebels said they were fighting for more rights for their minority, while the government saw them as separatists bent on dividing Macedonia.

Resentment greeted the police patrol as it arrived in Tearce, tucked beneath soaring peaks of Mount Sara. Tearce was one of five villages selected as test cases for the police deployment. The plan calls for units of three Macedonian and three ethnic Albanian policemen to patrol the villages across the contested northwest.

Idriz Ahmeti frowned as he watched the commotion in the square during the police arrival.

"They shouldn't have come. It is too early," the 70-year-old ethnic Albanian said.

The patrols were meant to boost confidence between the two rival ethnic communities. If the NATO- and EU-mediated project is peaceful and successful, the program eventually will be expanded to include more than 80 villages formerly in rebel hands.

Macedonia's President Boris Trajkovski welcomed the start of the patrols, saying Monday that they would "help relax ethnic relations" and boost the political process.

Across Macedonia, dozens of people were killed and thousands of others displaced in the fighting between government troops and rebels.

The rebels since have handed in more than 4,000 weapons to NATO troops in exchange for promises that the Macedonian-dominated parliament would pass reforms improving rights for ethnic Albanians, who make up a third of Macedonia's 2 million population.

But a deadlock in parliament stalled the reforms. A much-delayed debate on constitutional amendments intended to broaden minority rights is expected to start Wednesday in the Macedonian-majority assembly.

The police patrol in Tearce was watched over by dozens of European monitors and German NATO troops.

Politicians nervously shook hands as six officers ventured out of their cars for a walk around town, cautiously smiling at the locals. No one smiled back.

"It may not look like much, but this is truly important," said Harald Schenker, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "It is a start."

As the police sped away, ending their patrol, a single burst of automatic fire echoed from the distant hills.

MIA

Lisbon, October 22 (MIA) - Macedonian Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva ended Monday afternoon her official visit to Lisbon with the meeting with speaker of Portuguese Parliament Antonio de Almeida Santos, MIA's special correspondent reports.

At the meeting Santos stressed that the Portuguese Parliament fully supports the sooner ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement signed between the European Union and Macedonia, the Macedonian integration in the Union as well as the efforts to resolve the crisis.
Within the talks the both statesmen assessed that joint struggle against terrorism is necessary as it is the begist evil of the modern world and that the cooperation between the Parliaments is very important for the development of the overall political relations.

The speaker of Portuguese Parliament Antonio de Almeida Santos invited his Macedonian counterpart Stojan Andov to visit Portugal.

MIA

Skopje, October 22 (MIA) Skopje Mayor Risto Penov and representative of KFORs German contingent Neisser Berndt signed Monday an agreement for granting DM 60 thousand for reconstruction and equipping of the Emergency Service from Skopje.

"The means are aimed for reconstruction of the building where Emergency Service is placed as a first step toward its full reconstruction. In that manner conditions will be established for internal reorganization and improving of the services for the citizens of Skopje," Penov stressed after the signing of the agreement.

Captain Neisser assessed the signing as "a signal that the good cooperation between KFOR and Skopje City will continue."

MIA

Skopje, October 22 (MIA) - Promotion of book-scenario "Dust" by Milcho Manchevski, published by "Slovo" from Skopje, according to which the movie was shot, was held in the Writers' Association of Macedonia.

Professor at the Philology Faculty in Skopje Venko Andonovski, who was one of the promoters of this rare work of the Macedonian publishing, sees the scenario as "an implicit polemics with some aesthetic standards in writing".

"The movie has a very personal side of the author in that implicit and explicit polemics with cliches and stereotypes in the movie art. I personally experience the movie as an aesthetic debate", Andonovski explained.

He talked about the "violence" in the movie, but as an aesthetic category, and according to him "the movie should wake violence up and pull us out of it".

"Manchevski creates a merger of two genres, thriller and meta-linguistic telling, with two groups of signs: effects of the real and meta-linguistic signs, elements of fiction", Andonovski said, adding "text "Dust" by Manchevski puts all of this in the post-modern currents of literature".

According to Andonovski "the scenario shows the way in which the world was created, which is another argument for the reference that the movie is a tractate of art that destroys traditional cliches".

