Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 05-12-27

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

CONTENTS

[01] GREECE PRESENTS UPDATED STABILITY AND GROWTH PROGRAMME FOR 2005-2008

[02] ABNA EYES ENLARGEMENT

[03] THESSALONIKI: THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING PERIOD WAS DISAPPOINTING FOR

[04] POLITICAL PARTIES ON ALLEGED ABDUCTIONS OF PAKISTANIS

[05] KKE PARTY ON THE COMPLAINTS ABOUT ABDUCTIONS OF PAKISTANIS

[06] "JOURNEY TO MOUNT ATHOS" PHOTO COLLECTION BY BOISSONAS PUBLISHED

[07] PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE TAKES OVER INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED ABDUCTIONS OF

[08] GREEK TRADE DEFICIT DOWN 0.6 PCT IN JAN-OCT YR/YR

[09] BA AIRPLANE RETURNS TO THESSALONIKI AFTER INDICATION OF MALFUNCTION

[10] PM CONFERS WITH INTERIOR MINISTER

[11] PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA SENDS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE OF LOVE TO THE CHILDREN

[01] GREECE PRESENTS UPDATED STABILITY AND GROWTH PROGRAMME FOR 2005-2008

Restoring fiscal balance, improving business environment and strengthening Greece's role in the world market are the main priorities of an Updated Stability and Growth Programme 2005-2008, published on Tuesday.

The programme envisages strong growth rates in the 2006-2008 period, with average growth rates of 3.9 percent annually. Strong growth will result from an increase in public investments in combination with higher private investments and a strong private consumption in the country.

Greece's Economy ministry expects corporate profits to grow further due to a 10 percentage point cut of tax factors in the 2005-2007 period (to be introduced in three stages).

Profitability also will be supported by the introduction of a new investment law aimed to expand business and investment activity in the country. Credit expansion towards the private sector (households and enterprises) is expected to continue growing at high rates without raising the risk for the country's financial sector.

The programme envisages that a strong and dynamic growth would be supported by structural reforms aimed to boost productivity and employment. Reforms are expected to contributed in accelerating GDP growth rates and to support growth in regional Greece.

Employment is forecast to increase by an average 1.6 percent annually over the 2006-08 period, with unemployment rate expected to drop from 10.4 percent of the workforce in 2005, to 9.8 pct in 2006, 8.9 pct in 2007 and 8.0 pct in 2008. The updated stability programme also envisages a slowdown in the inflation rate from 2006 onwards.

The programme projects that Greece's fiscal deficit will drop below 3.0 pct of GDP by the end of 2006. The government's 2006 budget plan envisages a general government deficit at 2.6 pct of GDP this year with fiscal adjustment based on reducing spending and boosting revenues.

General government spending are forecast to drop to 44.7 pct in 2006 from 48.2 pct in 2004, while the fiscal deficit is projected to fall to 1.7 pct of the country's GDP by 2008.

The general government's debt is expected to ease from 107.9 pct of GDP this year to 104.8 pct in 2006, 101.1 pct in 2007 and 96.8 pct in 2008.

The government's updated stability programme also aims to ensure the long-term viability of the pension system and of the country's fiscal condition. The programme envisages the introduction of a new draft law on state procurement aimed to cut costs by 15 pct.

[02] ABNA EYES ENLARGEMENT

Significant changes and improvements for the efficient operation of the Association of Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) were decided by the association's three-member ad hoc committee during a meeting in Sofia.

The committee, comprising ABNA president for 2006 Hilmi Bengi, general director of the Turkish news agency Anadolu, ABNA secretary general Spyros Kouzinopoulos, general director of the Macedonian Press Agency (MPA), and Maxim Minchev, general director of the Bulgarian news agency BTA, was set up by the ABNA General Assembly that took place in Banja Luka (Bosnia-Herzegovina) in October. Also taking part in the meeting was MPA legal consultant Aris Halikias.

On the mandate of the General Assembly, the committee has drafted a deep-rooted reform of the ABNA charter and the association's adaptation to the modern-day needs, also enabling its expansion with the future membership of other news agencies from the SE Europe region. The committee further decided that the ABNA general secretariat's permanent headquarters should remain in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, where the HQ has been tentatively based since the association's establishment in 1995, and that Athens-based Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPE, the new news agency formed following the recent merger of the Athens-based ANA and Thessaloniki-based MPA) general director George Tambakopoulos would undertake the rotating annual ABNA presidency for the year 2007.

The Association of the Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) was established in 1995, aiming both at the development of full-scale cooperation between the region's news agencies, and aspiring to contribute to the prevailing of an atmosphere of peace, friendship, security and cooperation in our region, which was once considered the "powder keg of Europe".

