Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-07-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] ND leader attacks PM, gov't as ''untrustworthy''; gov't spokesman

[02] Journalists conference focuses on 2004 Athens Olympic Games

[03] Gas station owners call off strike planned for next week

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[05] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Saturday

[06] Greek stocks end lower on Friday, up 1.59 pct in the week

[01] ND leader attacks PM, gov't as ''untrustworthy''; gov't spokesman responds

Main opposition leader Costas Karamanlis on Friday launched a stinging attack on the government during a meeting of New Democracy's Central Committee, in which he accused Prime Minister Costas Simitis of plunging the country into an extended pre-election period, repeated a call for early elections and slammed Simitis' suggested measures for increasing transparency as ''hypocrisy''.

He also stressed that he was not prepared to enter into a discussion on changing electoral law with a government he described as ''untrustworthy'' - especially in the run-up to elections.

Karamanlis particularly criticised the premier's proposal that the stock market codes of PASOK MPs be checked by the Capital Markets Commission, pointing out that members of the Commission and itspresident Stavros Thomadakis had been accused in a report by a public prosecutor of deliberate transgressions in order to hand illegal financial gains to third parties.

Responding to Karamanlis during the regular press briefing on Friday, government spokesman Christos Protopapas slammed ND's refusal to discuss changes to electoral law as ''extremely conservative'' and said the government would go ahead with the changes ''demanded by society'' as a ''force for change and reform''.

[02] Journalists conference focuses on 2004 Athens Olympic Games

2004 Athens Olympic Games Organising Committee (ATHOC) managing director Yiannis Spanoudakis, addressing the 11th Panhellenic Journalists Conference on the island of Samothraki on Friday, which focused on the role of the mass media in the Athens Olympic Games, stressed the need for joint rallying, close cooperation, constructive criticism and control, as well as positive reference to ATHOC's work on the part of the country's journalistic world.

''It is the time when we must gather our strength, not only at the level of Olympic preparation from the sports aspect, but primarily on inpsiring enthusiasm and creating the preconditions for the great celebration,'' said ATHOC press and media general director Serapheim Kotrotsos.

Panhellenic Sports Press Federation President Yiannis Theodorakopoulos said on his part ''we are now beginning to view the Olympic Games in their dimension of sport, since we must remember that the Olympic Games are the 17 days of games for which everything is being done.''

Brief addresses were made at the conference by, among others, the representative of the Greek Olympic Games Medallists Society Vangelis Batras, PASOK Evros prefecture deputy Yiannis Nikolaidis, New Democracy Drama prefecture deputy Stavros Dailakis, the Metropolitan of Alexandroupoli and Samothraki Anthimos and Athens News Agency (ANA) managing director Nicholas Voulelis.

[03] Gas station owners call off strike planned for next week

Gas station owners on Thursday called off an indefinite strike that was due to begin next week.

The finance ministry accepted a key demand of union representatives, that checks by authorities should be carried out on fuel pumps and not liquid fuel tanks.

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.140

Pound sterling 0.697

Danish kroner 7.494

Swedish kroner 9.208

Japanese yen 134.3

Swiss franc 1.560

Norwegian kroner 8.385

Cyprus pound 0.592

Canadian dollar 1.570

Australian dollar 1.733

[05] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Saturday

Mostly sunny weather is forecast in all parts of the country, with some scattered cloud. Winds north-northwesterly, moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 17C to 29C; on the rest of the mainland from 19C to 33C; and in the islands from 22C to 31C. Temperatures in Athens will range between 22C and 33C; and in Thessaloniki from 20C to 29C.

[06] Greek stocks end lower on Friday, up 1.59 pct in the week

Greek stocks ended the last trading session of the week lower pushing the general index further away from the 2,000 mark it surpassed early in the week in the Athens Stock Exchange.

The index fell 0.67 percent to end at 1,977.66 points, with turnover a moderate 133.2 million euros. The general index ended the week with a net gain of 1.59 percent.

The Publication, IT Solution and Insurance sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses of the day (4.14 percent, 1.87 percent and 1.73 percent, respectively), while the Wholesale (1.27 percent), Food-Beverage (0.18 percent) and IT (0.11 percent) sector scored the biggest percentage gains.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks fell 0.67 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index eased 0.98 percent, the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index dropped 1.07 percent and the wider FTSE/ASE 140 index ended 0.77 percent down.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 223 to 96 with another 49 issues unchanged.

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