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Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 2002-09-02

Macedonian Press Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.


MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY Thessaloniki, September 2, 2002

SECTIONS

  • [A] NATIONAL NEWS
  • [B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

  • NEWS HEADLINES

    [A] NATIONAL NEWS

  • [01] CONSUMERS BOYCOTT GREEK MARKET TOMORROW
  • [02] COUNTER-TERRORISM SERVICE HAS NEW TARGETS
  • [03] E-COMMERCE PICKING UP IN GREECE
  • [04] PROTESTS DURING THE TIF
  • [05] S. XEROS TAKEN TO CORYDALLOS
  • [06] STEPHANOPOULOS: GERMANY HAS TO PAY REPARATIONS FOR THE DAMAGES SUFFERED BY GREECE IN WWII
  • [07] GREECE MOST SUCCESSFUL IN DEALING WITH POVERTY IN 1975-1995
  • [08] PROTOPAPAS ON THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC ORDER PRESS REPORTS
  • [09] BIG LOSSES IN THE ASE
  • [10] PROTOPAPAS ON THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
  • [11] THE GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN ON TERRORISM
  • [12] COMMENTS ON TOMORROW'S CONSUMER BOYCOTT
  • [13] MIKIS THEODORAKIS ON TERRORISM
  • [B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

    NEWS IN DETAILS

    [A] NATIONAL NEWS

  • [01] CONSUMERS BOYCOTT GREEK MARKET TOMORROW With the slogan, "not a single euro will go into the market", consumer organizations have called Greeks to boycott expensiveness and profiteering.

    Along with consumer organizations, producers and vendors will also participate in the boycott for two days (Tuesday and Wednesday), in order to show that they are not responsible for the product markups. At the same time, the General Union of Greek Emplo yees is attempting to consolidate a front against markups by mobilizing all employees in Greece to participate in tomorrow's boycott and by recruiting the country's social bodies in order to deal with the issue more effectively.

    President of New Democracy Kostas Karamanlis spoke on the issue of expensiveness from Corinth, from where he accused the government of being inactive in the face of methodical profiteering evident in the market.

    Meanwhile, the leadership of the Ministry of Development, after its failed "encounter" with representatives of the business and trade world in order to achieve new agreements, is trying to moderate the wave of markups hitting the market, with market insp ections as their only weapon.

    Markups in the price of electricity and telephone communications are also some of the main points of tomorrow's protests. Consumers all over the country have been called to drop their power switches at 10pm on September 3 and not to use their telephones.

  • [02] COUNTER-TERRORISM SERVICE HAS NEW TARGETS A special machine for key inspections is expected to be delivered to the crime labs of the Greek Police shortly, according to the "Imerisia" newspaper. In fact, because thorough inspection of the keys, which were found in hideouts of people accused of te rrorism, is deemed especially important by the police, a special section will formed in the lab area.

    The order has already been placed to the special service for investigation and analysis machines, and it is expected to be made part of the rapidly development "armory" of the Greek Police.

    Crime lab specialists have analyzed 1/3 of the 5000 findings located at hideouts and the houses of "November 17" suspect members. The results of the research is concentrated, put into groups, and delivered to the Ministry of Justice. At the same time, ho wever, there are comparative investigations on the findings in the N17 case, located by the authorities in the four major hideouts. Suspect photographs

    The photographs of at least 6 individuals, who are suspected of participating in terrorist organizations, are in the possession of the authorities. These pictures have been shown to all of the case's suspects and all those called in to testify on the N17

    case, but have not to this day been published, since Counter Terrorism officials stated that there is no concrete evidence against them. There are only indications, which are being analyzed and looked into in order to ascertain what their connection is, if any, to N17 or other organizations, such as the "Revolutionary People's Struggle", "The Revolutionary Cores", etc.

  • [03] E-COMMERCE PICKING UP IN GREECE According to information of the European Information Technology Observatory published in the "Imerisia" newspaper, Greek expenses on informatics as part of its GDP in 1999 and 2000 was less than 1.5%, while in 2001 it came to 1.5% once more, when the Eur opean average was 3.6%. At the same time, per capita expenses on informatics are considerably smaller than the EU average, since they barely reached 150 euro in 2000 and 2001, while at the same time came to 800 euro in the rest of Europe.

