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December 24, 1999

After the war, a few contracts. A US mining company, Metal Research Group Corp., signed a 30-year agreement with the Albanian government to develop Albania's copper industry. Apparently the deal also involves building health facilities in the poor mining regions. Albania is desperate for Western capital and copper is one of the few resources it can immediately offer for sale. Albanian government sources say over 12,000 people worked in the copper industry in 1986. Today, the figure is around 1500.

Greece announced the arrest in the Athens airport of a long sought terrorist, a member of the "anti-state struggle" (the name appears in all lower-case), splinter faction of the Popular Revolutionary Struggle (ELA). The Greek government estimates the ELA or its factions have been responsible from over 200 terrorist acts since 1975. Arrested was Abraham Lerperoglou. Among other crimes, Lesperoglou is charged with being part of a 1985 attack in Athens' Gyzi area where 3 policemen were killed. He is also charged with killing a Greek state prosecutor in 1985. Greece has been a haven for terrorists, even anti-Greek Greek terrorists. A crackdown on terrorists may be in the works, another part of the sea change in Greek-Turk relations.