Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-11-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] Niriis 2000 multinational exercise

[02] SYN-Central Committee meeting

[03] Greek, Polish PMs meet in Athens

[04] Balkan communist, leftist parties forum

[05] Immigrant smugglers arrested off Anavissos

[06] Firebombs

[07] No madcow problem in Greece

[08] Civil Defence sectretary general resigns

[01] Niriis 2000 multinational exercise

The Hellenic Navy's regular multinational exercise codenamed "Niriis 2000" commences in the central southern Aegean on Monday and runs to November 30.

The purpose of the six-nation exercise is to advance the level of cooperation among the participating allied countries in a variety of naval operations in an environemnt of escalating intensity.

[02] SYN-Central Committee meeting

The Coalition of the Left and Progress (SYN) central committee on Saturday opened a two-day meeting focusing on the party's preparations for municipal and prefectural elections slated for October 2002.

The theme of the meeting, which ends Sunday, is finding ways to enable the party to "break out of its present boundaries and evolve into a serious and existant political force and restoring its influence".

[03] Greek, Polish PMs meet in Athens

Bilateral relations between Greece and Poland and European Union issues were the focus of a meeting Saturday between prime minister Costas Simitis and his visiting Polish counterpart Jerzy Buzek, who is on a one-day working visit to Athens.

[04] Balkan communist, leftist parties forum

A meeting of communist and other leftist parties from six Balkan countries opened Saturday in Thessaloniki, with a review of the situation in the region following the Yugoslav war at the top of the agenda.

The Forum of Balkan Communist and Leftis Parties, organised by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), is being attended by political parties and organisations from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia.

[05] Immigrant smugglers arrested off Anavissos

Two men were arrested early Saturday on charges of smuggling illegal immigrants off the coast of Anavissos, near Athens, and their sailboat was confiscated, the local port authorities said. On board were 62 Kurdish illegal immigrants, including four women and four children, who had boarded the vessel in Turkey.

[06] Firebombs

Two firebomb attacks were carried out early Saturday against a bank and a school bus in the Neos Kosmos and Nea Smyrni residential districts of Athens respectively, within 15 minutes of each other.

No one was injured in the incidents.

[07] No madcow problem in Greece

There was no problem in Greece with the 'mad cow' disease, and no emergency measures were necessary, agriculture deputy minister Fotis Hatzimichalis said Saturday.

Any steps being taken were purely for preventive reasons, Hatzimichalis said after an Experts Committee meeting in the wake of a bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak in France that has panicked consumers throughout the EU.

[08] Civil Defence sectretary general resigns

The interior, public administration and decentralisation ministry's General Secretary for Civil Defence ,Dimitris Katrivanos, has resigned from the post due to "personal reasons", deputy minister Constantine Kaiserlis announced Saturday.

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