Movie critic Jagoda Mihajlova- Georgievska talked about Manchevski's movie as "limitation of the scenario "Dust"". Reading the scenario before you see the movie is a "trap" for Mihajlova, because "experience in movie critic tells you not to be tempted, so you expect for the scenario and the movie to be the same with small differences, you treat them as the man and his shadow".

"I will repeat the word fierce opposing to cliches that Venko Andonovski mentioned, which should go on not only in art, but in all spheres of economy activity, which is an obligation of every intellectual and every artist in general, because this is the only way for progress", Milcho Manchevski said on this occasion.

The original scenario is written in English, and Marina Kostova translated it in Macedonian. The Macedonian Ministry of Culture has financially supported project "Dust" of publishing house "Slovo", which intends to also publish the scenario for the previous Manchevski's movie "Before the Rain".

MIA

Police force Tuesday will also enter in pilot-villages of Tearce, Lesok, Grusino, Lopate and Opae.

The OSCE and EU monitors and NATO troops of Operation Amber Fox will accompany mixed police patrol composed of three Macedonians and three Albanians.

Police forces Tuesday will patrol in the villages from 10:00 to 16:00. The same time period is determined for Wednesday as well.

In accordance with the agreement, from the fourth to the seventh day, the patrolling of the policemen will be until 17:00. Starting from the eighth day the police forces will be in the villages constantly which is considered as taking full control of the villages.

Two patrols of the Macedonian Police comprised of six policemen from mixed nationality entered Lesok and Tearce villages around 10.30h Monday morning.

According to the pilot plan of the governmental Coordinate Body for returning of the Macedonian security forces in the regions of crisis, the police accompanied by OSCE and EU monitors as well as NATO soldiers within "Amber Fox" mission entered the villages.

The patrols were in the villages until 13.00h. President of the Coordinate Body Ilija Filipovski and Head of OSCE mission Craig Jenes visited Terace village.

Filipovski expressed his satisfaction from the progress of Mondays operation, adding that the local residents did not make any problems regarding the entrance of the police. "The entire process should be carried out in compliance with the pilot-plan, no allowances are made, and it is flexible in certain cases," Filipovski said. According to him, this symbolizes establishing legal state in this part of Republic of Macedonia.

He stressed that besides the announcements, the Albanian population was not disturbed. "I spoke personally with the Mayor of the municipality and the President of the Municipalitys Council and I did not see any reactions," Filipovski stressed.

Ambassador Jenes was satisfied with Mondays act, which according to him presents a step toward stabilizing the situation in this region." However he stressed that the obligations arising from Framework Agreement and the constitutional changes should be carried out. Jenes expressed his hope that such progress will be made in the next few weeks."

The acting Chief of Tetovo Police Department Dimce Kuzmanovski informed that the policemen are from the regular composition of the police and are armed with a gun, stick and handcuffs, dressed in the regular blue uniform.

The morning march route started in front of the Police station near Tetovo, where the patrols met OSCE and EU monitoring missions and arrived to Lesok through Zelino, Siricino, Zilce and Ratae villages. "We did not register any provocations or problems along the way," Kuzmanovski said.

"Everything that was agreed, is respected and carried out," Ismailhaki Abdulahi, the commander of Police station in Tearce stated. He does not believe that there will be any problems as the policemen strictly stick to the given orders.

The residents of Tearce are also optimistic that the peace will be restored in the village, hoping that the operation will end successfully. Around 4,000 villagers live in Tearce, out of whom only 1,200 are Macedonians and the others are Turks and Albanians. Only 300 Macedonians have returned to the village so far. As a result of the terrorist operations around 20 houses, several stores and "Mateks" factory have been burnt.

According to the residents, representatives of an Italian organization estimated the damages, and they expect the restoration to begin very soon.

The pilot-plan for entrance of the police in Tearce, Lesok, Grusino, Lopate and Opae villages will continue in the next seven days. On Tuesday and Wednesday the police will be present in the villages from 10.00 to 16.00h, while by the end of the week the patrols will be prolonged from 07.00 to 17.00h. Starting from the next week, the police forces will stay permanently in the villages what means that they have overtaken full control.

BBC

The police deployment is a tentative step forward.

