Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 01-07-30

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

CONTENTS

[01] INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON EARTHQUAKES

[02] TEO AGGELOPOULOS SHOULD CAUSE NO WORRIES

[03] PARLIAMENT DISCUSSION OF RENTING EMPLOYEES

[04] KONSTANTOPOULOS BRIEFS ON GENOA

[05] THE SKYROS FAULT CANNOT CAUSE OTHER EARTHQUAKES

[06] SAILING FOR THE DISABLED IN THE AEGEAN

[07] CHARTING THE FAULTS IN THE DEPTHS

[08] SIMITIS RECEIVES TSOHATZOPOULOS TOMORROW

[01] INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON EARTHQUAKES

On Monday, US, Greek, Turkish and Italian research centers start a wide spread scientific cooperation which aims at assessing the danger of an earthquake occurring in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean, and to record seismic activity of the Northern Anatolia breach, which ranges from Turkey to mainland Greece.

ิhe program aims at the better understanding of the natural procedure of seismic danger in the Northern Aegean , as well as the estimation of economic and social consequences of a future earthquake.

The first work group will meet in Thessaloniki from the 30th of July until the 1st of August, while the cooperation agreement is expected to be signed on the 2nd of August in Piraeus

[02] TEO AGGELOPOULOS SHOULD CAUSE NO WORRIES

Mr. Aggelopoulos' condition is not serious, as he is suffering from a simple virus of the respiratory system and should be released within a few days.

When he was initially taken to the hospital on Friday with chest pains, the doctors feared bronchial pneumonia because they found liquid around his lungs and heart, but later established that it was nothing more than a virus.

[03] PARLIAMENT DISCUSSION OF RENTING EMPLOYEES

By all probability the Labor Minister's bill for temporary employment will be submitted today and Mr. Giannitsis seems ready to incorporate the criticisms of the GFGW General Federation of Greek Workers on the matter of "renting" employees. Specifically, the employment time with the indirect employer will not exceed 8 months.

Mr. Giannitsis also left the possibility of renting employees to public businesses and organizations open.

[04] KONSTANTOPOULOS BRIEFS ON GENOA

The consequences of globalization and the restrictions it imposes were mentioned by the President of the Synaspismos political party, Nikos Konstantopoulos, who on occasion of the events in Genoa, met with the President of the Greek National Committee for Human Rights, Aliki Maragopoulou. Mr. Konstantopoulos informed her of the events that took place and asked for the help of the Committee in the preservation of Democratic Principles.

Mr. Konstantopoulos stated that it was obvious that people felt as if they were losing their social and political rights and freedoms. He also assessed that social and justice state was shrinking. He added that all illegal actions were dangerous to our democratic rights and in relation to the events in Genoa he made mention of a mutilation of democracy and the mobilization of the war machine, and mentioned that it was not a fighting citizen who is an enemy to democracy, but the mechanisms that want it amputated.

On her side Mrs. Maragopoulou stated that the mass mobilization of civilians gave out a message of hope. It was more important to her that people have realized that they should fight for their rights.

[05] THE SKYROS FAULT CANNOT CAUSE OTHER EARTHQUAKES

The earthquake in Skyros cannot cause earthquakes in the broader region as the Izmit earthquake of 1999 did, stated the Surrogate Professor of Geology at the AUTh, Eleftheria Papadimitriou, commenting on an article published in an Athenian newspaper which mentions that the specific earthquake has the potential to activate faults in a radius of 40 or 50 kms around Skyros.

"A 6,4 R earthquake is more powerful than the one there was in Athens, but such earthquakes cannot cause other ones as the 7,4 R earthquake in Izmit, which we knew would affect other areas", she stated.

[06] SAILING FOR THE DISABLED IN THE AEGEAN

The 1st International Sailing Marathon for the Disabled will commence on Thursday 2nd of August from Skala in the area of Perea in Thessaloniki and will end in Skiathos the next day. The race is part of the Center for the Development of Culture and Adapted Athletics 2000 program sponsored by the Ministry of Macedonia - Thrace, the Thermaic Municipality, the Municipality of Skiathos, the Coast Guard and the Greek Sailing Federation.

The president of CDCAA, Stelios Aggeloudis, stated that through this marathon the disabled community experiences a higher form of athletic competition and are members of a group with no prejudices. He continued that this year, for the first time blind and paraplegic athletes are taking part, expanding the athletic horizons of the program.

The Minister of Culture, Evaggelos Venizelos, stated that the equal functioning of the disabled is one of the basic issues that judges not only the quality of our culture, but the democratic political system of the country.

[07] CHARTING THE FAULTS IN THE DEPTHS

A program to chart the geological faults in the Marmaras Sea and the Northern Aegean is being thought out by scientists from universities and research centers of Greece, Turkey, Italy and the US in a meeting taking place today in Thessaloniki. The program will take about three months to be finalized while its materialization will be begin as soon as it is approved by the relevant ministries in Greece and Turkey and has secured funding.

Surrogate Professor of the AUTh's Geology Department, Eleytheria Papadimitriou and president of the Marmaras Research Center of the Turkish foundation TUBITAK, Naji Giorour have pointed out thata the program will be made definite in a future meeting (possibly in 2-3 months) that will be held in Istanbul.

Mr. Giorour stated to the Macedonian News Agency that after the program receives the green light from all relevant ministries it will take 3 months to be materialized and the program itself will last two weeks. The funds required are estimated at $300.000

The meeting in Thessaloniki is working to deal with the earthquake problem as a whole and Ms. Papadimitriou pointed out that the fault that starts from the Marmaras Sea and moves east ending in the Northern Aegean, and that it is moving westward at a speed of 2-2,5 cm per year, having as a result the "migration" of the earthquakes.

Mr. Giorour pointed out that after the powerful earthquakes in Turkey last year, the same area is being researched by a group of scientists from Turkey, France, Italy and the US whose results should be in by 2002. He also predicts an earthquake of 7 points on the Richter scale in the area in 30 years.

The Director of the Institute of Natural Disasters of the University of Colombia New York, Art Lerner Lam, pointed out that the area has the biggest system of horizontal faults in the world and is especially dangerous because of the dense population. He sees this fault as nature's own experimentation "lab" and hopes to learn more about the behavior of the fault from its "results". The seismologist goal is to predict earthquakes, not just one, but the behavior of the whole system of a fault.

The Director of the Italian Institute of Marine Geology of the University of Bologna, Enrico Bonati, stated that there is a connection between the earthquake and the eruption of Mt. Etna, and that eruption predictions are based on earthquakes.

[08] SIMITIS RECEIVES TSOHATZOPOULOS TOMORROW

The pre-congress puzzle for this period will be completed with the Prime Minister's meetings with top staff members of PASOK before the summer vacations.

Mr. Simitis will meet Mr. Tsoxatzopoulos, Minister of Defense, and Mr. Giannopoulos, and on Thursday he departs for Sifnos. Mr. Simitis spent the weekend in Paros from where, at a party meeting, he attacked New Democracy, the main opposition party, characterizing its politics as nonsense. He repeated the government's three main targets, development, social visage and the strengthening of the country's international position, while concentrating the counterattack of the government on the matters of the Euro, the 3rd Municipal Support Framework and the Olympics.

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