Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 97-12-23

From: Macedonian Press Agency <mpa@philippos.mpa.gr>

Macedonian Press Agency: News in English Directory

MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Thessaloniki, 23 December 1997

NEWS IN ENGLISH

[A] NATIONAL NEWS

[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

TITLES

[A] NATIONAL NEWS

[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

NEWS IN DETAIL

[A] NATIONAL NEWS

[01] THE BLACK BOX OF THE YAKOVLEV PLANE FORWARDED TO GERMANY

A joint committee comprising Greek and Ukrainian civil aviation officials experts is to travel to Hanover, Germany today in order to decode the black box of the Yakovlev 42 passenger plane that crashed in Greece on December 17. The finding of the investigation is expected to be out in January.

Meanwhile, at Thessaloniki’s Papageorgiou hospital the gruesome process of recognising the bodies is currently underway. The medical coroners are looking into the possibility that there were 73 instead of 71 passengers aboard the doomed plane.

The country’s main opposition party New Democracy has demanded that the transportation minister resign, along with the administrators of the country’s civil aviation authority. A.F.

[02] FOUR WOMEN MISS YAK-42 DOOMED FLIGHT BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH...

Two Greek women living in Ukraine and their two Ukrainian girlfriends have had a brush with death, unbeknownst to them until now.

They booked their tickets to Thessaloniki with the Aerosweet charter airline and they were to travel on December 17 with the Yakovlev-42 Flight 241. A stroke of bad weather was actually a stroke of good luck, since they opted to travel via Moscow in order to avoid the storm of Kiev.

Having embarked on their holiday travel from the Ukrainian city of Donietsk, where their parents live, Natalia Paschalidou and Nadia Ouspekidou, accompanied by two other women, re-routed their itinerary to Moscow instead of Kiev, even though this meant they had to take a train and cover a distance of over 1,000 kilometres. From Moscow they boarded Aeroflot’s flight to Thessaloniki on the morning of December 18, unaware of the catastrophe that had occurred the previous night with the flight they had just cancelled.

This minor change of plans had a major impact on their lives.

“God saved us,” Ms. Paschalidou told the Macedonian Press Agency. Somehow she felt that she had to re-route her flight and convinced her friends to do so, even though that meant a loss of money since they didn’t have the time to get a refund on Aerosweet’s flight.

Their relatives in Ukraine didn’t know of the women’s changed itinerary. When news of the crash broke, they mourned their own until Sunday, when the women called home.

Stunned at the news of last week’s tragedy, the two attended a Holy Unction on Sunday and, through the Association of Greek Re- Patriots from the former Soviet Union, will provide financial assistance to four poor families. In the spirit of Christmas... A.F.

[03] GREEKS TO BE GIVEN TAX BREAKS FOR EACH ADDITIONAL CHILD

A GRD 5,000 tax break is to be given for each child, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Economics, following the intense reactions voiced over the planned tax withholdings from salaried employees and pensioners.

According to the report, the adjustment will be included in the new tax legislation which will be tabled in Parliament in the beginning of next month. A.F.

[04] U.S. CONSULATE GENERAL IN THESSALONIKI WILL MOVE TO NEW HOME

The Embassy of the United States has signed a term lease with the General Construction and Development Company (GEKA) for space in their newly constructed building in downtown Thessaloniki.

The US Embassy had been seeking a new site for the Consulate for some time now and is pleased with the new location in the center of town.

Us Ambassador to Greece Nicholas Burns presided over the signing of the lease and warmly toasted this major and necessary step in the United States’ efforts to maintain a visible and accessible presence of the Embassy and Consulate in northern Greece. A.F.

[05] KEEPING ITS PROMISE, GREECE GIVES 14 CARS TO GREEKS LIVING IN ALBANIA

As per an agreement signed between Greece’s alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Albania’s Minister of the Interior Neritan Ceka, the President of the board of Directors of the National Foundation of Receiving and Reinstating Immigrants and Re- Patriating Greeks Dimitris Glaros gave to the Greek Consul-general of Gjirocaster the keys of 14 cars granted to Albania’s police.

The turning-over was conducted at the border station of Kakavia and the cars will be used for the needs of the police stations in Albania’s southern region.