Macedonian police officers have for the first time begun patrolling areas which were seized by ethnic Albanian rebels during their insurgency earlier this year.

As part of a western-backed peace deal, lightly-armed and ethnically mixed police units are to re-enter five villages and carry out limited patrols under the supervision of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

If Monday's deployment - which is seen as a test-run - passes off without incident, there are plans to expand it to other villages.

It is the first step forward for several weeks in the three-month-old peace process, which has become bogged down in the Macedonian parliament.

The parliament is meant to be approving amendments to the constitution granting more rights to the country's Albanian minority, but the changes are unpopular with many Macedonians, and have been repeatedly delayed.

Under the deal, the proportion of ethnic Albanians in the police force is to be boosted to 25%, which will mean recruiting about 1,000 new officers over the next two years.

Ethnic Albanians make up roughly one third of the country's population.

Short patrols

OSCE spokesman Harald Schenker told BBC News Online he had observed police successfully entering the village of Tearce, near Macedonia's unofficial ethnic Albanian capital, Tetovo.

Operations were also taking place in nearby Lesok, as well as in Opaje and Lopate in the Kumanovo area, and in Grusino near the capital, Skopje.

Mr Schenker said the officers were due to leave Tearce after completing a three-hour patrol but would return on a daily basis.

"This scheme is first and foremost a pilot project aimed at restoring confidence between the state and local inhabitants. There is the need to start cautiously, in the spirit of confidence-building," Mr Schenker said.

But he said the success of the operation, at least in Tearce, meant it was likely that the project would spread to other villages.

Political process

Since the signing of the peace deal at Lake Ohrid on 13 August the ethnic Albanian rebels have handed nearly 4,000 weapons to Nato peacekeepers.

Nato has urged the Macedonian leadership to keep its side of the bargain by making the constitutional amendments listed in the deal.

They were meant to have been passed within six weeks, but three months have already passed.

Parliament is now due to begin debating the changes on Wednesday.

In one important development, the Macedonian Government officially approved an amnesty for the rebels earlier this month.

The Lake Ohrid agreement was aimed at snuffing out the sparks of a conflict that began smouldering in February, when ethnic Albanians in the north and west of the country rose up, demanding better political representation and greater recognition of the Albanian language.

But Macedonian representatives have complained that they were forced into the deal at the barrel of a gun and have been reluctant to pass - and ultimately implement - the concessions to Albanian demands.

Western envoys have warned that any more delays in implementing the deal could lead to a new outbreak of violence.

BBC

The peace deal which paved the way for Nato's deployment in Macedonia was signed in mid-August, after hard-fought negotiations.

The country's main political parties, representing both communities, reached the deal after lengthy talks involving international mediators.

Police force

The ethnic Albanians found it unacceptable that only 5% of members of the country's police force are from their community.

Under the deal, the number will be boosted to 25%. It will mean around 1,000 ethnic Albanians being recruited over the next two years.

However, the new police force will remain under control of the central government in Skopje, and not be answerable to local leaders, as the ethnic Albanians had wanted.

They wanted the local set-up so that ethnic Albanian officers could run the force in majority areas.

Language

Before the deal, the Albanian language had no formal status.

Under the deal, it becomes an official language along with Macedonian.

It can be used in official institutions in areas where ethnic Albanians account for at least 20% of the population.

Albanian-speakers also have the right to bi-lingual documents and identity cards.

Albanian can also now be used in the national parliament, but not in the government or in international affairs.

Constitution

The introduction to the constitution is being changed to remove any reference to the ethnic background of Macedonians.

The old introduction described the country being the "national state of the Macedonian people", in which Albanians and other ethnic minorities had rights as equal citizens.

Under the deal, it will be changed to describe all Macedonia's population as "citizens of the Republic of Macedonia".

It promises human rights, civil liberties, social justice and peaceful co-existence.

Devolution

The deal allows for limited devolution.

Some powers will be transferred from national government in the capital, Skopje, to local authorities and mayors.

This was also one of the ethnic Albanians' demands.

Peace provisions.

Other conditions of the peace deal have been met since it was signed. They include the granting of amnesties to rebel fighters by Macedonian authorities, and an agreement by the rebels to disarm.

