Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-07-02

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece - Britain - Doctor - Marbles

[02] Coalition-Constantopoulos-Re-election

[03] Weather Forecast - Monday

[04] Antiquities smuggling-American professor

[05] ABNA - Decisions

[01] Greece - Britain - Doctor - Marbles

Strong currents he encountered three miles off the island of Paros on Sunday prevented British doctor Christopher Stockdale from swimming to it from the island of Delos in an effort to sensitise world public opinion in favour of the return of the Parthenon Marbles from Britain to Greece.

However, the inhabitants of the island, film director Jules Dassin, in his capacity as President of the "Melina Mercouri Foundation", and Minister of the Aegean Nikos Sifounakis welcomed the British doctor as "a victor in a struggle of the good", as Sifounakis said.

Stockdale had started his effort at 10 a.m. on Saturday from Delos, the island where, according to mythology, Apollo was born. He covered 23 of the 26 miles distance to Paros which was chosen because, according to history, the island was used to keep the funds of the Athenian Alliance which were used to build the Parthenon.

"At some time the marbles will return to Greece and Christopher Stockdale will be one of the fighters and victors of good," Sifounakis said in his welcoming address.

[02] Coalition-Constantopoulos-Re-election

Nikos Constantopoulos was re-elected president of the Coalition of the Left and Progress party following a ballot held at the party's congress on Sunday night. He was re-elected with 83.8 percent of the vote (912 votes for him, 163 blank and 13 invalid), while receiving 65 percent of the vote at the previous congress.

Constantopoulos expressed his satisfaction over the result of the vote.

Meanwhile, the counting of votes for the election of a new Central Committee was continuing until late at night.

[03] Weather Forecast - Monday

Sunny weather is forecast throughout the country on Monday. Winds northerly, light in the west, moderate to strong in the east, rising to very strong during the day in the southeast Aegean. On the mainland, temperatures will range from 18C to 38C in the west and north, between 19C to 36C in the rest of the country, and between 22C to 32C in the islands of the Aegean. The weather in Athens will be sunny, with moderate northerly winds rising to strong in the east and temperatures between 22C and 36C. Sunny in Thessaloniki, light winds, with temperatures ranging between 21C to 35C.

[04] Antiquities smuggling-American professor

American archaeology professor Michael-Martin Kumpf, 55, was arrested at Athens international airport at dawn on Sunday after being found in possession of an ancient urn 22 centimetres high dating back to the post-Minoan period which is subject to laws on antiquities.

Kumpf was due to appear before a public prosecutor later in the day.

[05] ABNA - Decisions

The 10th General Assembly of the Association of Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) concluded its proceedings in Athens on Saturday with an agreement to upgrade cooperation between the member-agencies and to develop new forms of activity, particularly in new technologies.

The members also agreed to changes in ABNA's organisational structure and accepted an application by the Moldovan press agency, Moldpres, to join the association.

In addition, the assembly reaffirmed its desire for the pluralistic dissemination of information in the Balkans, saying that this would contribute to a climate of peace, security and prosperity in the region.

In terms of organisation, the meeting decided to set up two three-member working groups, one to organise an initiative for the promotion of the Athens Olympics in 2004 throughout the Balkans and the other to deal with ecological concerns in the region. The members also decided to extend the terms of the rotating presidency and general secretariat to one and two years respectively, while the order of rotation will now be based on the alphabetical order of the news agencies, rather than the cities in which they are based.

The meeting was opened by Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who spoke about Greece's basic foreign policy axes in the Balkans.

The assembly was also addressed by Athens News Agency general director Andreas Christodoulides, who referred to the need for more effective and far-reaching cooperation between the Balkan news agencies in order to deal with the increasing competition and radical changes taking place internationally in the field of information.

Christodoulides is the current ABNA president, a position he will hold for another six months following the decision to extend the term to one year.

The member-agencies also re-elected Spyros Kouzinopoulos, general director of the Macedonian Press Agency (MPA) of northern Greece, as general secretary and extended his term by a year and a half.

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