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Antenna News in English 040796Antenna Radio News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.grNews in English, of 04/07/1996TITLES
TARNOFF/LODALIn his letter of congruatulations to prime minister Kostas Simitis on his election as Pasok president, US president Bill Clinton says Greek-Turkish relations are in need of immediate improvement.Since January, Turkey has been making waves in the Aegean, questioning Greek sovereignty over the islands there on numerous occasions. Mr Clinton believes that if there is no improvement in relations between the two countries, then there could be more tense situations, and even open conflict. Two top US officials are in Athens discussing Greek-Turkish relations. The US is trying to find a way of bringing Greece and Turkey closer together. In an exchange of views with Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis, US president Bill Clinton says a war in the Aegean would be an unprecedented tragedy. Mr Simitis reminds Mr Clinton that Turkey has been stepping up its provocations of Greece in the Aegean in recent months. Top US officials are in Athens to discuss the way forward in Greek-Turkish relations. US assistant secretary of state Peter Tarnoff met with Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos Wednesday, and US assistant secretary of defence Jan Lodal spoke with Greek defence minister Gerasimos Arsenis. What Greece, Turkey and the US are looking at is the possibility of partially or fully implementing an agreement signed by Greece and Turkey in 1988, but never implemented by Turkey. That agreement, in the form of a memorandum, contains six points, among them a call for a moratorium on military exercises in the Aegean in the tourist months of July and August. Greece has refrained from exercises during those months since 1988. And, after his meeting with Tarnoff, Pangalos said Greece is in favour of Turkey immediately implementing the 1988 agreement, especially the summer war-game ban. The US thinks that would be a good start down the road to better Greek-Turkish relations in the Aegean, especially given the accession to power of Islamicist prime minister Necmetin Erbakan in Turkey. US president Bill Clinton says better relations between the Aegean neighbours are a must. So, say sources does Nato secretary Javier Solana. One Athens daily says Solana would also like to see the moratorium on war games implemented, and has sent a letter to the Greek and Turkish governments saying as much. Turkey, though, seems to have reservations, and its new government has asked for some time to think it over. Tarnoff says he discussed the issue when in Ankara recently, and that it's up to Turkey to decide for itself. For the time being, Pangalos says he's not worried that there will be a military confrontation in the Aegean. Greece's armed forces are ready to defend the country's sea and airspace, he adds, but have clear orders not to attack first. Pangalos's reassurance notwithstanding, sources say Jan Lodal told Gerasimos Arsenis the US is worried about the possibility of a military episode in the Aegean, and wants such an episode avoided. The same sources say Arsenis told Lodal the US should take up the issue of Turkey's increasingprovocations of Greece in the Aegean with Ankara. After his meeting with Lodal, Arsenis said, "We believe that the 1988 agreement is a good start, and if Turkey agrees to implement it, then we can start looking at further steps". SIMITIS/VENIZELOSPrime minister Kostas Simitis and the justice minister met to discuss the change of faces at the top of the high court.Mr Simitis and Evangelos Venizelos looked over the list of candidates for the top positions. Venizelos said he'll make his final recommendations at Friday's cabinet meeting. The front-runners for the high court presidency are two high court members, Mr Dafermos and Mr Mat-thias. Venizelos says he and the prime minister are in complete agreement on who should get the post. PASOKThe high court selection process is coming up. In Pasok, there's some grumbling following last weekend's central committee election.Complaints by some candidates who didn't make it onto the 150-member committee led to a recount of the votes cast at last weekend's party congress. The new central committee will be doing some voting of its own. It will be charged with the task of electing a new Pasok executive bureau on Friday. Most of the members of the central committee are supporters of prime minister Kostas Simitis, and it is believed that will be reflected in the composition of the new bureau. But Mr Simitis has struck a unifying cord, saying he wants no leading party members excluded from the bureau. He discussed the issue of who should be on the bureau with his main party rival, interior minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos. Labour minister Evangelos Yiannopoulos said Wednesday he would like to be on the bureau, but will only be a candidate for one of the seats if he gets the prime minister's backing. HEATWAVEAs predicted, the temperature has been rising all around the country, meaning the smart thing to be wearing is a swimsuit.Which is easy if you're a tourist on one of Greece's alluring beaches. The temperature hit 37 degrees celsius in Athens and many other places Wednesday. That's close to a hundred farenheit. For people in the big cities, that's not necessarily good weather, just hot weather. There is one promising cloud on the forecast horizon though. The weatherman says the current heatwave should peak with temperatures hitting 40 degrees celsius. That's better than the 41 degrees he was talking about yesterday. IOANNIDESThe man who turned Olympiakos into a basketball dynasty, is going to try to do the same thing for Aek, which has been floundering.Iannis Ioannides, the hot-headed coach the fans begged not to leave Olympiakos when he announced his resignation at the end of last season, is taking over on Aek's bench. Ioannides left Olympiakos because of differences with the team owner, but he also won three straight Greek championships with the Piraeus club. During his five-year stint at Olympiakos, Ioannides turned a group of young, inexperienced players into champions. And now, as Aek's new coach, he says he has a three-year programme designed to build his new team into a contender. He'll have his work cut out for him: Aek hasn't won a championship in 30 years. HYDRAULUSIt's a sound from the distant past. Hydraulus, an ancient musical instrument, has started producing sounds and melodies again, centuries after it was invented.A group of specialists has managed to bring back the sounds of the Hydraulus. The ancient musical instrument, invented by an engineer from Alexandria two thousand three hundred years ago, works with air pressure. The charms ofhydraulus put together by the scientists, an exact replica of the ancient instrument, were shown off at the European Culture Centre in Delphi. The idea of reviving the instrument appeared after the discovery of an ancient hydraulus by archeology professor Dimitris Pandermalis in 1992. A group of scholars studying ancient writers who made reference to the instrument. Musicology professor Marios Mavroidis says the group found specific information only about the mechanical parts of the instrument that produce sound, but not about the mechanism that supplies it with air. Scientists stepped in to solve that problem, also relying on the instructions they found in ancient texts. The modern replica of the hydraulus will be presented in its final form at the international music meet in Delphi in August. © ANT1-Radio 1996Antenna Radio News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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