The whole peace process must also be ratified by the Macedonian parliament, which is supposed to be carried out in stages as the weapons collection by Nato forces progresses.

Standartnews

Simona Peycheva is fourth, and Beti Paisieva - seventh at the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship.

Madrid
Mara Kalcheva
"Standart" correspondent

Simona Peycheva missed her chance to win the bronze medal in the individual contest at the World Championship in Rhythmic gymnastics in Madrid. She took the fourth place by 106.150 points. Simona was overtaken by Ukrainian Tamara Erofeeva, who won the bronze medal with 106.225 points. Elizabeth Paisieva, the other Bulgarian, who took part in the final individual contest, remained seventh. Russian Alina Kabaeva became world champion, and her fellow-country woman Irina Chachina took the silver medal. A day earlier the Bulgarians took the fourth place in the team contest and only 0.525 points separated them from the bronze medal. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are before them.

(PY)

Standartnews

Bulgarian Journalist Have Been Captured for three days already by natives in Afghanistan together with 30 more journalists from other countries, the Foreign Ministry said. We make every effort to help the detained journalists to be released, said for "Standart" Ivan Petkov, Bulgaria's charge d'affairs ad interim to Pakistan. Journalists, covering the war in Afghanistan Georgi Milkov from "24 Chasa", Stoyan Vitanov from "Dnevnik" and Emiliyan Dinov, BNT cameraman, are detained in very squalid conditions in the village of Ostana in the Panchir valley to the north of Kabul. They are kept together with 30 journalist from France, Russia, India, Germany and Japan, Milkov managed to report seconds before the battery of his cell phone was discharged, Darik Radio said yesterday. We are searching for opportunities with the joint efforts of the embassies of the other detained journalists to help them be released and transported by the North Alliance on board a helicopter to Tadzhikistan, Ivan Petkov said. There is a helicopter airfield nearby Ostana and journalist fly off from there for the northern regions of the country, when coming back from the front line. The local authorities, however, do not set the detainees free. The latter are offered someone to take them to the Tadzhikistan's border for four days at the price of $3,000.

Standartnews

War against USSR made CIA and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) traine 100,000 radical Muslims for jihad.

Ivan Ivanov*

After the attacks against the USA on September 11, terror showed its other face too. US President George Bush officially declared that the cases of infection with bacteriological and biological weapons were another 'form of terrorism, regardless of who is the mastermind and the perpetrators'. For the sake of truth I should only note that a week prior to the first case of anthrax in the USA, on the pages of 'Standart' I warned about the possibility of using this biological weapon adding that Bin Laden's terrorists knew how to do it. Indluential media, such as the ARD, ZDF and the French Canal+, took into consideration that fact.

It is interesting that those directly affected in the USA, and now in England, had been following the development of biological weapons by the terrorist groups for a long time. Here are some facts: the article titled 'Anthrax spores found in office' in the Miami Herald from August 30, 2001, informed of a premeditated and successful operation of the sect 'Supreme Truth of Aum' headed by Shoko Asahara. It was done as early as 1993. Liquid containing anthrax was dispersed through an air-conditioner. 'To get ready for the invisible killers' in the Washington Post dated February 23 1999, with subtitle 'Smallpox and anthrax may be used in a bio-attack' was a publication which also led to the Japanese sect. There is another example that confirms the lethal effect of anthrax - in 1979, 66 out of a total of 77 died after the accident in a bio-laboratory in the USSR. The same author, Susan Okie, quotes the conclusion of the FBI that the use of those biological weapons is not very likely now, but it could have very grave consequences'.

'We find letters warning of anthrax almost every day', the FBI chief stressed in his article in the Boston Globe as early as February 5, 1999. At the time he called biological weapons 'the Armageddon of the new Millennium' and mentioned for the first time ever the direct link between Osama bin Laden and Shoko Asahara. Although that link wasn't specified, I'd like to draw your attention to several facts which can naturally be checked out by the special services of the countries mentioned.

