The progress of Olympics works as well as the recent IOC delegation visit to Athens will be discussed.

An advanced party of the force, will leave before February 5 for Pakistan. A week later, 18 commandos will depart for Afghanistan, who will be in charge of security measures for the rest of the force. By February 20, the entire force will have arrived in

Afghanistan.

The Greek Force will be stationed 11 km outside Kabul, in a region controlled by the Northern Alliance. The personnel of the Greek Force will travel to the region on c-130, while two air transports will be rented for the transfer of 65 vehicles.

Another 3 illegal immigrants were spotted by men of the Central Patra Port Authorities near the city port. The illegal immigrants had forged travel documents and were in a car about to travel on the ferry to Agona, Italy.

The inflation's increase during January, is mainly due to the increase in the cost of fruits and vegetables, because of the bad weather, as well as the rounding up of prices to accommodate the euro.

Nevertheless, according to government factors' estimations, the number to be reached by inflation in January, will be the highest point, since they added that it will decrease to approximately 2.5%, in the Autumn.

The Prime Minister will speak at the European College in Brugge, Belgium, the next day, on European issues.

In fact, Mr. Simitis will make a one visit to Bucharest on February 5, accompanied by ministers and journalists. He will meet with the President and Prime Minister of Romania.

On January 18 Belgian authorities traced dioxin in chicken feed in the factory producing it, and Belgian shops took 14.000 chickens off the shelves.

The event is taking place in the framework of a series of inter-border programs initiated by the US General Consulate with the support of the Ministry of Macedonia-Thrace, on "Illegal Transfer and Human Trafficking: Applying legislature and cooperation i n Southeastern Europe, in the framework of SECI initiative".

In cooperation with each local prefecture, the program will be repeated in Serres on January 30, Glorina on January 31, and Kilkis on February 1.

Apart from Thessaloniki, Kilkis, Serres and Florina, the working meeting will take place in the border stations of Promachonas and Evzoni, in cooperation with Greek authorities. Participants include members of the Greek Security Forces, the Judicial Body , Customs, Migration and the Police Force, official counterparts of FYROM and Bulgaria, and representatives of NGOs, concerned with illegal transfer and trafficking.

The meetings will take palce in the SECI framework, aiming at cooperation between Northern Greece and neighboring Balkan countries.

Further elucidating on the Greek position on the marbles issue, he pointed out that the request only has to do with the Parthenon, and clarified that Greece will not ask for all Greek artifacts in museums all over the world, to be returned.

"The Parthenon is a unique case, not because it is one of the Seven Wonders, nor because it is a piece of history, but because it is a temple expressing and uniting Greeks, and is a symbol of Western civilization. So, for the restitution of the monument' s integrity, we ask that the Sculptures of the Parthenon be returned to their natural surroundings", said Mr. Anomeritis characteristically. He also said that in the framework of the proposal made by the Ministry of Culture, cooperation with the British M useum is sought after, so that there is a constant flow of artwork, which would enrich the museum and give millions of people the chance to view ancient Greek artifacts, in those rooms.

39-year-old Giannis Katsanis was arrested on the 10th km of the Alexandroupoli-Komotini freeway, while carrying the illegal immigrants in his truck, while 28-year-old Panagiotis Labatzidis and 26-year-old Thanasis Eskitzis, who were travelling ahead of t he truck in rented cars as a scouting party, were also arrested.

All three will be taken to the Alexandroupoli DA. The illegal immigrants entered Greece from the Fera area, and boarded the truck that was to take them to Thessaloniki. There, the traffickers were to receive a payment of 2.5 million drs.

E.KA.TO.'s goal, is to inform on possible dangers children and teenagers using chat rooms may face, because of "Internet abusers" and aspiring pedophiles.

As the number of children and teenagers using the Internet is steadily rising throughout Europe and Greece, the need for immediate measures to be taken for their effective protection, in cooperation with all involved bodies, public and private, is growin g, stressed E.KA.To. in an announcement it made.

