Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-08-25

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM's programme through Friday

[02] Fugitive Russian media magnate Gusinskiy remanded in custody

[03] British police head for Faliraki

[04] Greece 10th most favourite tourist destination for Americans

[05] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Tuesday

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

[07] Profit taking reverses rally of prices in ASE

[08] Weather Monday - Mostly sunny

[09] Top ND cadre attributes high prices, inflation to gov't fiscal policy

[01] PM's programme through Friday

Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Monday morning held successive meetings with Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Vasso Papandreou and Education Minister Petros Efthymiou.

Government spokesman Christos Protopapas said the meetings were held to prepare for a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the prime minister will have a meeting with Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis, Interior Minister Costas Skandalidis and his advisor Socratis Kosmidis, to discuss the process for auditing the ''statements of assets'' submitted by PASOK deputies.

Later on Tuesday morning, Simitis will meet with Athens 2004 Olympic Games Organising Committee President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, while at noon, he will chair an inter-ministerial committee on Olympic preparations.

On Tuesday evening, the premier will meet with PASOK Secretary Mihalis Chrysohoidis.

On Wednesday morning, the premier will hold a meeting with National Economy Minister Nikos Christodoulakis.

Early on Wednesday afternoon, Simitis will have a meeting with Foreign Minister George Papandreou.

On Thursday, the prime minister will chair a cabinet meeting focusing on education issues.

On Friday morning, Simitis will meet with Christodoulakis to discuss a ''social convergence charter''.

[02] Fugitive Russian media magnate Gusinskiy remanded in custody

Russian outlaw media magnate Vladimir Gusinskiy, 51, on Monday was ordered held with a temporary incarceration order by an appellate level prosecutor in Athens.

The former chief of the Media-Most Holdings, one of Russias largest private broadcast networks, arrived in Athens aboard a flight from Tel-Aviv on Thursday, shortly before being arrested on warrants issued via Interpol.

According to reports, Gusinskiy has been wanted since late 2000 in connection with a multi-million-dollar money laundering and loan fraud. Greek authorities said Russias embassy in Athens was notified of the arrest.

The man had been detained in Spain almost two years ago, although courts there rejected Russia's extradition request in April 2001.

[03] British police head for Faliraki

A team of British police officers are due to arrive this week in Greece to work with local authorities, in a move more or less expected, following a series of attention-grabbing incidents involving mostly young British holiday-makers on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu.

The British team will first go to Rhodes' town of Faliraki, the resort which in the past month remained squarely on the international limelight, especially after three alcohol and drug related deaths involving young British tourists -- one fatal stabbing, a suspected drug overdose and one man crushed underneath a garbage truck.

Corfu will also come under authorities' scrutiny, especially the resort town of Kavos.

[04] Greece 10th most favourite tourist destination for Americans

Greece ranks 10th in the list of most favourite tourist destinations in the United States ahead of Switzerland and Spain, National Tourist Organisation (GNTO) said on Monday.

A GNTO announcement said that a survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal showed an improvement in Greece's position in the list, climbing to 10th place this year, up from 14 in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

GNTO said that this improvement showed also that a new promotion campaign in the US was starting to bear fruit. Australia was the most favourite tourist destination for American tourists, followed by the UK, Italy and France.

[05] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Tuesday

Mostly sunny weather is forecast in all parts of the country on Tuesday, with scattered cloud and sporadic rain in western Greece in the afternoon. Winds variable, light to moderate. Temperatures in the north will range from 18C to 35C; in western Greece from 20C to 37C; and in the Aegean islands from 23C to 33C. Temperatures in Athens between 25C and 36C; and in Thessaloniki from 22C to 34C.

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.097

Pound sterling 0.696

Danish kroner 7.491

Swedish kroner 9.317

Japanese yen 128.8

Swiss franc 1.552

Norwegian kroner 8.363

Cyprus pound 0.589

Canadian dollar 1.539

Australian dollar 1.685

[07] Profit taking reverses rally of prices in ASE

Greek stocks ended lower on Monday as a wave of profit taking late at the session reversed a multi-day advance of prices to new 2003 highs on the Athens Stock Exchange.

The general index fell 0.77 percent to end at 2,292.80 points, with turnover a high 195.2 million euros.

The Textile, Holdings and Publication sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses of the day (2.63 percent, 2.59 percent and 2.53 percent, respectively), while the Food-Beverage (3.18 percent), Investment (2.83 percent) and Bank (1.38 percent) sectors scored the biggest percentage gains.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks eased 0.27 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index fell 0.60 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index dropped 1.87 percent.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 249 to 89 with another 28 issues unchanged.

[08] Weather Monday - Mostly sunny

Mostly sunny throughout Greece on Monday, with only a chance of afternoon showers in the central and northern mainland. West, northwesterly winds, weak to moderate. Temperatures between 18C to 34C in the north; 20C to 36C on the rest of the mainland and 23C to 33C on the islands.

Sunny in Athens, turning cloudy in the afternoon; 25C to 35C. The same for Thessaloniki; 23C to 33C.

[09] Top ND cadre attributes high prices, inflation to gov't fiscal policy

One of the main opposition New Democracy (ND) party's top deputies and economists charged over the weekend that high market prices and inflation are the result of the government's fiscal policy and long-standing structural problems in the economy.

In an interview published by the Sunday edition of ''Eleftheros Typos'', ND MP George Alogoskoufis said ''the causes of inflation are mainly fiscal and structural, and what mainly contributed to this fact is the governments imposition of new tax increases over the past year.''

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