In 1986 CIA Chief William Casey climbed another step in the war against the USSR taking three important but top-secret measures. He persuaded the US Congress to equip the mujahids with US-made anti-aircraft 'Stinger' missiles to down the Soviet aircraft, and provide US advisers to train the guerillas. Apart from this, the British MI-6 and ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) agreed on a provocative plan to transfer the guerilla struggle on the territories of the Soviet socialist republics of Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan, the Muslim regions from which the USSR troops in Afghanistan used to get their military supplies.

William Casey was particularly satisfied with the news and during his next secret trip to Pakistan crossed the Afghan border together with President Zia to inspect the mujahids' detachments. Thirdly, Casey enlisted the CIA support for a long-term ISI initiative to recruit radical Muslims from all over the world, who had to arrive in Pakistan to fight together with the Afghani mujahids. Washington wanted to demonstrate that the entire Muslim world is fighting against the USSR together with the Afghanis and their American benefactors. In 1982-92 around 35,000 radically-minded Muslims from 43 Islamic countries, North and East Africa, Central Asia and the Far East saw actions for the first time together with the Afghani mujahids. Tens of thousands more radical Muslims from abroad arrived to be trained in the hundreds of newly established madrasahs in Pakistan and along Afghanistan's border, supported by the Zia-led government. So, over 100,000 radical Muslims would be able to directly contact Pakistan and Afghanistan and be influenced by the jihad.

In the camps nearby Peshawar and in Afghanistan these radically-minded men met and got acquainted for the first time, they were educated and trained there and then fought together. To most of them, it was a first opportunity to get familiar with the Islamic movements in the other countries and in this way they established tactical and ideologic contacts, that would be of great use to them in future. The camps were turned into universities of future Islamic radicalism. Among the thousands recruited foreigners there was a young Saudi student - Osama bin Laden, son of a big Yemenite construction entrepreneur, Mohammed bin Laden, who was a close friend of the late King Faisal. His company prospered fabulously after concluding contracts on the reconstruction and expanding of the mosques in Mecca and Medina.

ISI have asked for a long time Prince Turki bin Faisal (head of the Saudi intelligence) to provide a Royal person, a Prince, to take over the Saudi contingent and show the Muslims that the Royal family has also dedicated themselves to the cause of the jihad. For until that time, only indigent Saudis - students, tax drivers and people from the bedouin tribes - enlisted to fight. But no one of the spoilt Saudi princes was willing to lead the hard life in the Afghan mountains. Bin Laden, though not of Royal origin, was close enough to the court, and rich enough as well, to head the Saudi contingent. So, when he decided to join it, his family responded enthusiastically.

He visited Peshawar for a first time in 1980, where he met with the mujahid leaders and later on frequented there with Saudi donations to the cause. It all went on till 1982, when he decided to settle in Peshawar. In 1986 he helped in the construction of the underground complex of tunnels Host ("Standart" was the first to release pictures of it). It was financed by the CIA as the basic weapon warehouse, training camp and health centre of the mujahids - deep under the mountains, in close proximity to Pakistan's border.

In the meantime other things happened in Tokyo. During the intensive Japanese-Saudi relationship, the exchange of technologies and especially the export of petrol, a big Saudi firm - SBG, wins a state auction for working out of specialized software for 'Operations Tracing of Vehicles by Satellite'. The firm already has international prestige, being a participant in the 'Iridium' project and has a built up infrastructure. Naturally, the executive part is given to 'a local Japanese company as a subcontractor'.

All by chance a helpful business partner with proved achievements and prestige turns to be the 'Supreme Truth of Aum'. The first development, naturally, is introduced in the specialized cars of the police in Tokyo. They are followed by many private firms and about ten state agencies.
After the terror attacks in the Tokyo underground the police cars and these of the state agencies were put out of operation and quickly exported to the United Arab Emirates. Yet in July 1998 at his visit in Kandahar Prince Turky, the first secular leader of Osama Bin Laden, in sign of benevolence to the policy of the Taliban presents them '400 shortly used cars still bearing their Dubai licence plates'.

Naturally the mystery is what would have united extreme Islamic fundamentalists and crazy Japanese sectarians, especially when one is aware of the irreconcilability and the neglectful attitude of the Islamists to other religions. The answer could be found in the article of Doctor Eli Carmon 'The Dangerous Upsurge of Anti-Semitism in Japan and the Activity of the Sect 'Supreme Truth of Aum', published on October 15, 1999, in Nebraska University Press. The conclusion is: the favourite subject of the Islamic fundamentalists - the struggle against Israel and the Jews has given the origin of the vicious connection between the Japanese sectarians and the present terrorists.

