A CNN report posted to the global IMC site today states that the Macedonian government "accuses the rebels -- who make up a third of Macedonia's two million people -- of trying to split ethnic Albanian-populated areas from the rest of the country."

With simple math, a skill CNN reporters obviously lack, we would deuce from this that there are 750,000 "rebels" in Macedonia. In fact there are approximately 3,000 NLA members in Macedonia.

Another notable quote from the CNN report states that "the rebels said they agreed to the pullback on the condition that Macedonian forces do not enter the village, and that the Macedonian side observed the cease-fire."

CNN fails to mention that these "rebels" initially made their withdrawal conditional on NATO's occupation of Aracinovo, the Macedonian town the NLA presently holds.

Implying that the Macedonian government is devious CNN paraphrases "a NATO spokesman" saying "Macedonian government forces are being trusted not to attack the convoy [of terrorists]" pulling out of Aracinovo (but who will remain in Macedonia).

CNN closes with a new spin on the argument presently being used to get Slobodan Milosevic:

"EU Foreign Minister Chris Patten said earlier on Monday that the EU
would not be able to approve aid and finance to Macedonia as long as it
was spending much needed funds for reconstruction on arms and bullets.

"'We would like to support confidence building measures, but it's difficult to
build people's confidence when money in short supply is being spent on
bombs and rockets, Patten said.

"'So the sooner there can be a cease-fire permanently and the sooner there
can be a political settlement, the sooner we'll be able to discuss investing the
future peace, stability and prosperity.'"