Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 01-11-11

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

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

CONTENTS

[01] SURVEY SHOWS NEW DEMOCRACY AHEAD

[02] JACQUES ROGGE ON ATHENS SUCCESS

[03] EVENT IN THE MEMORY OF S. SAUNDERS

[04] PASCHALIDIS ON GREEK-TURKISH RELATIONS

[05] CHRISTODOULOS: ID ISSUE NOT CLOSED

[01] SURVEY SHOWS NEW DEMOCRACY AHEAD

Íew Democracy is six points ahead of PASOK in vote intent, as shown by the survey of Opinion, that is published in "Eleftherotypia" today, according to which ND concentrates 35,3% while PASOK concentrates 29,3%.

Prime Minister Kostas Simitis is ahead of Kostas Karamanlis in the question of who is more suitable to be Prime Minister.

According to the poll, PASOK concentrates 29,3%, while New Democracy is ahead with 35,3%. The Greek Communist Party (KKE) concentrates 4,5%, the Coalition of the Left has 3,2%, DIKKI 1,9%, while KEP falls back with 5,6%.

New Democracy shows a high rallying of its voters with 88,8% and PASOK follows with 71,4%, while as mentioned, ND's potential to win the elections against PASOK is 9%.

According to the survey reesults, PASOK is ahead of New Democracy in the question of which party is more qualified for governing the country. PASOK concentrates 35,6% against 33,1% of ND.

To the question of who is more suitable to be Prime Minister, Mr. Simitis is in the lead with 26,3%, against 25,2% of the President of New Democracy. Third, is Dimitris Avramopoulos with 7,3% and Giorgos Papandreou comes fourth with 6,4%. Following with smaller percentages are Aleka Papariga and Dimitris Tsovolas.

[02] JACQUES ROGGE ON ATHENS SUCCESS

His belief that the Athens Olympics will be completely successful, was expressed by the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, in an interview to "The Guardian" newspaper.

Referring to the organization of the Olympics of 2004 by Athens, the President of the IOC stated: "Athens is on course to produce a very good Olympic Games. Whether it will be as good as the last one, of course we will not know until it happens. Where we have been worried about the timetable not being met we have made our feelings known and the Greek committee is working very, very hard to bring the preparations back on timetable. We are now confident that it will be a success."

[03] EVENT IN THE MEMORY OF S. SAUNDERS

A short memorial service with the unveiling of a plaque in the memory of British military attache, Steven Saunders, took place thus morning at the Anglican Church of Athens, in the presence of the deceased's wife Heather, and the British Deputy Secretary of Defense, lord Bach. Also present, were the British Ambassador, David Maten, US Ambassador Thomas Miller and the Canadian Ambassador, David Hutton.

After the wife of the deceased repeated that her husband was a victim of terrorism, she underlined that "we must all understand that terrorism turns against all of us, and we must protect ourselves effectively".

Referring to the September 11 attack, Mrs. Saunders noted among other things that "we all have a greater debt to honor the victims of terrorism".

Lord Bach spoke of the personality and the role of Steven Saunders, and mentioned the "unforeseen evil" of terrorism and the need for international cooperation in confronting it.

[04] PASCHALIDIS ON GREEK-TURKISH RELATIONS

Minister of Macedonia-Thrace Giorgos PAschalidis referred to the course of Greek-Turkish relations, at a dinner in honor of the Turkish State Minister Ramazan Mirjaoglou, at the "Hyatt" hotel,

"Low politics" are a stable ground on which a step by step approach leading to the de-escalation of tensions can be founded, stated Mr. Pascchalidis and added: "Peace is in the interest of Greece and Turkey. We can systematically work for the common peaceful and European future of the region. Én the framework of the Trust Construction Measures, I believe that the economic, business and political climate affect each other. Business cooperation may contribute to the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations".

Mr. Paschalidis wished his next meeting with Mr. Mirzaoglou to take place on a liner traveling from Thessaloniki to Smyrna, and from Smyrna to Thessaloniki

The Turkish Minister thanked the citizens and entrepreneurs for their hospitality and commended their initiative, which shows that the people of Greece and Turkey are closer than the states.

[05] CHRISTODOULOS: ID ISSUE NOT CLOSED

The issue of whether religion should be recorded on the new ID cards is not yet closed, according to the encyclical of the Holy Synod, which was recognized earlier today in all of the country's churches. Archbishop of Athens and all Greece Christodoulos, referred to the issue, in the Metropolitan Church of Athens, where he held Sunday Mass.

The archbishop attacked those who criticize him, while he referred to the return of people to churches after the September11 terrorist attack.

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