Athens News Agency: News in English, 10-05-25

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece in 4-continent initiative on International Missing Children's Day

[02] Greece will overcome the crisis

[03] ASE opening: Plunge

[01] Greece in 4-continent initiative on International Missing Children's Day

Eight countries from four continents, among them Greece, join forces aimed at raising public awareness and reinforcing global efforts for locating missing children, putting special emphasis on the worrisome phenomenon of parental child abduction.

International Missing Children's Day, 25 May, is a day where people around the world commemorate the missing children who have found their way home, remember those who have been victims of crime, and continue efforts to find those who are still missing.

The main purpose of International Missing Children's Day is to encourage everyone to think about children who remain missing and to spread a message of hope.

Australia, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Romania, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, member countries of the Global Missing Children's Network(GMCN), a programme of the private, non-profit International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), have joined to raise awareness of the impact and issue surrounding missing children and to help bring them home by spreading a global message.

The theme for International Missing Children's Day 2010 is parental child abduction, an issue that is not only complex but is becoming more common.

The Greek National Center for Missing, Abused and Exploited Children is an initiative of the voluntary organisation "The Smile of the Child" www.hamogelo.gr , comprised mainly of social workers, psychologists and legal consultants. In Greece, the National Center has developed close cooperation with the Greek Police and the Prosecutor's Office for Minors, as well as the mass media. When police are informed of the disappearance of a child, the AMBER Alert Hellas programme is immediately activated by the Center. The AMBER Alert Hellas is a National Coordinating Program for the prompt and credible alerting of citizens in instances of child disappearance and/or abduction.

The National Center has also developed close cooperation with the authorities at European and international level, including Interpol, Europol, IOM and other agencies active in the area of child protection and defending children's rights. Its authorities include the operation of the European Hotline for Missing Children 116000, while it is also the authority for activating the AMBER Alert Hellas system.

In 2009 alone, the National Center received 263 calls for assistance in instances of missing children. Of those, 28 percent of the cases involved children under 12 years of age, and 65 percent involved adolescents. Half of the cases were instances of parental child abduction, a number that is increasingly rising in instances of cross-border parental child abduction.

To mark International Missing Children's Day, the participating countries will release balloons into the air bearing photographs of missing children from all over the world in the hope that someone, somewhere, will recognise them.

In Greece, announcements will be made on television stations to raise public awareness on the issue and also to encourage people's active participation in the campaign, under the slogan "Help Bring Them Home".

A "release" of virtual balloons will also take place on the internet at (www.helpbringthemhome.com), an interactive portal created by the Australian police for the global campaign, with a 30-second social message distributed to the member countries and television stations.

[02] Greece will overcome the crisis

Rompuy said that with the decisions taken by the EU on the Greek economy, a safety net was created giving Greece the ability to "put its house in order".

With those decisions, the EU manifested prudence and courage, he said, acknowledging, however, that finding a solution for efficient action on the Greek crisis had been time-consuming, and coordination a difficult venture.

Rompuy added that the EU had done its duty, since the risk of the crisis spreading was a serious one and constituted a substantial threat to the euro.

He noted that, with its decisions, the EU bought time for contemplation and action, and now was the moment to make use of that time in the proper way.

[03] ASE opening: Plunge

Individual sector indices were moving downward across the board, with heaviest losses in Industrial Financial Services, down 5.49 percent; and Oil & Gas, down 5.43 percent.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks was down 3.73 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index was down 2.46 percent, and the FTSE/ASE-80 small cap index was down 1.90 percent.

Of the stocks traded, 12 were up, 67 were down, and 22 were unchanged.

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article