Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 05-08-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] THE METROPOLITAN BISHOP OF ATTIKI IS DETHRONED

[02] THE "DISCOVERY" LANDING POSTPONED

[03] THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO VISIT EDESSA AND FLORINA

[04] ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL WINS INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

[05] GREECE IS THE SECOND BIGGEST INVESTOR IN BULGARIA

[06] MAZDA RX-8 CARS ARE BEING RECALLED

[01] THE METROPOLITAN BISHOP OF ATTIKI IS DETHRONED

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece appears to have reached the decision to dethrone Metropolitan Bishop Panteleimon of Attiki after examining the accusations against him concerning sex and financial scandals.

Mr. Panteleimon was called to give explanations concerning his huge personal assets reaching an estimated 3 million euros.

Mr. Panteleimon had been removed from his post for a period of six months after a Holy Synod decision and today he appeared before the Holy Synod to give his own testimony.

[02] THE "DISCOVERY" LANDING POSTPONED

The landing of space shuttle Discovery has been postponed to take place tomorrow after the NASA conclusion that the thick clouds over the Cape Canaveral region in Florida could not guarantee its safe return back to earth.

The 13-day long mission of the US space shuttle was scheduled to end with its descent, reentry into the earth's atmosphere and touch down at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The descent started at 9:44 am, Greek time, and the reentry into the earth's atmosphere began at 10:43 am with Discovery traveling with a speed of 25 times the speed of the sound.

No specific landing time has been announced for the new landing.

[03] THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO VISIT EDESSA AND FLORINA

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will visit the cities of Edessa and Florina, northwestern Greece, on September 13-20. It is the first time the Ecumenical Patriarch visits the two cities within the framework of his visits to the so-called new countries.

Mr. Bartholomew had accepted an invitation to visit the region by local representatives who visited the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the Fener last June.

The Ecumenical Patriarch will be accompanied by Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece. He will visit Edessa on September 13 while he will be in Florina on September 16. He will be declared freeman of the cities of Florina, Ptolemaida and Edessa and will also visit the University of Western Macedonia, Ptolemaida, Prespa and Giannitsa.

[04] ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL WINS INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Thessaloniki's Aristotle University Polytechnic School Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering won the top prize in an international competition.

The competition takes place over the past six years and started at the initiative of Michigan University. It concerns the area of e-trade, combining sectors like artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems.

It is made up of two games. The first game is the TAC Classic, where the software agents represent autonomous travel agents and offer travel packages to virtual clients.

The second game, TAC SCM, simulates a dynamic environment of pc supply chains where the agents compete for supply orders and clients and buy parts necessary to build computers from different suppliers.

Twenty-three-year-old pre-graduate student Panagiotis Toulis and 29-yearold post-graduate student Dionisis Kechagias won the first prize in the TAC Classic, while Yiannis Kontogounis, Kiriakos Hatzidimitriou and Andreas Simeonidis came third in the TAC SCM. In charge of the Greek team was associate professor Periklis Mitkas.

Mr. Kechagias explained that the team developed a strategy that proved to be more effective than the rest and managed to stand out. The goal of the competition is to promote research given the fact that the applied technology is 10 years ahead of time.

[05] GREECE IS THE SECOND BIGGEST INVESTOR IN BULGARIA

Investments reaching 20.1 million US dollars were made by Greek businesses in Bulgaria in the first trimester of 2005, according to the Bulgarian Foreign Investments Agency, BFIA.

As a result, the overall directly invested Greek capital in Bulgaria in the period of January 1992-March 2005 is estimated at 1,054.6 billion US dollars making Greece the second biggest foreign investor in Bulgaria.

The top of the list with the foreign investors in Bulgaria is occupied by Austria with overall direct investments of 1,829 billion US dollars as a result of the purchase of the Bulgarian telecommunications organization.

Holland comes third with direct investments of 939.5 million euros in the period January 1992-March 2005.

[06] MAZDA RX-8 CARS ARE BEING RECALLED

Consumer General Secretary Thanasis Skordas announced that he was informed by the responsible automobile importer that a double recall of MAZDA RX-8 cars is in progress.

The first concerns vehicles built in the period from 28-7-03 until 1-7-05 (a total of 408 cars). In certain of the cars appeared that under rare circumstances there was a likelihood of a temperature rise in the fuel tank that in the worst case scenario could cause fuel leak.

The second recall concerns cars built in the period from 28-7-03 until 27-12-03 (a total of 240 cars) that could be impossible to control in extreme driving conditions due to a structural defect.

The company had briefed the MADZA RX-8 owners in time through personal letters as well as its network of car dealers and gave technical guidelines for the solution of the specific problems.

The repair cost will be fully covered by the Mazda Motor Corporation.

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