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

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

CONTENTS

[01] Wildfire on Skopelos

[02] Folias discusses energy policy in US

[03] Strong winds, snow reported

[04] Athens Newspaper Headlines

[01] Wildfire on Skopelos

The fire originally broke out in the region of Agnonta, far from inhabited areas on the island, but took on major dimensions due to strong winds blowing overnight, incinerating landscape of great natural beauty.

Local fire-fighters were reinforced by a 12-man forest fire-fighting unit from the town of Volos on the mainland, who were transferred to the island in a Super-Puma all-weather helicopter during the night, while water bombing aircraft and helicopters joined fire-fighting efforts at first light but were hampered by the strong winds blowing in the area.

Later on Tuesday morning there was a force of 70 firemen from all Thessaly on the ground, while the Air Force General Staff announced that two Canadair CL415 water-bombing aircraft were fighting the flames from the air. These were later augmented by another two aircraft of the same type that had been sent to take part in the parade for the March 25 anniversary and two CL215 aircraft.

Caption:ANA-MPA file photo /NIKITAS KOTSIARIS

[02] Folias discusses energy policy in US

During his visit to Washington on Monday, Folias had a meeting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, as well as a meeting and a working dinner with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza.

In those meetings, he presented Greece's policy of ensuring the greatest possible diversity of fixed energy supply, explaining that Greece actively supported multiple sources and routes for transporting energy and was already obtaining natural gas from both Algeria and Russia.

He also pointed to the country's participation in the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline and the Turkey-Greece-Italy (TGI) pipeline, which will transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea to the west, as well as ongoing discussions with Azerbaijan regarding the Southstream pipeline that will transport natural gas from Russia.

Caption:ANA-MPA file photo of Greek Development Minister Christos Folias

[03] Strong winds, snow reported

Traffic police have imposed special measures to assist drivers, banning trucks over 1.5 tonnes from using national highways from 15:00 until 23:00 on Tuesday.

High winds up to 9 beaufort and heavy seas have also disrupted ferry connections to the islands, with no ships sailing from Piraeus to Crete, Kythera and Anti-Kythera and ferry lines down between Agia Marina-Nea Stira on Evia, Agios Georgios-Agios Konstantinos, Rio-Antirrio and Aidipsos-Arkitsa.

In the villages of Raches and Achladi in the prefecture of Fthiotida, meanwhile, there were reports of boats sinking in the harbour due to huge waves caused by the high winds.

Freak weather conditions were also reported in Larisa, central Greece on Monday evening, where trees were torn up, shop windows smashed and roofs swept away by extremely strong winds that caused extensive damage throughout the city.

Another unexpected side-effect of the strong winds were a spate of unseasonably early wildfires that were fanned out of control, such as one that raged on the island of Skopelos and in forests at Krystallopigi in Florina, northern Greece.

Unexpected late spring snow also caused widespread problems on Monday and Tuesday, and continued to cover most of the mountainous areas of Ioannina on Tuesday. Tourists that took advantage of the holiday to visit the Zagorochoria, Konitsa, Tzoumerka and Metsovo had problems moving about without snow chains early on Tuesday, before roads were cleared by snow ploughs.

Most of the road network was clear by the middle of the day, though cars passing through the Katara pass from Ioannina to Trikala were advised to have snow chains with them.

Strong rain in the city of Ioannina, meanwhile, prevented school children, students and scouts from parading and only the Armed Forces and security forces units took part in the parade.

Snow had also been reported in the mountains of Kastoria prefecture on Monday night.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photograph of angry seas on the coast of Kalamata, Peloponnese.

[04] Athens Newspaper Headlines

The FYROM name issue and the new round of UN-mediated negotiations on in New York, as well as a call for a referendum on the social security draft law dominated the headlines on Tuesday in Athens' newspapers.

AVGHI: "Government concerned by demand for referendum".

KATHIMERINI: "Political acrobatics at the expense of the institutions. Attempts to involved [President of the Republic Karolos] Papoulias in the process of social insurance reform".

LOGOS: "Optimism over [FYROM name issue]. Week of developments with new round of contacts".

NIKI: "Workers being crushed. [Finance Minister George] Alogoskoufis' formulas sinking the economy".

RIZOSPASTIS: "Message of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Central Committee: The people can open the way to the future that belongs to them"

VIMA: "Toward a seven-day working week in the public sector also. Public utilities, municipalities, prefectures open on weekends".

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