Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 00-03-16

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

CONTENTS

[01] SIMITIS' PRESS CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE STOCK MARKET

[02] GAINS OF 4.53% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

[03] THE YOUNG GREEKS HAVE BAD DIETARY HABITS

[04] THE STOCK MARKET DOES NOT AFFECT THE ELECTION RESULTS

[05] XANTHI: PAPANDREOU VISITED THE MUSLIM MINORITY VILLAGES

[06] ILIR META ASKED FOR THE HELP OF THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK

[07] NO PROBLEMS FOR THE GREEKS IN KFOR

[08] PROTOCOL ON THE TRANSFER OF SENTENCED PERSONS

[01] SIMITIS' PRESS CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE STOCK MARKET

Prime minister and governing socialist party of PASOK leader Kostas Simitis launched a strong attack on those who are happy to see the stock market plummeting responding to a question on yesterday's recovery of the Athens Stock Exchange. Mr. Simitis said that it is an autonomous institution that can not be included in any pre-election strategy.

The statements were made in a press conference the prime minister gave in the central Greek city of Volos in which he presented PASOK's program on the balanced development of urban and rural areas. He underlined that PASOK pays special attention to the regional development.

Mr. Simitis stressed that the city of Volos is the appropriate place to display PASOK's policy in this area given the fact that the city experienced significant industrial development, proving that there is a new momentum in dealing with regional problems.

The prime minister also announced that 80% of the resources from the 3rd community framework of support will be allocate to regional development.

Responding to a question on the Greek-Turkish relations, Mr. Simitis said that the Helsinki agreement was a big success for the Greek foreign policy and those who complain that certain steps have not been made are the same ones who did not want the specific policy to be followed in the first place.

[02] GAINS OF 4.53% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

For a second day the main index in the Athens Stock Exchange recorded gains after a number of sessions with a downward course that caused panic among small investors.

The main index closed today with gains of 4.53% at 4.759,89 points, while the volume of transactions remained limited at 188.1 billion drachmas even though it was characterized as satisfactory because almost the whole of it concerned purchases and not sales.

[03] THE YOUNG GREEKS HAVE BAD DIETARY HABITS

Alarming facts on the dietary habits of the young Greeks were presented in a press conference yesterday by the Consumers Institute in Athens that was given in the presence of minister of development Evangelos Venizelos on the occasion of the World Consumer Day.

According to official data, 77% of the young Greeks prefer to eat fast-food, snacks and packaged food, 42% eat regularly in fast-food restaurants and all of their allowance is spent there, while 1 in 2 children are not informed on the need for more healthy consumer habits not even by their own parents.

[04] THE STOCK MARKET DOES NOT AFFECT THE ELECTION RESULTS

Impressive facts are included in the research conducted by the ALCO polling company on behalf of the Athens radio station "Alpha News" based on which, 72% of the people do not link the course of the stock market with which party they will vote in the April 9 elections. These facts are especially interesting because they were gathered during a time when the Athens Stock Exchange faced one of its worse crises in its history.

Based on the results of the opinion poll that is being conducted on a daily basis, only 12% of those questioned believe that the stock market will affect the election results, 8% responded possibly "no" and 6% possibly "yes".

Twenty four days before the elections, the undecided voters are 12%, while first in popularity is Coalition of the Left party leader Nikos Konstantopoulos with 51.8%, followed by prime minister and governing socialist party of PASOK leader Kostas Simitis with 48.5%, right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis with 40.1%, Democratic and Social Movement Dimitris Tsovolas with 40.8% and Communist Party general secretary Aleka Papariga with 22.9%.

[05] XANTHI: PAPANDREOU VISITED THE MUSLIM MINORITY VILLAGES

Foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou toured Thrace in north-eastern Greece and met with representatives of the Muslim minority.

Mr. Papandreou speaking before the people living in the minority villages in the mountainous region of Xanthi urged them to look at the future with optimism as the efforts made in the past years have brought them out of isolation and oblivion.

Referring to Greece's foreign policy, Mr. Papandreou characterized it as an aggressive policy of peace, cooperation and security for the wider Balkan region.

He said that new roads are being opened for the region where the minorities will no longer be the victims of conflicts but a creative presence for every culture and country.

[06] ILIR META ASKED FOR THE HELP OF THE EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK VICE-PRESIDENT

Albanian prime minister Ilir Meta asked for the assistance of European Investment Bank vice-president Panagiotis Gennimatas in order to overcome the problems that arose during the filing of programs on behalf of Albania and increase the absorption ability of the country based on those programs.

According to the newspaper "Gazeta Skiptare", Ilir Meta had a telephone communication with the vice-president of the European Investment Bank asking for his advise on the programs the Albanian side will present in the Stability Pact conference in Brussels in order to have fair and equal treatment.

[07] NO PROBLEMS FOR THE GREEKS IN KFOR

No Greek soldier was brought back to Greece suffering from respiratory problems, according to a statement made to BBC radio by a Greek army officer from the army company deployed at the border crossing of Blace at the borders of Kosovo with FYROM. The Greek officer admitted however, that certain Greek soldiers wear special masks to protect themselves form the calcium dust coming out of the chimney of a plant operating in the region and lacks protective filter.

According to recent press publications, Belgian and Greek soldiers from the multi-national KFOR force who serve in the region developed respiratory problems and spots of their skin that are the result of the atmospheric pollution by calcium fibers which are emitted from the specific industry plant. Based on the same press publications, such symptoms appeared on two Greek soldiers and one of them was taken to Greece to receive medical assistance.

[08] PROTOCOL ON THE TRANSFER OF SENTENCED PERSONS

Greece's permanent representative in the Council of Europe ambassador Athanasios Theodorakopoulos signed the complementary protocol in the treaty for the transfer of sentenced persons in the presence of the European organization's general secretary Walter Schwimmer.

The text includes the rules that have to be implemented when the sentenced people are extradited from the country where they were sentenced to their own country and in cases when people are subject to extradition as a consequence of their sentencing.

The protocol supplements the 1983 Treaty for the transfer of sentenced people and its main goal is the wider social rehabilitation of the sentenced foreign nationals allowing for their sentence to be carried out in their own countries.

The Treaty to a great extend is founded on humanitarian principles based on the belief that the difficulties in communication, the language barrier and the lack of contact with family members can have negative effects on foreign inmates.

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