Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 98-09-07
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 07/09/1998 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- Bosnian Serb PM in Athens
- Condolences from Swiss president
- Greenpeace activists seize factory
- Four Albanians arrested with illegal immigrants
- Greece to keep tight economic policy in 1999 for EMU entry
- Greece speeds towards EMU, PM tells press conference
- Burns tells US investors Greece is a good bet
- Reppas inaugurates digital radio station
- Thessaloniki Festival to be set-up
- All is calm in the Aegean Sea, PM says
- Jospin terms Cyprus division "deplorable"
- Russian works of art in Thessaloniki
- Greece draws 2-2 with Slovenia
- Weather
- Foreign Exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
Bosnian Serb PM in Athens
Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said today that general elections
scheduled for this weekend would provide the Bosnian Serb republic with the
wherewithal to implement the 1995 Dayton peace accords which ended the
Bosnian war. "With a new government, the Serb Republic of Bosnia is well on
the way to implementing the Dayton accord," Dodik said in Athens, following
a working meeting with Foreign Minister Theodore Pangalos. In the elections,
Bosnians will choose members of the three-man state presidency. They will
also elect deputies for the state parliament and the two entities'
assemblies, as well as a president in the Serb entity.
Condolences from Swiss president
Swiss President Flavio Cotti today sent a message of condolences to the
families of the victims of Swissair Flight 111 which crashed off the
Canadian coast early on Thursday. In a telegram to his Greek counterpart,
Kostis Stephanopoulos, the Swiss president expressed his grief over the
loss of the 229 lives aboard the aircraft. Two Greek citizens - Chronoula
Bonanou-Economopoulou,42, from Patras, and Nikos Kefalidis, 55, a U.S.-
based businessman - were travelling on Greek passports. Another 12
passengers were Greek nationals, with families resident in Greece, were on
board the ill-fated airliner.
Greenpeace activists seize factory
Greek and foreign Greenpeace activists today siezed a factory on the island
of Evia in a bid to block the dumping of toxic slag in the northern Euboan
Sea, police said. The activists disembarked the Greenpeace ship "Sirius" to
prevent a crane from dumping waste in the water and they unfurled a banner
reading in both Greek and English "No toxic waste in the sea - Stop dumping
now".A spokesman for the activists told ANA that Greenpeace is demanding
"an immediate stop of waste dump in the region by LARKO ore industry and is
calling on the responsible ministries to revoke dumping permits in
adherence with international and national law".
Four Albanians arrested with illegal immigrants
Police in northern Greece today reported three separate instances of
Albanian nationals found transporting illegal immigrants from border
regions. A total of 17 illegal immigrants - all Iraqis - were arrested.
Albanian national Thomas Bakula, 29, was arrested at the Pedini-Ioannina
junction with four illegal immigrants in his car. Also arrested in another
incident was Albanian national Gtika Zani, 28, with four Iraqi illegal
immigrants in his car and finally, Drokas Almalino, 26, and Kogeri Zamir
with nine illegal immigrants in their car.
Greece to keep tight economic policy in 1999 for EMU entry
Greece, holding its ground in the throes of global market turmoil, will see
another year of tight economic policy aimed at steering the country into
European economic and monetary union on target by 2001, Prime Minister
Costas Simitis said on Saturday. "The coming year - 1999 - is a landmark in
our effort. Despite mounting difficulties on an international level, Greece
must attain the goal it has set, which is meeting the entry conditions for
EMU," Mr. Simitis said in his annual economic policy statement.
Greece speeds towards EMU, PM tells press conference
Greece will have met four of the five Maastricht convergence criteria by
the end of the year to enable Greece to take its place in European Economic
and Monetary Union, Prime Minister Costas Simitis stressed yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference at the 63rd Thessaloniki International Fair,
Mr. Simitis said Greece was among the countries which would adopt the
European single currency, the euro. "The only remaining issue will be
inflation," he said. Following the drachma's entry to the European Exchange
Rate Mechanism in March, Mr. Simitis said, the Greek economy stabilised
further.
Burns tells US investors Greece is a good bet
Speaking during a visit to the 63rd Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF)
yesterday, US Ambassador to Athens Nicholas Burns called on American
investors to invest in Greece without fear. Mr. Burns, who was speaking
while visiting the pavilion of the American Hyatt Regency company which is
exploiting the casino in Thessaloniki, said he was particularly impressed
by the TIF which he was visiting for the first time and referred to
Greece's vital economy which is forging ahead. He also said that having
Greece as an active and dynamic partner was great support for Balkan
countries.
