The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 04-01-20

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From: The Hellenic Radio (ERA) <www.ert.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Israel hits back for Hizbollah border attack

Israeli warplanes struck two Hizbollah bases in Lebanon today in retaliation for a border attack by the Lebanese guerrilla group that killed an Israeli soldier a day earlier. Israel held Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon, responsible for Mondays incident, and its decision to limit its

immediate military response to Hizbollah targets could signal a desire not to stoke tensions with Damascus.

[02] IKA doctors striking until Friday

Social Security Foundation (IKA) clinics will be operating on skeleton staff until Friday as IKA doctors are staging a three-day strike. The doctors are demanding permanency for more than 5,000 colleagues on short-term contracts.

[03] At least 27 dead in Algeria blast, refinery shut

At least 27 workers died when a gas plant blew up at Algerias largest refinery complex on the Mediterranean coast and brought its key oil and gas activities to a halt according to officials today. The powerful blast and consequent fires devastated the vast petrochemical site in the port city of Skikda, 500 km east of the capital Algiers on Monday evening. Officials at the scene said they believed an accident at a gas boiler caused the blast, which injured 74 people, was felt for kilometres (miles) and destroyed three liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants.

[04] Pre-election period will not interfere with Olympics preparations

Reassurances that the Olympic preparations would not be affected by the pre-election period were given during todays meeting of the Biministerial Committee for the Olympic Games which was the second to last meeting prior to the March 7th elections.

[05] G. Papandreou visits Lavrion

Giorgos Papandreou presented his political positions concerning unemployment during his visit to Lavrion today where he addressed an open gathering with thousands of party supporters. The Foreign Minister warned that a possible victory by the New Democracy party would result in negative repercussions.

Mr. Papandreou proposed for the hiring of University, Technical University, High School and Technical Professional High School graduates with full wages and medicare coverage and underlined that their insurance deductions burden neither the employees nor the companies.

[06] FM Papandreou will meet with former Pasok Secretaries

Foreign Minister and candidate President of PASOK Giorgos Papandreou will have consecutive meetings tomorrow morning with party former Secretaries, Costas Laliotis, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, and Costas Scandalidis. It is expected that the meetings will provide an answer to the role the partys historic members will play in the new era.

[07] ND leader in Cyprus

The leader of the New Democracy party, Kostas Karamanlis who is conducting an official visit to Nicosia, expressed the view that his visit to Cyprus coincides with a new phase of activity concerning the islands dispute as it officially joins the European Union in May.

Mr. Karamanlis stated that a solution to the issue based on the United Nations proposal has the complete support of the Greek-Cypriot side.

With respect to the positive response of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to the proposal by Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou for defense spending cuts, Mr. Karamanlis underlined that his party firmly works for the normalization of the Greek-Turkish relations and expressed the view that such issues should not be turned into a subject of discussion during the pre-election campaign.

[08] Greece pleased over Turkish FM's respone to G. Papandreou proposal for defence cuts

Athens commented positively on Ankaras response through Foreign Minister Abdullah Guls acceptance of Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Papanreous proposal for a mutual decrease in arms. The Turkish Foreign Minister welcomed the Greek call for reciprocal military spending cuts and said Turkey was proceeding with reducing defence outlays.

From Lavrio where he was visiting today, Mr. Papandreou welcomed the response of the Turkish Foreign Minister stating development is an example that we must not wait for things to ripen, but to take initiatives.

Greek government spokesman Christos Protopapas stated that the response by Mr. Gul to the proposal for defense spending cuts made by Mr. Papandreou, is very positive. He added that the positive foundations being laid would turn the proposal into action.

[09] Weather Forecast

Rain and storms are forecast in all parts of the country, sweeping across from the west and north. Snow will fall in the center and north. Winds southwesterly, strong to very strong, later turning into gale force northerly winds. Temperatures in Athens will range between 11-15 C and in Thessaloniki from 5-7 C.

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