Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 98-05-25
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 25/05/1998 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- Gov't committed to defending Ionian, Reppas says
- Government meeting reviews foreign, defence policy
- 21 charged after basketball match violence
- End to dictionary furore
- TV station cars torched
- Spanish royal couple in Athens today
- Tsohatzopoulos charges Turkey of using 'Hitlerian rationale'
- Battle of Crete anniversary celebrated
- Greece shows interest of buying planes from Germany
- Karamanlis confident ND will win next general elections
- Int'l media conference opens in Athens
- Additional funds for major cultural projects
- Greece's Angelopoulos wins top Cannes film award
- Iran, Greece, Armenia to expand transport cooperation
- Weather
- Foreign exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
Gov't committed to defending Ionian, Reppas says
The government is determined to protect the interests of the Ionian Bank
with all means, government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said today, after riot
police on Sunday removed striking workers from the state-run bank's
computer centre. The police early Sunday morning entered the Ionian Bank's
central processing offices in Piraeus, arresting two and putting an end to
the workers' occupation that had paralysed operation of the bank for days.
Workers at Ionian Bank have been on an indefinite strike for some two weeks
in protest at the government's decision to sell the bank. The striking
employees' blockade of the computer centre had frozen on-line systems and
halted ATM transactions.
Government meeting reviews foreign, defence policy
Prime Minister Costas Simitis today chaired a top-level government meeting
to review foreign and defence policy. The meeting was attended by National
Defence Minister Akis Tsohadzopoulos, Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos
and Foreign Undersecretary Yiannos Kranidiotis. Asked after the meeting
whether the issue of Greece and Turkey agreeing on confidence-building
measures (CBMs) in the Aegean had been discussed, Reppas replied: "Turkey
must abandon the role of regional strongman which it has reserved for
itself in order to attain its aims because this role is bringing it only
constant disappointment."
21 charged after basketball match violence
The twenty-one young fans of Panathinaikos basketball team arrested in
incidents in Athens last night after their team won the Greek championship
today appeared before the public prosecutor and charged with a number of
offences. Eleven were arrested at or near the Olympic Stadium complex where
Panathinaikos of Athens beat PAOK Thessaloniki 68-58 in the fifth and final
game of the playoff finals. Ten more were detained after celebrations in
Omonia Square got out of hand. Riot police had to use teargas to disperse
the fans after a car was torched and metro worksite facilities in the
centre of the square caught fire.
End to dictionary furore
The government today praised the author of a Greek dictionary who agreed to
eliminate from the second edition an explanation of the word 'Bulgarians'
which caused a furore when the reference work was recently published. In
the first edition of the dictionary, under the entry 'Bulgarians',
Professor George Babiniotis' second explanation was "the supporter or
player of a (sports) team of Thessaloniki, mainly of PAOK". The entry notes
that the term is used as an insult. Fans of Athenian soccer and basketball
teams in particular often chant the word pejoratively to goad fans of
Thessaloniki teams.
TV station cars torched
Unidentified persons early today set fire to two cars belonging to the
small private Tele-City television station in Kallithea near the station's
premises. Police said two home-made incendiary mechanisms comprising nine
liquid gas cannisters and a bottle of gas had been placed near the cars and
were ignited by lit cotton wadding at 2:30 a.m. The damages to the van and
semi-truck were estimated at 15 million dr., while lesser damage was caused
to a third car owned by the station parked nearby.
Spanish royal couple in Athens today
King Juan Carlos of Spain and Queen Sophia today start a five-day official
visit to Greece, at the invitation of President of the Republic Kostis
Stephanopoulos. Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes will accompany the
royal couple during its first ever visit to Greece. The royal couple will
also meet Prime Minister Costas Simitis, inaugurate the "Classic Greece in
Spain" exhibition and in a strictly private framework they will visit the
Tatoi retreat.
Tsohatzopoulos charges Turkey of using `Hitlerian rationale`
National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos yesterday charged Turkey with
using what he called a Hitlerian rationale in claiming space in the Aegean
for itself. "The international law of the sea cannot be applied selectively
wherever Turkey wants. It will be applied uniformly in the whole Aegean, in
the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, allowing full freedom of movement for
all with no restrictions," Mr. Tsohatzopoulos said.
