Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-05-05

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] TELETEXT ENGLISH

[01] TELETEXT ENGLISH

@1b

NEWS HEADLINES

German warnings rejected

Samaranch-Athens mayor meet

Police cooperation with U.S.

Central banker on euro zone

Balkan reconstruction forum

Prince tours monasteries

Police alert on stolen phone

Bellini's Norma debut

@2b

German warnings rejected

Greece rejected warnings by Bavarian state prime minister Edmund Stroiber on Thursday that admitting Athens to the euro currency zone next year could send the wrong signal to financial markets. Press and Media Minister Dimitris Reppas dismissed the German concerns as "baseless".

@3b

Samaranch-Athens mayor meet

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Juan Antonio Samaranch and Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos discussed the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland on Thursday. Avramopoulos once again appeared optimistic over the success of the Olympic Games, saying that:"Athens will win this big bet and our entire country with it. It is a golden opportunity for our country to cross the threshold of a new era and, for this purpose, all in our country bear collective responsibility."

@4b

Police cooperation with U.S.

Greece is ready to expand police cooperation with the United States, Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said on Thursday, commenting on a U.S. State Department report criticising Greek authorities over terrorism. He also dismissed claims that Greece lacked the political will to pursue terrorist groups, describing the report "exaggerated and unfair".

@5b

Central banker on euro zone

Greeces central bank governor cited favourable prospects for price stability and faster economic growth as two of the most prominent benefits the country can reap from its anticipated entry into the European Unions euro zone on January 1, 2001. As the keynote speaker at an annual lecture organised by the Hellenic Observatory at the European Institute of the London School of Economics, Bank of Greece Governor Lucas Papademos focused on efforts to meet the Maastricht Treaty criteria for Economic and Monetary Union.

@6b

Balkan reconstruction forum

The two-day 7th annual Thessaloniki Forum will be held in this northern city on May 8-9 and will focus on the social, political and economic state of the countries of southeastern Europe under reconstruction. An account will also be made of economic cooperation promoted in the region in 1999. The forum is organised by the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece and the Hellenic American Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with the Thessaloniki-headquartered Balkan Reconstruction Organisation.

@7b

Prince tours monasteries

Britain's Prince Charles toured centuries-old Byzantine monasteries on the all-male monastic community of Mt. Athos on Thursday, as he was stranded on the enclave by stormy seas that prevented him from boarding a yacht for a second successive day.

@8b

Police alert on stolen phone

Police on Thursday arraigned a man arrested after a 27-year-old woman used a stolen cellular phone to alert authorities she had been raped and her boyfriend killed.

@9b

Bellini's Norma debut

Vincenzo Bellini's most famous opera Norma opens at the National Opera House, 59 Academias street at 7.00 pm. today, Friday. Performances will follow on Sunday, next Tuesday and then again on May 12 through 14. Tickets at the opera's box office.

@10b

FOREIGN NEWS

BEIRUT: Israeli jets raided Lebanon on Friday, striking at

two power stations, a guerrilla ammunition depot and blowing a

crater in the main highway between Beirut and Damascus,

eyewitnesses and security sources said.

UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Kofi Annan telephoned

African leaders to put pressure on Sierra Leone rebels holding

92 U.N. peacekeepers and sought to organize a rapid-reaction

force to reinforce his 8,700 troops.

NEW YORK: A computer virus dubbed the "Love Bug" wreaked

havoc on computer systems worldwide on Thursday, shutting down

e-mail systems at major companies and penetrating the Pentagon,

the Central Intelligence Agency and Britain's parliament.

HARARE: South African President Thabo Mbeki, who believes

tact will be more help than beating a noisy drum in Zimbabwe's

land crisis, meets President Robert Mugabe at a trade fair in

Bulawayo on Friday.

KENT, Ohio: Thirty years after a 13-second volley of rifle

fire transformed Kent State from an obscure Ohio university

into a symbol of U.S. anti-war protest, a solemn bell tolled on

Thursday in remembrance of the four students killed by National

Guard troops.

BELFAST: British and Irish leaders keep up the search for

a lasting peace in Northern Ireland in talks with feuding

Protestant and Roman Catholic groups on Friday.

VIEQUES: Armed U.S. agents on Thursday evicted without

violence more than 200 protesters from a military base on the

Puerto Rican island of Vieques, where they had halted military

training through a yearlong protest to demand an end to U.S.

war games.

LONDON: Maverick leftwinger Ken Livingstone offered an

immediate olive branch to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on

Friday after exit polls forecast he would easily become

London's first elected mayor.

WASHINGTON: Chinese leaders are caught between rhetoric

and reality on military action against Taiwan but on balance

they are unlikely to act rashly, experts on the Chinese

military said on Thursday.

@11b

ATHENS NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

ADESMEFTOS TYPOS(Rizos): "They deceived judges in order to 'cover up' a criminal offence; the dead man is....alive", a reference to a scam concerning the Consultative Committee of the Cyprus Foundation".

