Antenna: News in English (PM), 98-03-24

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

Last Updated: Tuesday, 24-Mar-98 21:31:24

CONTENTS

[01] Kameron-Kourti

[02] Economy

[03] Olympic Airways

[04] Kosovo

[05] Parade

[06] Sports

[01] Kameron-Kourti

But an Australian court decision may cast a shadow over Cameron's achiements.

A Greek woman in Australia has won a suit against Cameron, who she claims stole the idea for another one of his hits, Terminator 2, from her.

Last Wednesday's court decision is vindication after seven tough years of legal battles says Filio Kourti, who says she wrote the script for Terminator.

Armed with the Melbourne court decision, Kourti and her husband can now file suit in the US for millions of dollars in damages from Cameron and Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Pleased with the Australia decision, Kourti told Antenna, "Since 1993, we've given our all to this struggle. We still haven't been able to relax and return to our normal way of life".

In its decision, the Melbourne court ruled that Kourti and her husband Kostas have the intellectual property rights to Terminator 2.

It all started in 1988, when the Kourti couple approached Australian scriptwriter Bill Green to put their ideas into script form.

The work, entitled the Minotaur, contains elements of Greek mythology, and is based on a metallic human robot, plyed in the movie by Schwarzenegger.

"We invested so much of ourselves in the Minotaur", says Kourti, "That it was like a member of our family".

Script in hand, the Kourtis went to Hollywood, where they found a number of companies interested in their idea.

They were surprised to see their conception on the screen two years later, under the title Terminator 2.

They were even more surprised when they learned that Green, the scriptwriter, had claimed ownership of the script in a suit he'd brought against director James Cameron.

Green lost his case in 1993.

Two years earlier, the Kourtis had begun their own Melbourne court battle.

What remains to be seen is whether the American courts will award the couple the financial damages

Kourtis believes that if she and her husband end up going to court in the US, they'll win. She adds that the rights that have been stolen by the makers of Terminator 2, add up to 50 million dollars.

[02] Economy

Nine days after the prime minister devalued the drachma by 14 per cent, there are concerns that inflation will rear its head after years of efforts to bring it down from double-digit figures.

"There are signs of profiteering and we're ready to treat profiteers harshly". The words belong to finance minister Yiannos Papantoniou.

Concerned by rising prices in the nation's shops after the devaluation of the drachma, the government's finance wizards are holding meeting after meeting to decide what is to be done. 20 companies have already been called to appear beore the so-called Competition Committee, for unjustifiably raising their prices.

And the market police, as they're called, will be out keeping a vigilant eye on merchants.

Development minister Vaso Papandreou is urging consumers to shop around before making any purchases.

Her estimates are that the 14 per cent devaluation should add 2 per cent to inflation because of the subsequent increase in the price of imported goods.

Papantoniou asks shopkeepers to exercise self- restraint when marking up prices. "It's irrational", he says, "for one section of society to shift all the cost of the devaluation onto other people. In the end, we'll all end up paying more than we should".

[03] Olympic Airways

Employees were angered Saturday when Pasok announced plans to freeze wages and partially privatise the airline in attempts to shave 50 million dollars off its annual operating budget.

A thousand staff members rallied outside the company headquarters Tuesday. A banner read: "Don't alter the state-owned status of Olympic".

Inside, management and union reps met and compromised. The unions agreed to the three-year wage freeze, but at 1997 pay levels, not the 1995 levels the govenrment wanted.

Workers will also accept a staff shakeup and redeployment.

Management agree not to take the airline out of state hands and it has withdrawn plans to abolish collective bargaining agreements with its employees.

[04] Kosovo

The Albanian side claims the Serbian police killed four Albanians after surrounding three villages near Decani.

Yugoslav press reports claimed that a police patrol was ambushed outside a village near Decani. The Yugoslavs attribute the attack to separatist terrorists. According to the same reports, the assailants retreated to the nearby villages, putting up strong resistance for several hours.

Other sources say the four Albanians were killed during clashes with the police during rallies in the Decani area.

The reports of renewed clashes come a day after an agreement was signed between Belgrade and the Kosovo Albanians. It calls for Kosovo's state schools and universities to open their doors to the Albanians for the first time in seven years.

Serbs in the province took to the streets immediately after the agreement was signed, calling it a sell-out.

There is intense animosity on both sides, two weeks aftger Serbian raids, ostensibly to root out militant separatists, left 80 Albanians dead. Many Albanians want independence; the privileged Serbian minority wants to stay a part of Yugoslavia.

Ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova has ordered a 15-member group to work on the ethnic Albanian's positions, which would be laid out in eventual talks with Belgrade.

On Wednesday, six western nations, including the US will meet to discuss the establishment of an autonomous, but NOT an independent, Kosovo.

[05] Parade

Students from around the nation paraded along Panepistimiou Street in central Athens, in honour of those who took part in the 1821 war of liberation from Ottoman rule.

As students from Nafplio and Kalavryta lit the torch of the revolution, young people from an Athens high school of Athens carried a 27 by 17 metre Greek flag along the parade route.

In all, pupils from 40 schools marched behind the flag, in time to the notes played by the police brass band and the Athens Philharmonic Orchestra.

For the first time ever on this annual parade, there were folk dances.

Education minister Gerasimos Arsenis said, "These children are our future. We will see them again competing in Greek colours in the 2004 olympics".

Athens mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos promised to guide the youth of today toward a stronger and better Greece of tomorrow.

[06] Sports

The Greek Basketball Federation held a conference Monday to discuss the upcoming event.

Federation chairman Giorgos Vasilakopoulos is sure the tourney will be a huge success, and hopes the Greek team can win it all on its home court.

This year's Mundobasket will cost the Greek organisers in the neighborhood of three million dollars.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1998

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