Mr. Ceka thanked Mr. Glaros for his offer and expressed his wish that this co-operation be extended in other activities in which the Foundation is involved. A.F.

[06] NEW INFORMATION ON THE CAUSES OF THE UKRAINIAN PLANE CRASH

New information comes to light regarding the causes of the Ukrainian passenger plane crash last Wednesday. According to information, the pilot followed the wrong course as he fed the wrong data into the navigation instrument which was set at 250 degrees instead of 344 and as a result there was a diversion of 90 degrees which caused the plane to crash into the Pieria Mountains.

Those facts are expected to be confirmed after the “black box” is decoded and for this purpose a joint committee of experts from Greece and Ukraine will travel to Hanover, Germany today.

Meanwhile, the testimonies of witnesses continued at the prosecutors office today. Testimonies were given by Civil Aviation Agency employees, electricians and specialists within the framework of the preliminary examination ordered by the Supreme Court prosecutor.

[07] THE GREEK GOVERNMENT ORDERED THE EXPULSION OF A TURKISH CONSULATE EMPLOYEE

The Greek government ordered the expulsion of an employee from the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki in a tit-for-tat response to the new provocation by Ankara which expelled a Greek diplomat working in the Greek Consulate in Istanbul, accusing him of espionage.

The expulsion order was given by Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos, while the director of the foreign ministry agency, responsible for the Greek-Turkish relations, announced the decision today to the new Turkish ambassador to Athens.

[08] PRIME MINISTER SIMITIS MET WITH THE NEW US AMBASSADOR TO ATHENS

New US ambassador to Athens Nicolas Burns, who presented his credentials to the Greek president yesterday, met today with prime minister Kostas Simitis.

It was an acquaintance meeting of Mr.Burns with the prime minister and the two men also discussed the problems of the wider region as well as, the Cyprus problem and the Greek-Turkish relations.

[09] THE LARGE PUBLIC WORKS WERE DISCUSSED IN THE GOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE MEETING

The large public works were discussed today in the governmental committee meeting that was presided over by prime minister Kostas Simitis. Statements were made afterwards by minister of environment, public works and land planning Kostas Laliotis.

Mr.Laliotis briefed the governmental committee on the public works’ course and gave details on their construction. He presented files with details concerning the metro of Thessaloniki and Athens, the Egnatia road network, the course of the construction of the new Athens Airport in Spata and the course of the works for the modernization of the telecommunications company OTE.

Meanwhile, many different reactions were caused within the governing Socialist party of PASOK after the prime minister’s decision to remove the deputies Vasilis Kedikoglou, Moschos Gikonoglou and Christos Kipouros from the party’s parliamentary group.

[10] TWO YOUNG VICTIMS OF YAK-42 CRASH ARE MISSING

The atmosphere in Thessaloniki’s Papageorgiou Hospital is very tense as the painful task of the identification of the victims from the Ukrainian plane crash continues. The bodies of three Greek passengers have not been identified yet, while the bodies of two - out of seven on the plane - children, six months and seven years old respectively, have not arrived at the morgue.

Two groups of the special forces for natural disasters and the forensic surgeon are searching in a wide area around the place of the accident for the children’s corpses and for any further facts. Macedonia-Thrace Minister Filippos Petsalnikos explained today that the area will be guarded by military forces until the report for the causes of the accident is issued.

[11] THE GREEK PRESIDENT’S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE TO THE GREEKS LIVING ABROAD

Greek president Kostis Stephanopoulos issued a Christmas message for the Greeks living abroad.

President Stephanopoulos expresses his warmest wishes for Christmas and the New Year and stresses that the help of the Greeks living abroad is necessary for Greece in order to deal with the outside dangers.

He also referred to the significant role of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad, SAE, in the promotion of the Greek positions and stressed that now the country enjoys the positive results of SAE’s efforts.

[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

[12] MILUTINOVIC IS SERBIA’S NEW PRESIDENT

The Serbian electorate committee has ratified the victory of Milan Milutinovic the candidate of the left coalition “Socialist Party -Yugoslav Left - New Democracy”, who gathered the majority of the votes in the second round of Presidential elections held in Serbia yesterday.

