Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-10-05
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 05/10/1997 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- Athanasios Tsaldaris to be buried Monday
- Inflation rate drops to 20-year low
- Dutch royal couple due on visit
- Data Protection law seminar
- NATO "Dynamic Mix '97" exercise underway
- Government to float 20 percent of DEP on bourse
- Weather
- Foreign Exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
Athanasios Tsaldaris to be buried Monday
Former Parliament President Athanasios Tsaldaris will be buried Monday at
3:00 p.m. at the Athens First Cemetery.
A veteran politician with the main opposition New Democracy party,
Tsaldaris died of cancer late on Saturday night at the age of 76.
The son of former prime minister and leader of the People's Party
Constantine Tsaldaris, he was born in 1921 and studied law and economics in
Athens, followed by postgraduate work at New York's Colombia University.
In a statement, Prime Minister Costas Simitis hailed Tsaldaris's achievements,
calling him a "point of reference" for Greece's political life.
"In his long political career, the much-loved former president of
Parliament conscientiously served his ideas and principles, his party, our
political life and the country. For his party and for political developments,
he was always a stable point of reference," Simitis said.
President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos also expressed his
condolences, saying Tsaldaris's death had deprived Greece of a "modest and
prudent presence".
"Athanasios Tsaldaris contributed much and was a credit to all public
offices he held,"the president's announcement said.
Former President of the Republic Constantine Karamanlis said in a message
that "with his ethos and political modesty, Tsaldaris earned the respect of
the entire political world".
Inflation rate drops to 20-year low
Annualised inflation dropped sharply to 4.9 percent in September from 5.6
percent in August, marking a 20-year low in a move that would help Greece's
efforts to join the single European currency by the year 2001.
Inflation from October 1996 to September 1997 fell to 6.2 percent from 8.3
percent in the same period in the preceding year.
Dutch royal couple due on visit
Queen Beatrix and Prince Klaus of The Netherlands are due for a three-day
visit to Greece at the invitation of President of the Republic Kostis
Stephanopoulos.
The royal couple will arrive in Corfu Monday, where they will spend the
night before flying to Athens the following day to meet with Mr. Stephanopoulos
in the presence of the foreign ministers of the two countries.
They will later attend an official luncheon to be hosted by Prime Minister
Costas Simitis, followed by a visit with Parliament President Apostolos
Kalamanis and an officia dinner hosted by President Stephanopoulos.
On Wednesday, the visiting royals will visit the Great Meteoron monastery
in Meteora, and attend in the afternoon a briefing session on organisational
matters for the 2004 Olympic Games to be held in Athens.
They will later visit the merchant marine captains' school in Pireaus and
attend a concert by the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet at the Athens
Concert Hall in the vening.
Queen Beatrix and Prince Klaus will depart for Thessaloniki on thrusday,
where they will visit the Treasures of Mount Athos exhibition and
inaugurate another exhibition of works by 20th century Dutch engravers at
the Villa Melissa.
Data Protection law seminar
A one-day seminar on the new Data Protection Law 2472/97 passed by Greece,
the first EU member state to implement such legislation, will be held
Tuesday at the Divani Caravel Hotel in Athens, sponsored by the British-
Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.
The seminar will focus on the legal responsibilities and rights of
companies and individuals holding and processing data in Greece.
Discussions will include data protection issues in the public and private
sector, and matters pertaining to organisations and large company groups
processing data.
Athens University Professor of Constitutional Law, Nikos Alivizatos, a
member of the Personal Data Protection Law Authority, will outline the new
law, as will Supreme Court vice-president and Authority president Costas
Dafermos.
NATO "Dynamic Mix '97" exercise underway
The largest ever NATO exercise in the Mediterranean, code-named "Dynamic
Mix '97", is currently in progress in various parts of Greece.
More than 5,000 troops from 14 member countries, 70 ships and 180 aircraft
are taking part in the two-week excercise launched against the evil
"Yellowlandia", a fictional country pursuing expansionist policy against
NATO's southern flank.
On Thursday, 1,260 allied marines, including 350 from Greece, landed on a
beach in the Peloponnese's southwestern coast, supported by a larbe number
of amphibious means of armoured personnel transports, tanks, ships and
helicopters, in a mock attempt to dislodge the imaginary invader's
forces.
Another 210 special forces troops from Britain, Greece, Spain and the U.S.
are participating in manoeuvres near Larissa, centrla Greece, while a
tactical map exercise is also in progress in central and northern
Greece.
On Thursday, the exercise will be carried to Macedonia, with an airborne
assault by Greek and Spanish paratroopers at Megisto, Thessaloniki
prefecture, and an assault by Greek and U.S. forces to eliminate an enemy
bridgehead at Askos Profitis, east of the city.
In simultaneous mock military and landing manoeuvres by land and sea in
Greece, Italy and the Mediterranean sea, members of the alliance are being
trained in the case of a crisis situation in the region.
The final phase of Dynamic Mix '97 will take place on October 13.
Government to float 20 percent of DEP on bourse
Development Minister Vasso Papandreou has announced that 20 percent of the
Public Petroleum Corporation's (DEP) stock will be privatised through the
Athens Stock Exchange (ASE).
According to decisions taken at a recent Cabinet meeting, preparations for
the flotation will be completed by the end of November, but the timing of
the corporation's listing on the ASE will depend on market conditions.
The Cabinet also decided the establishment of a new organising unit in the
public petroleum sector.
DEP will be renamed Greek Petroleum Co., incorporating the refineries and
petrochemical industries, as well as the exploration department of DEP/DEP-
EKY.
Two subsidiaries will exist: the first will be involved with trade issues,
namely EKO and EL-DA, and the second will be the technical consultancy
company Asprofos.
DEP is the largest commercial and industrial group in Greece and the second
largest company, with respect to size, after the Hellenic Telecommunications
Organisaton (OTE), and employs 3,000 people.
Its unified revenues exceeded 690 billion dr. last year, while unified
profits reached 28 billion dr.
In April, after international tendering, DEP hired the consortium
comprising SBC Warburg, Salomon Brothers and the Ionian Bank as the
financial adviser to pave the way for its listing, with Ernst and Young a
cooperating reorganisation consultant.
WEATHER
The weather is expected to improve in most parts of the country Monday and
northerly winds in the Aegean will subside. A slight rise in temperature is
forecast, ranging between 10 and 24 centigrade. Maximum temperatures in
Athens and Thessaloniki 23 and 21 centigrade respectively.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Friday's closing rates - buying US dlr. 278.068
Pound sterling 446.678 Cyprus pd 530.323
French franc 46.614 Swiss franc 190.638
German mark 156.622 Italian lira (100) 16.020
Yen (100) 227.882 Canadian dlr. 202.269
Australian dlr. 202.775 Irish Punt 401.859
Belgian franc 7.589 Finnish mark 52.199
Dutch guilder 139.073 Danish kr. 41.162
Swedish kr. 36.648 Norwegian kr. 39.303
Austrian sch. 22.274 Spanish peseta 1.856
Port. Escudo 1.538
(L.G.)
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