Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 00-08-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE IRED BY BISHOPS REMARKS

[02] CANCELLATION OF BTC SALE WONT IMPACT RELATIONS

[03] SPECIALISTS GATHER IN CORFU TO EXAMINE CAUSE OF PLANE CRASH

[04] NEW ATHENS METRO LINE TO OPERATE IN OCTOBER

[05] REWARD FOR TERRORIST INFORMATION INCREASES TO 1.5 BILLION

[06] 2ND CONFERENCE FOR EMIGRANTS FROM TRIKALA TO BE HELD

[07] CRIME RATE IS FALLING, BUT CAR ACCIDENTS STILL HIGH

[08] GREEK POLICE FORCE TO BE THOROUGHLY REORGANIZED

[09] TURKISH FAMILY DIES IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT IN GREECE

[10] MARGINAL RISE OF REAL WAGES IN GREECE IN 20 YEARS

[11] GENETICALLY MODIFIED COTTON SEED TO BE DESTROYED

[12] PILOT DIES IN EFFORT TO EXTINGUISH FOREST FIRE

[13] GREEK FINANCIAL AID TO ALBANIA SIGNIFICANT

[01] ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE IRED BY BISHOPS REMARKS

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has expressed its displeasure over the remarks made by Kalavryta Bishop Ambrosios, who stated that "the position of the patriarchate is more reminiscent of a stepmother than of a mother church."

The Bishop, one of the fiercest opponents of the government's decision to remove mention of religious faith from ID cards, attacked the Ecumenical Patriarchate for not having sided with the Church of Greece on the ID quarrel.

Phanar officials stated that Bishop Ambrosios is talking too much lately, but he's not being careful abut what he says.

Meanwhile, the Holy Synod has dispatched a circular to all of the country's churches regarding its struggle on the ID cards issue. The Chrurch plans to hold a petition concerning the matter on September 1.

A.F.

[02] CANCELLATION OF BTC SALE WONT IMPACT RELATIONS

The termination of the negotiations on the sale of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, BTC, will not have an impact on the relations between Bulgaria and Greece, Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov told Radio Free Europe on Sunday.

As the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency reported, Mr. Raikov stated that the topic of the BTC sale was outside the main issues discussed at the recent meeting in Plovdiv and the Pamporovo Resort of the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Greece, Ivan Kostov and Costas Simitis, repsectively, adding that the sale of the BTC was discussed marginally.

During the last meetings Premier Simitis has always stressed clearly that the Bulgarian-Greek relations are relations of strategic partnership and that one unfinalized deal could hardly cast a shadow on them, Mr. Raikov said, adding that Greece will continue to support Greek investments in Bulgaria, irrespective of the fate of the BTC deal.

"The state leadership of Greece, which is a member of the European Union, cannot ignore some of the reasons for the termination of the talks, namely, the relative incompatibility of the conditions offered by the KPN/OTE consortium and the requirements of the EU," Mr. Raikov said.

A.F.

[03] SPECIALISTS GATHER IN CORFU TO EXAMINE CAUSE OF PLANE CRASH

A group of Civil Aviation specialists have gathered in Corfu to uncover what caused the crash of the fire fighting aircraft in which air force pilot Thanassis Beslemes heroically lost his life.

The body of the air force pilot was transferred to hospital after the accident, where doctors failed to save his life.

[04] NEW ATHENS METRO LINE TO OPERATE IN OCTOBER

A new Athens Metro line will start operating in October, enabling passengers to travel as far as Daphne, underground. The new tracks will be tested out from the end of August in normal operation conditions.

The Syntagma (Constitution Square) - Daphne line has a length of five kilometres and stops at the Acropolis, Fix, Neos Kosmos, the Analatou region and finally, at Daphne. An old factory at Fix will be transformed into a six floor, 600-space car-park and the Metro will have access to the mobile phone network from this autumn onwards.

[05] REWARD FOR TERRORIST INFORMATION INCREASES TO 1.5 BILLION

The reward offered for the successful disbanding of the Greek terrorist organisation "17 November" has been increased to 1.5 billion drachmas by the ministry of Civil Order, in an attempt to uncover and arrest its criminal members.

A statement was issued by the ministry of Civil Order, stressıng that anyone who provides substantial information will remain anonymous.

[06] 2ND CONFERENCE FOR EMIGRANTS FROM TRIKALA TO BE HELD

The 2nd Conference for Emigrants from Trikala will be held from the 18th to the 20th August, with the aim of improving emigrant's relations with their homeland.

Greek emigrant politicians, teachers, sociologists, authors and businessmen living in Europe, America and Australia will participate in the event, which is being organised by the General Secretariat for Greek Emigrants.

The teaching of the Greek language abroad will be one of the issues dealt with at the Conference. Maintaining cultural identity will also be discussed at the event and problems faced by second and third generation Greeks abroad will be addressed.

Well-known composer and lyricist Kostas Virvos will perform songs of emigration, after which history and literature tutors from Greek universities will talk about the influence of Greeks who have emigrated abroad.

[07] CRIME RATE IS FALLING, BUT CAR ACCIDENTS STILL HIGH

Greece's crime rate has shown a marked drop in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 1999, according to figures presented by the Public Order Ministry which attributes the good news to the effectiveness of the new police measures aimed at prevention.

According to the data, murders dropped by 16.67 percent, robberies by 27.37 percent and burglaries by 12.43 percent in the first six months of 2000. However, the number of bank robberies stayed stable, with 37 being perpetrated in the first half of this year, exactly the same number as the first six months of last year. On the other hand, vehicle theft dropped by 27.55 percent.