ADESMEFTOS TYPOS(Mitsis): "Everybody plays crazy...; abolition of the 'closed' professions; those concerned (taxi drivers, pharmacists, gas station dealers and notary publics say the matter does not concern us".

APOGEVMATINI: "Six files with strong illegal offences; an Apogevmatini disclosure with monstrosities ragarding pre-electoral job appointments".

ATHINAIKI: "Everything upside down in the country's administrative structure; a new 'Kapodistria' plan; a government game in the light of the new electoral law".

AVGHI: "Euro's political weakness; its plummeting continues and is below 90 U.S. cents".

AVRIANI: "Daring decisions by Simitis; strict instructions to the ministers in today's crucial inner cabinet meeting".

ELEFTHERI ORA: "Greek Police under the helmet of the C.I.A. and F.B.I.; the State Department's report on terrorism has found its target..".

ELEFTHEROS: "(Athens mayor Dimitris) Avramopoulos has changed the country's image", a reference to his meeting with IOC chied Antonio Samaranch.

ELEFTHEROS TYPOS: "Deserted islets and state land on sale".

ELEFTHEROTYPIA: "60 years later and through a draft bill to be tabled in parliament this month, a new law concerning the country's coasts; it paves the road for demolitions of illegal buildings".

ESTIA: "Camouflaged structural changes; Mr. Simitis' big mistake".

ETHNOS: " 'Kapodistria plan-2' begins; the (country's) map changes".

EXOUSIA: "Gianna's (a reference to Mrs. Ginna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki, who played a key role in helping Greece get the 2004 Olympics) match-making; changes in the organisation of the Olympiad is a matter of days".

KATHIMERINI: Greece 'pays' for euro's poverty and grumbling; German objections despite Brussels' decision for Greece's E.M.U. admission".

LOGOS: "Shattering changes in 10 months time in professions, social security issue and public utilities...".

NIKI: "Repeated meetings on the 'Athens 2004' (Olympics), but... difficulties in taking decisions".

RIZOSPASTIS: "Everybody to the Workers' May Day rally on Sunday".

STO KARFI: "It's the state's obligation to cover the social cost; a stormy incision: 1,800 closed professions open".

TA NEA: "For whom the bell tolls; the opening of the closed professions triggers explosions".

TO VIMA: "Most of the Greek Police (EL.LAS.) medium class cadres are corrupt; the Public Order Minister examined the private files of the police officers and ascertained that only 10 percent of them are not corrupt.....".

VRADYNI: "The newspaper (Vradyni) uncovers PASOK's big conspiracy; data on the (electoral) fraud; the orgy of naturalisations".

@12b

WEATHER

Sunny weather is forecast throughout the country on Friday, except for some cloud over Crete. Winds will be northerly, light to very strong. Temperatures in the west will range from 10C to 25C; in the rest of the mainland from 8C to 23C; and in the Aegean islands from 13C to 21C. Sunshine in Athens with temperatures ranging from 11C to 22C. Light cloud in Thessaloniki with temperatures between 9C and 22C.

@13b

Temperatures-Greece

Athens 22

Thessaloniki 22

Alexandroupoli 19

Kavala 19

Larissa 20

Ioannina 21

Patra 25

Kalamata 23

Iraklio 16

Rhodes 21

Corfu 24

@14b

Temperatures-Europe

Berlin 21

Brussels 16

Budapest 19

Geneva 18

Larnaca 25

London 12

Madrid 12

Moscow 08

Paris 15

Rome 21

Stockholm 12

Vienna 20

@

@18b

NBA-RESULTS

NATIONAL LEAGUE

ST LOUIS 5 Pittsburgh 0

Houston 6 CHICAGO CUBS 2

PHILADELPHIA 14 Cincinnati 1

SAN FRANCISCO 7 NY Mets 2

Arizona 6 MILWAUKEE 2

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Anaheim 8 BALTIMORE 5

TORONTO 8 Cleveland 1

TAMPA BAY 8 Texas 7 (11 innings)

Detroit 8 MINNESOTA 6 (11 innings)

@20b

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Friday's rates (buying)

Euro 333.461

U.S. dollar 373.190

German mark 170.496

French franc 050.836

Pound sterling 579.467

Irish punt 423.407

Belgian franc 008.266

Luxembourg franc 008.266

Dutch guilder 151.318

Italian lira (100) 017.222

Austrian schilling 024.234

Danish kroner 044.755

Swedish kroner 041.152

Finnish mark 056.084

Spanish peseta 002.004

Portuguese escudo 001.664

Japanese yen (100) 342.488

Swiss franc 215.795

Norwegian kroner 041.182

Cyprus pound 581.114

Canadian dollar 249.012

Australian dollar 219.753

21b

ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

Equity prices ended moderately lower on the Athens Stock Exchange on Thursday hit by lack of fresh buying interest and a negative trend in international markets. Trading conditions were subdued with turnover falling to 74 billion drachmas. The general index ended at 4,358.26 points, down 0.52 percent, but off the day's lows of 4,300.

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