Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 02-01-27

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

CONTENTS

[01] CONFLICTING SURVEY RESULTS

[02] CHRISTODOULOS ON CYPRUS

[03] PASSENGER TRAIN COLLIDES WITH FUEL TRUCK

[04] TRILATERAL BALKAN COOPERATION

[01] CONFLICTING SURVEY RESULTS

The peculiarity of modern Greek political reality has been confirmed once more, with the results of the Panhellenic survey performed by Focus, published in the Sunday Eleftherotypia

According to these results, Kostas Simitis concentrates more characteristics of the ideal leader than other political figures, with 33.7%, while Kostas Karamanlis is the most suitable person to be the next Prime Minister with 22.4%, and Giorgos Papandreou is the favorite to succeed the Prime Minister.

Specifically, the characteristics of the ideal leader are concentrated by Kostas Karamanlis with 23.6%, Dimitris Avramopoulos 9.7%, Nikos Konstantopoulos 4.4%, Dimitris Tsovolas 0.9%, Aleka Papariga 0.8%, while 28.7% believes that nobody in the Greek political scene is ideal.

Kostas Simitis follows Mr. Karamanlis as the most appropriate next Prime Minister, and then is Dimitris Avramopoulos with 17.5%, while those asked gave scores to the various political leaders as to how appropriate they are for the position of Prime Minister, on a scale of 1-10, the favorite is G. Papandreou, with 6.7, then K. Karamanlis, with 6.4, D. Avramopoulos, with 6.3, K. Simitis, with 6.2, and then N. Konstantopoulos, with 5.7 points.

[02] CHRISTODOULOS ON CYPRUS

The Cyprus issue was mentioned by Archbishop Christodoulos yesterday, drawing on the new round of discussions between Glafkos Kleridis and Rauf Denktash.

He supported that any decision made on the Cyprus issue, must be in accordance with our national interests, otherwise there should be no solution at all. During the enthroning of the new Metropolite of Sidirokastro, Makarios, Mr. Christodoulos did not hide his sadness for the victims of the Attila.

Today, during his sermon at the church of St. Paraskevi, the Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece referred to the relationship of the people with the clergy. The Archbishop brought up St. John Chrysostomos as an example of how all successful Church leaders had sought after and had achieved immediate communication with God's people.

[03] PASSENGER TRAIN COLLIDES WITH FUEL TRUCK

The Intercity passenger train, going from Piraeus to Kyparissia with 150 on board, crashed at 9.20 this morning, into a a truck full of gas, trying to pass the train crossing after the bars had been lowered.

According to the Traffic Police, the accident occurred when the fuel truck tried to pass the crossing while the bars were down, because its 50-year-old driver, Michael Makaronas, thought the bars were malfunctioning, and were always lowered.

Two elderly people and a child were injured during the crash, while the driver of the truck was arrested and is being held by Elefsina Traffic Authorities.

[04] TRILATERAL BALKAN COOPERATION

Cooperation for financial development in the Balkans and the EU's potential of intervening so that democratic institutions may be strengthened in the region, were the main points of discussion at the trilateral meeting between the Greek, Italian and Austrian Ambassadors to Balkan countries, which started in Thessaloniki today.

As stated by Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou, it is a special meeting, which marks the role of Thessaloniki and Northern Greece in the region's financial course, in view of the Greek Presidency in 2003. Mr. Papandreou repeated the Ministry's intentions on the draft to be submitted to the parliament on the Greek restructure plan. A significant part of the plan is to be managed by Thessaloniki, which will give greater potential for investments in the region to businessmen from Northern Greece. Furthermore he stressed the need for development in the region and the reinforcing of peace, stability, and European institutions, a common European goal.

The Head of the Austrian delegation is Secretary General of European Affairs of the Austiran Foreign Ministry, Johan Kurle, while for Italy it is the General Director of European Countries, Mauricio Moreno. The Greek side is represented by Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Savvaidis, and the representation of all Balkan embassies is on a consulate level. The works of the conference, which is the second to be held at this level after that in Athens with the participation of France and Italy, will be completed tomorrow afternoon, and during those works, the issue of crime in the Balkans will be discussed.

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