With 95.06% of the votes counted, Mr. Milutinovic has amassed 58.66%, that is 2,049,900 votes, while the second contender Voislav Seseli gathered 50.53%, that is 1,332,646 votes. A.F.

[13] EUROPEAN COMMISSION POLLS RACISM IN THE EU, RESULTS ARE SURPRISING

One out of three Europeans is a racist, according to a poll conducted recently by the European Commission.

Using a sample of 16,000 Europeans from the Community’s 15 member-states, the poll revealed that Belgians, French and Austrians hold first place in racist sentiments, while not far behind are Greeks too. The nationalities which show the fewest signs of racism are Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish and Irish.

As far as Greece is concerned, 58% of those asked stated that he or she is little, somewhat or quite a bit racist. Specifically, the rate of those asked who said that they are “very racist” amounted to 6%, while 31% said they are “somewhat racist”, and 21% said they are “quite a bit to very racist”.

According to sociologists, this phenomenon in Greece, a paradoxical one since Greeks are often victims of racism elsewhere, can be attributed to the incoming flood of immigrants from the former eastern bloc, the Balkans and third world countries. A.F.

[14] THE NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE DONATED 5.000 US DOLLARS FOR THE ORPHAN CHILDREN IN BULGARIA

Five thousand US dollars, about 1,4 million drachmas, were donated by the branch of the National Bank of Greece to the special program of the Bulgarian Red Cross aimed at the economic support of the orphan and poor children in the country.

The National Bank of Greece is the only bank that offered financial support to this program.

Bulgarian Red Cross spokeswoman Yordana Stamova said that those children live in extremely difficult social conditions and either they live alone or with relatives who are not in a position to support them.

[15] THE US SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WILL VISIT SKOPJE TOMORROW

US Secretary of Defense William Cohen will visit Skopje tomorrow, according to a statement by FYROM’s press secretariat.

Mr.Cohen will visit the US peace-keepers, who are deployed in the country within the framework of the UN peace-keeping force in FYROM, while he will also have a meeting with his counterpart Lazar Kitanovski.

[16] ILLEGAL DRUG PRODUCTION PLANT WAS DISCOVERED NEAR SOFIA

A drug production plant was discovered by the Bulgarian police, 15 kilometers from Sofia. The news was covered by all the Bulgarian newspapers, which stressed the increased drug problem in the country and the activities of the organized crime that appears to be the drug “supplier” of the European market.

According to the press reports, police confiscated 300 kilos of amphetamines, a chemically produced drug substance.

[17] THE TURKISH AUTHORITIES CONSIDER THE REOPENING OF THE THEOLOGY SCHOOL IN HALKI

The Turkish authorities consider the likelihood of reopening the Theology School in Halki under the supervision of the Turkish ministry of education, stated EU commissioner Hans Van Den Broek responding to a question by Coalition of the Left Euro-deputy Alekos Alavanos, while at the same time he reminded that the articles of the Turkish Constitution do not allow the operation of private religious education institutions.

Responding to a question by Mr.Alavanos, regarding the recent terrorist act against the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Mr.Van Den Broek expressed the EU Commission’s regret.

[18] ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO BOYCOTTED THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN SERBIA

Albanians in Kosovo, for the fourth time in the past three months, boycotted in great numbers the voting for the election of the Serb president in a tactic that is being followed for the past 8 years.

According to the newspaper “Nasa Borba”, the spokesman of Kosovo’s Democratic Union has stated that those elections do not concern the Albanian-speaking population and its participation in the voting process would have meant the legalization of the occupation status that has been imposed in the region.

[19] HELMUT KOHL IN BOSNIA

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited, today, German troops serving in the NATO-led Stabilisation Force SFOR in Bosnia. Mr Kohl reiterated Bill Clinton’s yesterday pledge that SFOR should extend its stay in the country, by stating that German troops will remain there as long as necessary.

He, also, stressed that the E.U. is ready to take action in order to set the appropriate conditions for lasting peace, which is essential for the refugees to return home safely.

Complete archives of the Macedonian Press Agency bulletins are available on the MPA Home Page at http://www.mpa.gr/ and on the U.S. mirror at http://www.hri.org/MPA/