The founding conference of the Association was held in Thessaloniki on June 26, 1995, on Macedonian Press Agency's initiative, while the 1st General Assembly was held in Antalya, Turkey, on December 15-16, 1995, the day after the signing of the Dayton Agreement in Paris which ended the bloody civil war in Bosnia- Herzegovina.

Regular Members of the Association of the Balkan News Agencies are the following news agencies: the Athens News Agency (Athens, Greece), ANADOLU (Ankara, Turkey), ÁÔÁ (Tirana, Albania), ÂÔÁ (Sofia, Bulgaria), Macedonian Press Agency (Thessaloniki, Greece), ÌÉÁ (Skopje, FYROM), ROMPRESS (Bucharest, Romania), SRNA (Banja Luka, Serbia-Montenegro), and TANJUG (Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro), while the following agencies are observers: STA (Ljubliana, Slovenia), MOLDPRESS (Chisinau, Moldova), and FENA (Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina).

[03] THESSALONIKI: THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING PERIOD WAS DISAPPOINTING FOR SHOPKEEPERS

The Christmas shopping period was disappointing for shopkeepers in Thessaloniki, the head of the city's Commerce Association said on Tuesday.

Kostas Hatzaridis told ANA-MPA that more people visited the city's shops during the Christas season but revenues were lower compared with 2004. Hatzaridis said he expected the Christas and New Year's shopping period to report an 8-10 percent decline in turnover and noted that his estimates were very moderate.

Hatzaridis said consumers focused on food for the Christmas table and consumer products for women and children.

[04] POLITICAL PARTIES ON ALLEGED ABDUCTIONS OF PAKISTANIS

Main opposition PASOK press spokesman Nikos Athanassakis on Tuesday stressed that the government must provide explanations if the allegations that Pakistanis living in Greece had been abducted for questioning by Greek intelligence services proved true.

Responding to questions during a radio interview, Athanassakis said the charges - if proved true - concerned the violation of human and citizens' rights and were an issue of democracy.

"EYP (the Greek intelligence service) is a state service and is obliged to operate within the framework of legality. And this is true for both Greeks and foreigners living in our country. The security of citizens cannot be carved up into categories," he said.

According to a senior member of the Coalition of the Left, Progress and Ecology party, Panagiotis Lafazanis, the "things happening at this time are unprecedented and highly dangerous".

Lafazanis claimed that the government, in spite of repeated revelations about the abductions, was continuing to cover-up proven abductions of citizens by Greek and British secret services that had occurred in three places throughout the country: Petralona, Giannena and Oinofyta.

He said the issue had taken on "massive dimensions" and that it concerned democracy itself and national security. He also claimed that responsibility for the cover-up no longer concerned only the public order ministry but the entire government, as well as the prime minister.

The Coalition party was among those backing some 20-odd Pakistanis who claim that they were abducted and interrogated shortly after the terrorist attacks against London in July. The Greek government and Pakistan's Embassy in Athens have denied that the abductions took place, while the allegations and press reports on the matter are now the subject of a judicial investigation launched by the Greek public prosecutor's office.

[05] KKE PARTY ON THE COMPLAINTS ABOUT ABDUCTIONS OF PAKISTANIS

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on Tuesday said that reports alleging the abduction of Pakistanis living in Greece for questioning by secret services highlighted the need for stronger action by the people's movement to defend fundamental democratic rights and freedoms that were being "mortally hurt by the despicable agreements and terrorist measures of EU governments".

The case, which has been denied by the government, the Greek police and the Embassy of Pakistan, is now being investigated by a Greek public prosecutor.

In an announcement, KKE said that the government was exposed because it had implemented the agreement signed by main opposition PASOK when it was in government that called for cooperation or action by secret services in the framework of the EU, with or without prior warning to the Greek government.

"The Greek people must decisively condemn both the highly dangerous action and cooperation of secret services but also secret cooperation between New Democracy and PASOK in implementing anti-democratic/terrorist measures that include secret deals with the EU and the US. KKE demands full elucidation of the abduction cases. The information that is published further clouds rather than elucidates matters. KKE calls on the people to fight for the abolition of the above agreements," the announcement says.

[06] "JOURNEY TO MOUNT ATHOS" PHOTO COLLECTION BY BOISSONAS PUBLISHED

The unforgettable images shot by Swiss photographer Fred Boissonas during his visit to the semi-autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos in the late 1920s have been collected in a unique volume entitled "Journey to Mount Athos (1928-1930)" that was presented by Prime Minister and Culture Minister Costas Karamanlis on Tuesday.

The publication was produced and published jointly by Agioreitiki Estia, the Thessaloniki Photography Museum and the Organisation for the Promotion of Greek Culture.