--------------------
*Editors note - this is the Bulgarian, who for the first time told "Standart" about his meeting with Bin Laden, the Osama's bunkers, the interest of the terrorists in the waste fuel of the APP, the business network of Osama and its participation in the 'Iridium' Global Project. When in May, immediately after his return from Pakistan, the same Bulgarian informed in written form the respective services about all these things he reveals now, one competent chief with epaulettes wrote at the top: 'All this is fiction'.

Standartnews

47.7 of the Bulgarians approve of the US strikes against Afghanistan, a public-opinion poll shows. This opinion is shared predominantly by men and pollees under 40. 40.1 of the pollees, however, disapprove of the American strikes against the Taleban. Women and the elderly are more peacefully-minded. More than half of the Bulgarians are sceptical about the outcome of the operation. Only one-third of those polled believe that the strikes against the Taleban will be any success. Just as many of the Bulgarians expect that terrorism will spread as a result of the strikes.

Attitude towards the US Strikes

Approve - 47.7 %
Disapprove - 40.1%
Undecided - 12.2%

Horizontally:
Impact on economy:

It will worsen - 46.2%
It will improve - 7.5%
It'll be unchanged - 29%
Undecided - 16.4

(ML)

Standartnews

The musician demanded a Negro orchestra, but yielded to the high skill of the Maestro & Co.

Italian musician Zucchero will be a guest in the 'Show of Slavi' tonight. He'll present his new album 'Shake'. Zucchero and his six companions were expected to arrive in Sofia late at night yesterday. Among the guests is a singer who is the back vocal for his songs. The girl arrives from London especially for the show. Zucchero will present three songs. Among them is the famous hit from 1991 'Senza una donna' (Without a Woman) and the new piece 'Baila' (Sexy Thing). To make the studio performance of the clip match this song, Zucchero demanded an orchestra composed of Negro musicians. After he watched a video with the 'Show of Slavi' he agreed to work with the 'Coo-coo band'. 'Professionalism of these men will compensate for their white skin', the Italian said. But the demand the performers to be clad in black remained.

Acia Mollova
(PY)

Standartnews INTERVIEW: Shlomo Borohov.

He is rich, who enjoys his fate, is the favorite Torah wisdom of Shlomo Borohov, chief of one of Israel's biggest banks.

- Mr Borohov, do you think that your book 'A Thought Ahead' you presented here can be of use to Bulgarians, too?

- Yes, because at an instant the Bulgarians also found themselves in the situation of our immigrants, or even in a worse position. It is true that the Bulgarians didn't abandon their country but the country abandoned them. Many of the people to whom social equality was most important, suddenly lost everything - job, money, security. This is what happened throughout the former socialist bloc which decided overnight to rush into the liberal economy and free market without any preparation whatsoever. It was something alien to people. They were not aware of the standards and economic laws of the new system. This is why I believe that this book will be helpful to them.

- What would you tell the people who will take up business only now?

- I'd tell them that doing business is not this simple. If it were only about buying something cheaper and selling it at a higher price, then all of us would have been rich. But business doesn't mean only this. The free market generates social inequality. This is what counts most. Had people been equal, we would still live in the Stone Age. No matter how unpleasant it may sound to some, social inequality is the driving force of progress. For this reason only those should start business who are really ready for it and possess three major qualities:

I will start with the sense of property which we normally can't boast of. The socialist reality hadn't instill such a sense in us. The state was the owner of everything. For better or worse we were indifferent to it. Well, I again go back to the past - the socialist society used to teach us the opposite. The third very important quality for doing business, particularly so in a small country like Bulgaria, is morality. To be honest, decent but not a fool. Not to let other people make a fool of you.

- Whom would you advise against taking up business?

- One can make money on the fringe even if he is disorganized. If he hasn't got a creative approach, it is not so fatal either, he will copy someone else's business. However, without a sense of property you can't do any business. This is the most important thing. If you are a decent, creative person you may become a good chess player, a man of letters, but not a businessman. The sense of property is crusial for any business.