Regarding traffic accidents, fatal accidents dropped by seven percent in the first half of 2000 and the number of deaths by 5.3 percent. The European Commission announced recently that, according to its figures for 1998, Greece was the only country in the EU in which the rate of fatal traffic accidents was increasing.

A.F.

[08] GREEK POLICE FORCE TO BE THOROUGHLY REORGANIZED

The Ministry of Public Order intends to thoroughly reorganize the police force, through a series of plans that are expected to be completed by early November.

To begin with, 1,000 new border guards will form a second security zone in border areas beyond the existing one. Of another 1,400 new "special guards," 100 will be posted to guard Metro stations and the rest will be used to guard "sensitive" targets.

Moreover, police stations will be created in every municipality across the country, comprising up to 35 officers in each.

According to the Athens daily "Katimerini", the new system will be split into the Public Order Bureau which will conduct foot patrols and police neighborhoods, while the Security Police department, again at neighborhood level, will deal with petty crime such as burglaries, small quantities of drugs, and so on.

More serious crimes will be dealt with by five police directorates in Attica. Each will comprise at least 200 officers and the aim is to relieve the General Police Directorate of Attica of some of its duties, so that it can concentrate on extortion rackets, organized crime and large narcotics busts. Police are also planning to publish a booklet advising citizens on their security and to help them prevent crime, as part of the effort to bring the police closer to the people.

A.F.

[09] TURKISH FAMILY DIES IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT IN GREECE

A Turkish family of four was killed during a traffic accident early his morning on the Thessaloniki-Athens national highway when their vehicle collided head on with a parked oil tanker.

The couple and their two children, believed to be residents of France, burned in the ensuing explosion.

A.F.

[10] MARGINAL RISE OF REAL WAGES IN GREECE IN 20 YEARS

Real wages in Greece have increased a mere one percent over the last 20 years, according to a recent study by the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO).

As the Athens daily "Kathimerini" reports, EIRO used data provided by the European Commission and Greece's union-supported Labor Institute. According to the study, the constraints imposed by the Maastricht Treaty on prospective participants in the European Economic and Monetary Union led to a sharp decrease in inflation and a concurrent decrease in the rise of nominal wages.

According to the data, real wages rose very fast in the 1960s where inflation averaged 3 percent, nominal wage increases averaged 9.6 percent and real wage increases averaged 6.6 percent.

With inflation setting in during the 1970s, real wages increased just 3.7 percent over the whole decade, despite an income redistribution policy followed during 1975-1978. The second oil crisis of 1979 had an adverse effect on incomes.

In the 1981-1990 period, despite the socialist government's introduction of automatic indexing of wages to inflation, the overall wage increase was 0.9 percent. Inflation averaged 19 percent in the 1981-1990 period. An effort started in the early 1990s to lower inflation resulted in the compression of real wages by almost 10 percent in the 1991-93 period, allowing inflation to drop from 22.9 percent to 14.4 percent. The socialist government which came in power in October 1993 followed a more lax policy, allowing nominal wages to rise slightly higher than inflation. As a result, the overall gain in real wages in 1991-99 was 0.1 percent. This, however, does not account for other factors, such as the non-indexing of income tax brackets from 1990 to 1999 which moved many incomes into higher tax brackets.

A.F.

[11] GENETICALLY MODIFIED COTTON SEED TO BE DESTROYED

At a cost of about 1.2 billion drachmas ($3.24 million), the government will destroy up to 9,000 acres of cotton affected by gene-modified seed and will compensate farmers, according to Agriculture Minister George Anomeritis.

It has yet to be clarified if the compensation monies will be derived from the ministries or those companies which imported the GM seeds.

The European Union bans all GM cotton, and environmentalists oppose all gene-altered food and crops, saying they threaten the environment and pose health risks. After environmental groups showed the ministry samples of GM contaminated seed, authorities began extensive testing.

"Out of 14,000 tons planted, 6.4 tons had been contaminated," Mr. Anomeritis said.

A.F.

[12] PILOT DIES IN EFFORT TO EXTINGUISH FOREST FIRE

An air force pilot succumbed to his injuries yesterday after crashing his single-seater firefighting plane during operations to extinguish a forest blaze on the island of Corfu.

Thanassis Peslemes, 30, crashed in the area of Alimatades in northern Corfu at 8.45 p.m., and died on his way to hospital.

Meanwhile, another forest blaze broke out yesterday afternoon in a pine forest in the island of Spetses.

Also, more than 100 acres of forest have turned into ashes in Pendeli, a populated mountain near Athens.

Allegations made by the fire brigade chief that the fire was the work of arsonists prompted an Athens public prosecutor to an urgent inquest.

A.F.

[13] GREEK FINANCIAL AID TO ALBANIA SIGNIFICANT

The Greek forces present in Albania offered significant aid to Albanian armed forces during their three year stay in Greece's neighbouring country, according to an article published in the Albanian "Gazetta Skiptare" newspaper.

Over 400 missions were completed by the Greek forces, including 113 for humanitarian aid. Minor construction projects worth 40 million drachmas were also realized and Albania's armed forces were provided with medical aid worth 4 million drachmas. 36 million drachmas worth of clothes and computers were also provided over the three year period.

The Vaktar, Avlonas and Izberis army camps were completely refurbished at a cost of 140 million drachmas. The training of Albanian army officers cost 2.7 million drachmas, whilst the hospital equipment provided was worth 150 million.

Greek forces also contributed to the reformation of Albania's armed forces and invested 600 million drachmas in the hospital of Tirana, providing equipment and machinery.

Significant financial contributions were also made to the education, police, cultural, humanitarian and army base sectors of Albania by the Greek forces present in the country.

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