In an address presented the new book, Karamanlis stressed that Boissonas - as well as a famous philhellene - was a pioneer of efforts to perfect the art of photography in the early 20th century and that the photographs combined historic with pure artistic value.

According to the premier, the collection also capture the essence of Orthodox monasticism and made accessible to the broad public one of the most important aspects of Greece's living traditions.

[07] PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE TAKES OVER INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED ABDUCTIONS OF PAKISTANI NATIONALS

The Athens First-Instance Court public prosecutors department is taking over the investigation into the alleged "abduction and interrogation of Pakistani immigrants in Greece by Greek and British agents" this past summer following the suicide bombing attacks in London, and department chief Dimitris Papaggelopoulos on Tuesday requested that the case file put together by the Athens Security Police, following a complaint lodged by the Pakistanis allegedly involved, to his office.

According to an announcement by the prosecutors department, the work of the Security police, which has been completed, was to locate and take depositions of the alleged victims.

The investigation will now focus on a recent article appearing in the "To Proto Thema" weekly newspaper that listed the names of the agents who allegedly carried out the abductions and interrogations, and on the deposition of the lawyer representing the Pakistanis, who is seeking prosecution of the agents.

Papaggelopoulos was due to announce on Wednesday the name of the prosecutor who would be put in charge of the investigation.

The abduction and interrogation claims have been denied by the Pakistani Embassy in Greece, which said that it had received no complaints from the relatives or friends of the alleged victims, and by Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao when he was in Greece for a quadrilateral meeting on preventing organised crime two weeks ago.

According to one of the two lawyers representing the group, however, the Pakistani Embassy had been informed of the abductions on the very next day after they occurred and had done nothing, while putting pressure on the victims not to report the incident to the authorities.

The abductions were reported by the head of the Pakistani Community in Greece Tzavet Aslam, while the left-wing Coalition (Synaspismos) party has also been active in seeking an investigation into the matter.

British foreign secretary Jack Straw has also denied the allegations as "utter nonsense".

[08] GREEK TRADE DEFICIT DOWN 0.6 PCT IN JAN-OCT YR/YR

Greece's trade deficit fell by 0.6 percent in the January-October period compared with the same period last year, the National Statistics Service said on Tuesday.

NSS, in its regular report, said the trade deficit totalled 23.324 billion euros in the first 10 months of 2005, from 23.398 billion euros in the corresponding period in 2004.

The value of export-deliveries totalled 11.231 billion euros in the January-October period, from 9.955 billion last year, an increase of 12.8 percent.

The value of import-arrivals totalled 34.555 billion euros from 33.353 billion over the same periods respectively, for an increase of 3.6 pct.

[09] BA AIRPLANE RETURNS TO THESSALONIKI AFTER INDICATION OF MALFUNCTION

A British Airways (BA) plane en route to London returned to Thessaloniki's Macedonia Airport on Monday after a malfunction alert appeared on the plane's instrument panel.

Ôhe BA Boeing 737 took off from Macedonia Airport on Monday afternoon for London, but as it was flying over FYROM the captain saw a malfunction alert appearing on the plane's instrument panel, and returned to Thessaloniki.

The planes 95 passengers were accomodated for the night at hotels near the airport. Of those, 32 passengers left Thessaloniki early Tuesday morning on a different flight to London, where they have already arrived, while the remaining 63 were due to depart Thessaloniki on a BA flight on Tuesday afternoon.

The Boeing will remain at Macedonia Airport pending inspection by British technicians due to arrive from London.

[10] PM CONFERS WITH INTERIOR MINISTER

Prime minister Costas Karamanlis on Tuesday met with interior, public administration and decentralisation minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos, with whom he discussed the planned revision of the Constitution and the Civil Servants' Code.

Pavlopoulos told reporters after the meeting that he and the premier had discussed the procedures for the Constitutional revision, adding that there would be more meetings on the issue.

[11] PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA SENDS CHRISTMAS MESSAGE OF LOVE TO THE CHILDREN OF AFRICA

Patriarch of Alexandria Theodoros in his Christmas message on Sunday referred to the 17,000 African children he had met during his recent visit to Uganda and Kenya.

He said the Orthodox Church of Africa embraced them, giving them blankets, notebooks and pencils.

The Patriarch also said that the Orthodox Church of Africa supplied medicine for the children suffering from AIDS, to the homeless and orphans and to all those children who were struggling to get educated and escape from the harsh reality of daily life of the poor people of these countries.

Present at the church service officiated by Patriarch Theodoros were members of the Greek community of Egypt.

The Patriarch also spïke about the hospital for the poor which was founded by the local bishopry with the economic support of the Greeks.

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