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The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 00-01-03
From: The Hellenic Radio (ERA) <ert.ntua.gr/>
CONTENTS
[01] PRIME MINISTER AT THESSALONIKI INAUGURATIONS
[02] ND LEADER VISITS EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS
[03] COMFORTABLE TRANSITION TO NEW MILLENNIUM
[04] EMU DECISION IMMINENT
[05] INTERESTING NEW FACTS REGARDING DICTATORSHIP REVEALED
[06] SEVERE WEATHER HITS GREECE
[01] PRIME MINISTER AT THESSALONIKI INAUGURATIONS
The prime minister, Kostas Simitis, inaugurated two major arts centres
in Thessaloniki yesterday, the recently restored Royal Theatre building
and the city's new Concert Hall. He described Thessaloniki as a model
of cultural creativity and said culture was a vehicle for better
quality of life and development. Attending the opening of the new
Concert Hall was Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos, who arrived in
Greece's northern capital yesterday in return for a Christmas visit to
Fanari by the minister for Macedonia and Thrace, Iannis Makriotis. The
Patriarch said he was optimistic that the recent EU agreement in
Helsinki would contribute to an improvement in relations between the
peoples of Greece and Turkey.
[02] ND LEADER VISITS EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS
The opposition New Democracy party leader, Kostas Karamanlis, visited a
camp in the earthquake-stricken district of Menidi yesterday morning,
to convey his New Year wishes to survivors of the September tremor who
are now living in prefabricated homes. Accompanied by his wife and
party officials, Mr Karamanlis chatted with residents, listened to
their problems and handed out presents to children.
[03] COMFORTABLE TRANSITION TO NEW MILLENNIUM
No particular problems were observed anywhere in the world as a result
of the so-called "millennium bug", also known as Y2K, which it was
feared could pose a threat to electronic systems. Initial reports from
89 countries to the International Cooperation Centre, set up
specifically to deal with the problem, were all positive. However, the
date change did cause limited malfunctioning of the French satellite
system "Syracuse 2" as well as a number of Japanese nuclear power
plants and some American public utility units. In Greece, problems were
confined to a few difficulties in the operation of some electronic cash
registers in a number of small businesses and the state of alert
declared throughout the public sector from New Year's Eve came to an
end late yesterday afternoon. Nonetheless, personnel involved with
computer systems in the public sector are standing by to deal with any
problems that might arise during the first two weeks of January. A mock
session of the Athens Stock Exchange was successfully staged yesterday
morning to check that electronic systems were functioning correctly.
The Stock Exchange will be operating as normal today.
[04] EMU DECISION IMMINENT
The final decision on Greece's admission to European economic and
monetary union will be made during January. Towards the end of the
month the EU's monetary committee will re-examine the convergence
programme and submit a report to the council of finance ministers known
as ECOFIN, which will convene a few days later. On 8th February Greece
will submit its formal application for admission to EMU.
[05] INTERESTING NEW FACTS REGARDING DICTATORSHIP REVEALED
The attitude of the British government towards Greece's military
dictatorship as well as assessments of British diplomats regarding
Andreas Papandreou and Konstantinos Karamanlis, then in exile, are
among the British Foreign Office's confidential records for 1969 which
were opened last Saturday after the completion of 30 years. There are
also references to thoughts of the coup's military leaders concerning
the possible transferral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate from
Constantinople to a region in Greece or to Geneva, as well as the
assassination attempt against dictator Giorgos Papadopoulos and
Greece's difficult position in the Council of Europe as a result of the
7-year dictatorship. Officially, Britain called for democracy to be
restored in Greece, but confidential correspondence between the Foreign
Office in London and the British Embassy in Athens shows that the
government of the British prime minister at the time, Harold Wilson,
avoided making any moves or statements that would upset the military
dictatorship for fear of damaging Britain's commercial interests.
[06] SEVERE WEATHER HITS GREECE
Greece is currently in the grip of a wave of icy weather, with heavy
snowfalls mainly in the north of the country and gale force winds over
the Aegean. In Kastoria, the temperature dropped to minus 10 degrees
centigrade yesterday.
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