    Meanwhile, however, the same source noted increases in the informatics market, which in 2001 came to 1,900 million euro, while the estimate for 2002 is 2,000 million euro, and 2,250 euro in 2003.

    The annual informatics market increase rate in Greece, recorded a sudden increase close to 18% in 2000, in contrast to 12% which was the European average. At the same time, during 2002 and 2003 the work developments rates are foreseen to be slightly high er than the EU average.

    According to the same source, the informatics market in Greece is dominated by hardware sales, while in the EU it is services, something expected to change in the next few years. It is also foreseen that due to the low penetration to computers in Greece,

    after the 2001 recession, hardware sales will turn around at greater rates than in the rest of the countries of the EU. Greek e-Commerce

    Greece has taken an important position as far as its readiness for e-commerce is concerned, leaving countries such as Israel and Japan behind it.

    According to the Economist Intelligence Unit research, Greece climbed to 23rd position, from the 26th position it was in last year, out of a total of 60 countries, which reveals which countries have the best suited environment for the development of new activities related to e-commerce and new technologies in general. The Greek market's position is especially encouraging. The US is in first position, once again.

  • [04] PROTESTS DURING THE TIF Intense mobilization has been planned in Thessaloniki by a series of bodies and unions for the 6th and 7th of September, the weekend the 67th Thessaloniki International Fair will be opened by Prime Minister Kostas Simitis.

    Farmers, workers, unions and initiatives from Thessaloniki, regions of N. Greece, Thessalia and Athens, are preparing themselves for the protests against globalization.

    The mobilizations will begin on Friday, September 6, the opening day of the TIF, with a panhellenic rally of farmers associations, outside the TIF's facilities in the YMCA square. The tip of the farmers' spear for protesting, is cotton and indemnities f or the crops destroyed by the bad weather.

    On Saturday, farmers' associations will participate in a rally organized by PA.ME (Panhellenic Fighting Front), against government policy in general.

    The General Council of the confederacy of the Civil Servants Union, as well as the Association of Non-appointed Teachers, have decided to participate in the September 7 rally.

    On the same day, the initiative for the Greek Social Forum has organized a meeting at the Venizelos statue with the participation of the Civil Servants Union, against neo-liberalism, war and racism.

    The plenary session of the Workers-Employees Center of Thessaloniki (EKTh), decided no to participate in the protests during the TIF. The EKTh decided to organize a rally on September 19 against expensiveness, markups, the rise in unemployment and the de -industrialization of Thessaloniki.

  • [05] S. XEROS TAKEN TO CORYDALLOS Savvas Xeros passed the threshold of the Corydallos Penitentiary this afternoon, after 65 days of hospitalization at the "Evaggelismos" hospital. Earlier, the doctors gave the green light for his transfer, while the operation was extremely fast, escorted

    by a large police force. Security measures were extreme throughout the trip from the hospital to the penitentiary.

    Savvas Xeros was taken to the same cell his brother Vassilis and Christodoulos have been placed. According to information from his attorney, he is still facing mobility problems as well as some hearing and sight problems.

    The 40-year-old's transfer to Corydallos completed the first round in the case of eradicating "November 17".

    Meanwhile, the court order to receive blood samples from the 15 accused, is expected to be issued within the next 15 days, in order to carry out DNA tests, to compare the genetic material of the suspects to that found in the terrorist hideouts.

  • [06] STEPHANOPOULOS: GERMANY HAS TO PAY REPARATIONS FOR THE DAMAGES SUFFERED BY GREECE IN WWII Germany has an obligation to pay reparations for the damages suffered by Greece during WWII, stated President Kostis Stephanopoulos, stressing that this is a moral victory for the victims. Mr. Stephanopoulos attended today the events in memory of the hol ocaust of the people of Hortiatis, near Thessaloniki, on September 2, 1944. It is the first time that these events were held in the presence of a Greek President.

    The issue concerning the reparations and the restitution of the victims' relatives was raised by Hortiatis' Mayor Theodoros Christodoulou, who observed in his speech that the people of Hortiatis do not ask for revenge in memory of the victims but they ju st want reparations and restitution.

    On September 2, 1944 a German soldier was killed and three others were injured in a Greek ambush. In retaliation, the Germans sent a military convoy of 32 army vehicles in Hortiatis and the locals were ordered to gather at the town's central square. Some

    of them were executed, while others were burned alive. Only 6 managed to survive, while among the 149 victims there were 39 children, 32 of which were under the age of 12 and many were just a few months old.