- You teach others how to become rich, are you yourself rich?

- To the question of who is rich, the Torah, sacred book of the Jews, answers in the following way: He who enjoys his fate. I'm a person who enjoys his fate. It means that I am rich. Rich people, especially those who have accumulated their wealth by themselves, acquire qualities which later prevent them from enjoying their riches. And here I heard another interesting thought: that wealth depends on the money you have spent on yourself.

Isaac Gozes
(SB)

BTA

Sofia, October 22 (BTA) - "Some 50 per cent of the tasks envisaged in the 2001 material resources plan of the Defence Ministry have so far been implemented. In this context, it is essential to improve the resource planning system in order to ensure efficient utilization of next year's defence budget," Lieutenant General Anyu Angelov, president of the G.S. Rakovski Military Academy in Sofia, said at the opening of a seminar on "Defence Resource Planning" on Monday.

The five-day seminar is the sixth such event to be organized in Bulgaria since 1995 by the George C. Marshall European Center For Security Studies, based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The idea is to help create a democratic system of national security and an effective defence management system.

The participants include lecturers from the US Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a nongovernmental organization which is a key partner to US Government institutions for defence. The experts are discussing a general pattern of goals, tasks and priorities for Bulgaria's defence planning system, its budgeting, and the process of decision-making and decision implementation.

Task groups are to set a timeframe for the defence planning process in this country. The IDA will present independent analyses and guidelines, said Edward Smith of IDA and Hubert Werner of the George C. Marshall Center.

BTA

BTA

Sofia, October 22 (BTA) - 14 Bulgarian officers are trained to work at multinational logistic HQs during the NATO-led command staff multinational exercise codenamed COOPERATIVE SUPPORT (COSUP) 2001 which started October 17 at the ski resort of Borovets and will run through October 24.

COSUP is an exercise held on annual basis in a NATO partner country under the command of SACLANT.

10 NATO members, 16 partner countries and observer Algeria are taking part in COSUP 2001. The 98 trainees and 18 lecturers are divided into six working groups. The aim of the exercise is to outline the basics of logistical sciences and present concepts and procedures for logistical support for NATO-led multinational operations.

According to SACLANT representative and exercise operative HQ commander colonel Jeffrey Drumond, the Bulgarian officers have shown that they can implement the plans of the NATO HQ.

A plan for interoperability between the Bulgarian Army and the NATO armed forces has been drafted. One of the goals of the project is to train experts to work in multinational HQs, said colonel Stoyan Genkov, deputy chief of the Material, Technical and Medical Support Directorate General of the General Staff and joint commander of the exercise. He elaborated that the Bulgarian officers that took part in the exercise have attended preparatory logistics courses at the G.S Rakovski Military Academy and aboard.

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Bulgarian PM Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Confers with NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson.

Brussels, October 22 (BTA exclusive by Bulgarian national television correspondent Zornitsa Venkova) - Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha met on Monday with NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson and the ambassadors in NATO of the 19 member states. The meeting continued half an hour longer than planned.

Lord Robertson and the ambassadors hailed the desire of the new Bulgarian government to continue the reform in the country and encouraged Bulgarias candidacy to join NATO. However, they recalled that there are strict conditions that have to be met for this to take place.

Lord Robertson said that in the course of a year Bulgaria made certain progress in its military reform but added that the difficult elements in it are ahead. The NATO Secretary General said that they should not be delayed as it will get still harder. More hard political decisions are needed to make the Bulgarian army and defence system compatible with NATOs, Lord Robertson said. However, he admitted that this is not a problem of Bulgaria only bit of all applicant states.

The ambassadors in NATO expressed their gratitude for the support Bulgaria rendered to the Alliance during the operation in Kosovo and stressed the countrys role as a stabilization factor in the Balkans. The diplomats also thanked for the solidarity Bulgaria showed after the September 11 terrorist acts in the United States. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha pledged Bulgarias readiness, if necessary, to send forces to replace the US contingent in the Balkans. Lord Robertson said that although at the moment there is no such need, such readiness is extremely valuable to NATO.

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