Battle of Crete anniversary celebrated
The 57th anniversary of the Battle of Crete against the Germans in World
War Two, was celebrated yesterday in the region of Galatas, which was the
area where the most fierce clashes took place between the Allies and the
Cretans on the one hand and the Ger man invaders on the other. The
celebration was attended by veterans of the Battle of Crete from Australia,
Nea Zealand, Great Britain, Cyprus and Greece.
Greece shows interest in buying planes from Germany
Greece is interested in buying at least 50 training Alpha Jets, pulled out
of service many years ago by the German air force,according to the weekly
magazine Focus to be published today. The French-German made training jets,
would replace the old training planes used by the Greek air force,the
magazine said. One hundred Alpa Jest are out of use waiting for better bays
in an old aidbase near Munich.
Karamanlis confident ND will win next general elections
Main opposition New Democracy party leader Costas Karamanlis ended a four-
day tour of central Macedonia last night, with a speech at a party
gathering in the town of Yiannitsa. Earlier, the ND leader spoke in the
town of Skydra, where he announced that if his party won the next election,
the ND will form a government of young, uncorrupted people, "who will be
able to see the future".
Int'l media conference opens in Athens
A five-day international conference on Media Ownership and Control opened
yesterday evening at the central Athens Zappeion Hall, joinlty organised by
the Andreas Papandreou Institute and the Andreas Papandreou Institute for
Strategic and Developmental Studies (ISTAME). Press Minister Dimitris
Reppas referred to the risks lurking in the domination of the mass
communication media and new technologies, stressing the need for formulating
policies on a Eropean Union level, with the criteria being the maintenance
of human qualities and collective goods.
Additional funds for major cultural projects
Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos yesterday announced additional funding
of 12.5 billion drachmas for uncompleted major projects in the former 1997
European Cultural Capital. The additional sums were part of the 2nd
Community Support Framework, and will be used to conclude work on major
Cultural Capital projects, such as the Royal Theatre, Moni Lazariston, the
Theatre of the Society for Macedonian Studies, etc., making the overall
budget for the technical programme to 100 billion drachmas.
Greece's Angelopoulos wins top Cannes film award
"Eternity and a Day" won the Golden Palm for best film at the 51st Cannes
film festival, jury president Martin Scorsese announced yesterday. The U.S.
movie maestro Scorcese lavished praise on the 22 films competing at Cannes
this year but said his jury, made up of directors, actors, actresses and a
rap singer, had been unanimous in giving Angelopoulos the top honours.
Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos congratulated Angelopoulos on behalf
of the government saying that the director was "worthily representing Greek
culture and Greek cinema".
Iran, Greece, Armenia to expand transport cooperation
The Islamic Republic of Iran, Greece and Armenia on Saturday signed here a
Memorandum of Understanding aimed at expanding and deepening tripartite
cooperation in the fields of transport and communications. The memorandum
underlines the need for further promotion of trilateral cooperation in land
and air transport, transit of goods and passengers as well as in technical
and educational cooperation among the three countries, the Iranian
Road and Transport Ministry announced.
WEATHER
Cloudy weather in most parts of the country today, turning to rain or
storms later in the day. Winds southerly, moderate to gale force. Athens
will be partly cloudy with rain forecast in the afternoon and storms in the
evening and temperatures from 16-24C. Similar weather in Thessaloniki with
temperatures between 15C and 22C.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Friday's rates (buying) U.S. dollar 300.685
British pound 489.790 Japanese yen(100) 221.196
French franc 50.830 German mark 170.555
Italian lira (100) 17.290 Irish Punt 429.238
Belgian franc 8.255 Finnish mark 56.086
Dutch guilder 151.275 Danish kr. 44.733
Austrian sch. 24.229 Spanish peseta 2.008
Swedish kr. 39.121 Norwegian kr. 40.364
Swiss franc 204.466 Port. Escudo 1.665
Aus. dollar 189.571 Can. dollar 206.634
Cyprus pound 579.626
(M.P.)
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