  • [07] GREECE MOST SUCCESSFUL IN DEALING WITH POVERTY IN 1975-1995 Greece had the best performance among the developed countries in the efforts against poverty in the period 1975-1995. According to an OECD recent report, the conclusions of which are published on the Athens newspaper "Imerisia", the inequality in the dis tribution of income was notably limited in the Greek society.

    For the record, Greece is the only country with a big drop in the basic poverty indexes in the period 1975-1995, in spite of the fact that in the period 1985-1995 there were no notable changes. The lowest income classes had experienced almost no income i ncrease and therefore, they were placed at a relatively worse position in the mid 90s compared to ten years earlier.

  • [08] PROTOPAPAS ON THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC ORDER PRESS REPORTS Government spokesman Christos Protopapas denied a press report according to which, Minister of Public Order Michalis Chrisochoidis is destined by the Prime Minister for the post of the governing Socialist Party of PASOK Central Committee Secretary.

    Mr. Protopapas stated that the specific press report has no relation with reality.

  • [09] BIG LOSSES IN THE ASE Big losses were recorded in the Athens Stock Exchange today. The general index dropped to -1.39% at 2.099,56 points, while the volume of transactions was at 69.9 million Euro.

    Of the stocks trading today, 83 recorded gains and the overwhelming majority of 218 had losses, while the value of 73 stocks remained unchanged.

  • [10] PROTOPAPAS ON THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS The medical care and living conditions for the illegal immigrants in Greece are much better compared to other countries, stated government spokesman Christos Protopapas pointing out, however, that there are problems and a continuous effort is being made to improve their living conditions.

    Responding to a question on the living conditions for the 800 illegal immigrants in Thrace, northeastern Greece, Mr. Protopapas admitted that the conditions they live in are not ideal, adding that it is normal to be faced with difficulties when hundreds of people enter the country unexpectedly.

  • [11] THE GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN ON TERRORISM The issue of terrorism is very serious and demands a responsible stance. It cannot be approached like a television show or entertainment from which some seek to have a profit, reiterated today government spokesman Christos Protopapas.

    Mr. Protopapas stated that some appear like wandering "story-tellers" to different television channels in an effort to involve PASOK members in the case of terrorism.

    The government spokesman also referred to the statements made by right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy Parliament Deputy Mr. Polidoras, who stated that PASOK was a "political shell" for terrorism, and called on the party of New Democracy to t ake a stand on the issue immediately.

  • [12] COMMENTS ON TOMORROW'S CONSUMER BOYCOTT The government is neither for nor against the consumer boycott which is organized by non-governmental organizations, stated government spokesman Christos Protopapas. He made the statement responding to a question by a reporter on the occasion of the cons umer boycott scheduled to take place tomorrow in protest to the high prices in the Greek market.

    The government should not interfere with the work and moves of non-governmental organizations, stressed the government spokesman and added that every move made by autonomous social organizations aimed at activating the citizens has a value of its own.

  • [13] MIKIS THEODORAKIS ON TERRORISM Terrorism, as it appears, is an unburied corpse that has begun to smell bad. Terrorism must be buried as soon as possible, stated Greek music composer Mikis Theodorakis during his visit to the Kalamaria Conservatoire, where a hall is named after him.

    Mr. Theodorakis congratulated the Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Order and the Greek Police for the blow they delivered on terrorism and stressed that the Prime Minister made a historical move, while he also wondered why this did not happen earli er.

    Meanwhile, he stated that he has filed suits against right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy Parliament Deputy Nikitas Kaklamanis, the newspaper "Eleftheri Ora" and its publisher and director Grigoris Michalopoulos. Mr. Kaklamanis had stated in

    a television interview with Mr. Michalopoulos that four performances of the theater play "Lisistrati" had cost 1.6 billion drachmas and a big part of that money was received by Mr. Theodorakis.

    Mr. Theodorakis stated that they had at least to check their information before going public and stressed that he never took one cent from the Greek state.

    An intervention on the issue has been made by Athens Megaron Music Hall President Christos Lambrakis, who underlined in a letter that the six and not four performances of "Lisistrati" had cost 700 million drachmas and Mr. Theodorakis received no money to

    compose the specific opera.

  • [B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS


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