Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 12-12-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] 'Tax bill will be passed, bond buy-back will succeed'

[02] One of four armed robbers in Nea Erythrea shoot-out arrested

[01] 'Tax bill will be passed, bond buy-back will succeed'

Greece is in a mine-field, but there is no better solution, Venizelos said, and accused the opposition of lying and concealing the truth when claiming that another solution exists, and cited the example of Cyprus, which he said did not succeed in finding capital from China, Russia or elsewhere.

He said the opposition parties, and chiefly main opposition SYRIZA, were giving out promises of a return to the past or a solution without sacrifices and cutbacks, warning that they would find this ahead of them, as the people would demand explanations later. Even inside PASOK, there were and still are some who believe that another solution exists, but no one has proposed something different, Venizelos noted.

On PASOK's stance in the three-party government, Venizelos said that PASOK was shouldering the support of the governmental majority and Greece's strategic exit from the crisis, and criticised Democratic Left (DIMAR) of wavering tendencies, which was not the case with PASOK.

"Imagine what would have happened if PASOK had not voted for the measures in parliament, and the majority of 151 MPs had not been attained," he said, adding that "whoever hits at PASOK hits at the governmental and political stability, against the strategy of Greece's exit from the crisis".

He noted PASOK's initiative against xenophobia and racism, saying that he will have meetings with various bodies and social institutions, and reiterated that Chryssi Avghi (the ultra-right Golden Dawn party) should be dealt with as an "unconstitutional formation", adding that the tendencies for the "fascismization of society" were not bred only by Chryssi Avghi but also by the prevailing attitude in society that is conducive to or tolerates such phenomena.

Venizelos accused the main opposition SYRIZA party of a "rabid attempt" for nothing to change and of "supposed leftist conservatism", adding that SYRIZA was not convincing.

[02] One of four armed robbers in Nea Erythrea shoot-out arrested

The 26-year-old Albanian national who was arrested is facing charges of multiple counts of attempted homicide against police officers, theft and attempted theft, aggravated theft and violation of the gun law.

The three accomplices still at large are also facing the same charges, and a police manhunt to track them down is continuing.

Police found and confiscated a Kalashnikov machine gun in the Albanian's possession.

Police launched a man-hunt on Thursday for four armed robbers who in the early morning hours grabbed a briefcase filled with cash from a house in the northern suburb of Nea Erythrea and after a shoot-out with police later took off in the car of investigative journalist Makis Triantafyllopoulos after forcing him out of his car as he was driving by.

The four armed robbers broke into a one-family house in Nea Erythrea at about 3:30 a.m. and fled with a briefcase containing an undisclosed amount of cash. The residents got wind of the break-in and immediately alerted the police.

Officers in a police patrol car caught up with the robbers' car a short distance away, and the robbers opened fire on the police, who returned the shots while in pursuit.

The robbers abandoned their car in the Ekali area, where they stopped Triantafyllopoulos, who was driving by at the time, forced him to get out of the car, a Porsche Cayenne, and attempted to flee in the journalist's car, but in nearby Kryoneri the car overturned and fell into a ditch.

The robbers fled on foot under cover of the dark.

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