Reppas inaugurates digital radio station
Press and Information Minister Dimitris Reppas inaugurated the first
digital radio station in Greece, as well as in the Balkans, in Thessaloniki
at noon on Saturday. The new station is the ERT 3, while its new building
installations were also inaugurated in Angelaki street. Speaking during the
inauguration, Mr. Reppas referred to "justified pride" over the functioning
of the first digital radio station in Thessaloniki. He said that the
investment for digital radio was in the region of 700 million drachmas.
Thessaloniki Festival to be set-up
A founding document was signed in Thessaloniki on Saturday by which the
"Thessaloniki Festival" will be created. It is a new cultural "umbrella"
body for the management, organisation and programming of cultural events in
the city by almost all its cultura l bodies (the State Theatre of Northern
Greece, the State Conservatory, the State Museum for Modern Art, the Cinema
Festival, etc). The creation of this non-profit company under the name
of "Thessaloniki Festival" had been announced by the relevant minister
in Thessaloniki last March.
All is calm in the Aegean Sea, PM says
Prime Minister Costas Simitis said yesterday he did not believe the Aegean
Sea to be a region in which developments could spiral out of control. "I do
not believe that the Aegean, despite the expansionist Turkish policy and
the tension which it creates, is a region in which conditions are not under
control and that there will be problems," he said addressing a press
conference in Thessaloniki yesterday. He was responding to a question
whether he shared US President Bill Clinton's recently expressed view that
the Aegean was among world "flash points". Mr. Simitis said Greece had
proposed a step-by-step rapprochement with its NATO ally Turkey and
was cooperating within the framework of the European Union.
Jospin terms Cyprus division 'deplorable'
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin denounced the division of Cyprus saying
it was a "deplorable situation for international law" in an interview with
the Sunday 'To Vima' published yesterday. "The real question" in Cyprus is
the "division of the island...which persists since nearly 25 years," Mr.
Jospin said. "What France wishes, is to achieve putting an end to a
deplorable situation for international law," he said. Mr. Jospin was on a
one-day visit to Athens last Monday where he addressed, together with Greek
Prime Minister Costas Simitis, a conference on the prospects of socialism
in Europe.
Russian works of art in Thessaloniki
The famed "Costakis Collection" of Russian avant-garde works of art will be
in Thessaloniki for public viewing by the end of September, Culture
Minister Evangelos Venizelos announced on Saturday. The Cologne-based works
of art, collected over thirty years by George Costakis, a Muscovite of
Greek descent, will be kept initially at the Lazarist Monastery until the
completion of the city's new Modern Art Museum which is to house the
collection. Costakis built up the collection between 1930 and 1960 by
exchanging works by western artists for paintings dating from the
period 1910-1930 by then unknown Russian avant-garde artists.
Greece draws 2-2 with Slovenia
Greece drew 2-2 with Slovenia in a group-two opening qualifying match in
the European soccer championship in Athens yesterday. Zladko Zahovic scored
twice for Slovenia while Greece scored with Nikos Machlas from the penalty
spot in the 55th minute and with Costas Frantzeskos three minutes later.
Slovenia dominated the midfield and opened the scoring in the 19th minute.
Machlas's equaliser was his 12th goal for the Greek national team.
WEATHER
Scattered cloud in western, central and northern Greece and possible
rainfall in the north today. Fair weather in the rest of the country.
Athens partly cloudy with temperatures between 20-30C. Thessaloniki cloudy
with possible rainfall in the afternoon and temperatures between 18-
27C.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Monday's rates (buying) U.S. dollar 298.493
British pound 498.678 Japanese yen (100) 220.274
French franc 51.171 German mark 171.542
Italian lira (100) 17.373 Irish Punt 430.528
Belgian franc 8.317 Finnish mark 56.385
Dutch guilder 152.024 Danish kr. 45.039
Austrian sch. 24.373 Spanish peseta 2.021
Swedish kr. 37.400 Norwegian kr. 38.559
Swiss franc 208.241 Port. Escudo 1.674
Aus. dollar 176.209 Can. dollar 194.234
Cyprus pound 579.328
(M.P.)
|