The Hellenic Radio (ERA): News in English, 10-07-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] Limit Lawmakers Immunity

The Speaker of the House Philippos Petsalnikos has tabled to the Parliament a regulation providing for changes in the deputies' immunity institution. Mr. Petsalnikos explained that the lifting of the deputies immunity will include all cases that do not concern their political activities. With regards Parliament employees he announced promotion of a ban on permanent work contracts for revocable employees serving deputies as well as transfer of civil servants to Parliament services.

All reforms aim to improve the operation of the Parliament through the building of citizens' trust. "All hiring procedures will go through ASEP", underlined Mr. Petsalnikos in an interview with NET 105.8.

Sources: ΝΕΤ - ΝΕΤ 105.8 News item: 38345

[02] Three Fresh Surveys Show Dissatisfaction

Three fresh surveys dissatisfaction of people but no significant changes in political parties correlations. Public Issue survey on behalf of newspaper "Kathimerini tis Kyriakis" indicates PASOK gathers 43% in voting preference followed by ND 25%, GCP 10%, SYRIZA 6%, LAOS 5%, ECOLOGY-GREENS 4% and Democratic Left 3.5%. In response to who is the most appropriate for the post of premier, George Papandreou leads with 40% against Antonis Samaras with 19% while 36% of respondents said neither one. Metron Analysis three-month survey for newspaper "Kyriakatiki Avgi" shows PASOK gathering 27% in voting preference, ND 19.5%, GCP 7.6%, LAOS 5.3%, SYRIZA 4.1%, Ecology-Greens 3.4%. According to the same survey 78.5% of ones questioned believe that measures are on the wrong direction. Pulse survey for newspaper "Typos tis Kyriakis" shows that 8 in 10 people believe that cuts in salaries are not fairly distributed creating two groups-the favoured and the unfavoured. Of respondents 85% support the need for measures to boost economy, 79% maintain that ones not responsible for the present financial situation mainly bear the burden while 72% maintain that there are other commore fair and effective combination of measures.

In an interview with Real News on the drop in ND party percentage, its secretary Andreas Lykourentzos says that ND is trying to reborn from the ashes of elections in 2009 and reversal in preference has started showing.

Commenting LAOS said it would continue to say "YES" or "NO" whenever it should do so.

Source: ΝΕΤ 105.8 News item: 38356

[03] Kyrgyzstan: Measures for Refugees

The U.S. envoy for Central Asia urged Kyrgyzstan on Saturday to create conditions for a safe return of hundreds of thousands of refugees uprooted by last week's outburst of ethnic violence.

The clashes have killed up to 2,000 people and set off a massive wave of refugees, with 400,000 people crammed in squalid camps with little access to clean water and food on Kyrgyzstan's sun-parched border with Uzbekistan.

Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake, speaking after talks with Kyrgyz officials, said an international investigation must be held into the possible causes of the violence.

"It is important for the provisional government to establish the atmosphere of trust and security so the refugees in Uzbekistan and the internally displaced persons in Kyrgyzstan can feel confident that they can return to their homes and live in safety and harmony with their Kyrgyz neighbors," he said.

"I think clearly there was an ethnic element to the violence that took place. But the United States does not have any independent information about what happened ..."

Kyrgyzstan's tiny, under-equipped army has struggled to bring order to the south and relief organizations have been unable to reach the worst-affected areas for security reasons.

Some Kyrgyz officials have said a referendum on a new constitution, due be held on June 27, should be postponed until the situation stabilizes.

The United States and Russia, both operating military air bases in the strategic Muslim nation, are concerned that continued turmoil in Kyrgyzstan could spread to other parts of Central Asia, a vast former Soviet region north of Afghanistan.

Source: Reuters News item: 37835

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