According to recent announcements, pedophiles often use chat rooms to draw out vulnerable children, while there are reports worldwide of children that have been abused, even disappearances of children that had given personal information or posted their picture on the Internet for some competition.

E.KA.TO. is trying to overtake the danger so that there are no similar cases in Greece, and thus has created an Open Line of Communication. 0801 11 35286 functions as a counseling center, giving advice for protection, practical ways of dealing with probl ems, information on Internet safety issues, while it will also accept any related crime reports.

This decision was made after reports from competing companies, and specifically the Panhellenic Refreshments Manufacturer's Association, which stated that during the 1991-1999 period, the company, which was at that time called 3E (Tria Epsilon), abused i ts dominating position in the Greek beverage market, something which resulted in financially damaging its competition.

approval of the EU Competitiveness Committee.

The above were included in a statement issued last Saturday by ETBA after the meeting that took place at the Finance Ministry with the participation of Finance Minister Nikos Christodoulakis, Development Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, HDW/Ferrostaal repr esentatives as well as, ETBA management and employees representatives.

The farmers in Chania, Crete blockaded the national motorway at the Megala Chorafia intersection, while in Argos southern Greece over 250 farmers demonstrated outside the City Hall building where they unloaded tons of oranges and milk. Afterwards, they g athered at the city entrance and blocked the street for an hour.

Hundreds of farmers with their tractors, coming from all over central Greece, gathered in the region of Tempi and are expected to decide if there will be road blockades.

The police forces in the region are in a state of preparedness to stop any attempt by the farmers to close the motorways to traffic.

Meanwhile, government spokesman Christos Protopapas stated that the government has tried to find solutions to the problems of the farmers and stressed that they cannot expect anything better than what the government has already done. Mr. Protopapas invit ed them to a dialogue aimed at creating a competitive production for a better future.

The farmers don't want the price of cotton to drop, while one of their main demands is the subsidy of the whole cotton production in Greece. They also demand the immediate payment of compensation to the farmers who suffered damaged crops as a result of t he recent bad weather that hit Greece. The Ministry of Agriculture will announce the new price of cotton on January 31.

of the 50th anniversary of Greece's NATO membership.

Mr. Papantoniou underlined the need for Greece to express its different stance in a formal manner.

Earlier, the Minister of Defense briefed NATO Supreme Commander in Europe Air Force Lieutenant-General Joseph Ralston on Greece's stance and the NATO senior official stressed that Greece has a stabilizing role in the Balkans.

US ambassador to Athens Thomas Miller was also among the speakers in the one-day conference and characterized as healthy the EU effort to undertake military missions in cooperation with NATO.

Of the stocks trading today, 189 recorded gains and 120 had losses, while the value of 50 stocks remained unchanged.

Mr. Clerides had denied categorically the press reports according to which, the US ambassador had exercised pressures on the Cypriot government to do away with certain weapons systems of the National Guard. Mr. Clerides also denied the rumors that Defens e Minister Socrates Hasikos has submitted his resignation because of a disagreement.

Court of Justice in The Hague, stated Greek government spokesman Christos Protopapas. He added that the recent statements by Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem are different from earlier Turkish positions that displayed intransigence.

Mr. Protopapas stated that there will be exploratory discussions at a Foreign Ministries directors level to determine if there can be headway in this area within the framework of International Law and the European institutions. He also said that Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou will also have exploratory contacts with his Turkish counterpart if it is deemed necessary.

Mr. Paraskevopoulos stressed that MPA backs the Ecumenical Patriarchate and wishes to promote it, while the Ecumenical Patriarch stated that MPA's work is significant.

The meeting will be held with the participation of news agencies that belong to the Organization of News Agencies of Asia-Pacific (OANA), European Association of Press Agencies (EAPA) and the Association of Balkan News Agencies (ABNA). The goal of the ga thering is the exchange of views among representatives of news agencies from different countries in Europe, Asia and Oceania.

A future goal is to organize a second meeting with the participation of representatives of news agencies from North and South America, and Africa to make a first step toward the creation of a World Federation of News Agencies.

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