Antenna: News in English (AM), 97-07-08

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, 08/07/97

TITLES

• Thessaloniki is in a state of emergency as it combats three major fires
• The second round of elections in Albania with the Socialists winning
• And, an amazing piece of living art

FIRE

Since Sunday the forest of "Seikh-Sou" and the adjoining region of PanOrama, east of Thesaloniki are burning.

As we hear in this report, strong winds are hampering efforts of firemen to control the blazes.

Fire fighting planes, two helicopters and one military chopper, fought to contain three MAIN blazes and numerous small ones burning around the Thessaloniki suburb of PanOrama. As of Monday night the fire fronts were under control. Strong winds, however, are hampering efforts to battle the blaze.

300 soldiers have also been deployed to fight the flames aided by 34 fire engines and 12 forestry vehicles.

As the fire inched closer to Thessaloniki, rescue crews evacuated nearly 600 people on Monday as the raging brush fire pressed toward residential areas.

People were also ordered to leave some areas of the PanOrama district, to the east of Thessaloniki in order to prevent respiratory problems.

Roughly one third of the Seih Sou Forest, about 4000 acres is burned. Eight residencies have sustained a considerable amount of damage, as did one shop. The fire also caused some damage to Thessaloniki's main power station, resulting in temporary power outages around the city of about 1 million people. Power, phone and water lines were cut in PanOrama.

Police are investigating the possibility of arson in a string of blazes that began in the parched woodlands. Antenna Television has videoed gas bottles in the trees.

Commenting on the state of emergency, Stefanos TzoumAkas the minister of agriculture said, "Surveys will be conducted on residents and the damages suffered and the forest of Seikh-Sou will be mapped and upgraded". Dimitris DimitriAdis, Thessaloniki's vice-mayor says,"Its going to take over 15 years to restore a PART of the forest."

ALBANIA

The Socialists were confirmed winners of the vote by the electoral commission having secured more than 110 of the 155 assembly seats.

19 parliamentary races where no candidate had won a clear majority were decided in a run-off election Sunday. The Socialist party and its allies the smaller former opposition parties, won the races securing 110 seats. They needed a minimum of 104 seats, the two-thirds parliamentary majority to be able to elect a new president.

President Sali Berisha's Democratic Party, united with the royalist party was a distant second securing 30 seats, leaving President Sali Berisha esentially moved out of power.

The appointment of the remaining 13 seats are still pending in some regions due to breach of rules resulting in a final run off election to be carried out this coming Sunday.

The Ethnic Greek Human Rights Party secured 4 or five seats. (to be cleared out in the next few hours).

The Socialists are preparing to ask Berisha to resign, when all seats are filled completing the Albanian parliament. Socialist party chairman, Fatos Nano said he would be Albania's next prime minister after the socialists are officially declared winners of the country's troubled national elections.

Mr. Nano will suceed another Socialist, Baskim Fino, who was appointed interim prime minister in March after the government resigned and an early election was called to stem violence that erupted after the collapse of pyramed schemes wiped out many Albanian's savings.

"I will be prime minister", Mr Nano said during the second round of voting. "The leader of the party will become the leader of the executive."

Mr. Nano, a multilingual economist has been prime minister twice - as head of Albania's last Communist administration in 1991, and after the first multiparty elections won by the Socialists, the heirs to the Communists.

Sentenced to 12 years in jail in 1994 on corruption charges he was later freed and pardoned. He is trying to recast socialism in Albania, Europe's poorest country, as a promoter of free enterprise and private property.

Mr. Berisha has vowed to resign as president once a leftist government is appointed. Mr. Nano would not comment on possible candidates for the position.

A mood of relative calm still prevails in Albania with the added presence of police authorities and the multinational peace-keeping force soldiers keeping things under control.

ALBANIA/KIDNAP

These self-appointed muskateers were on hand Sunday to help out two drivers of the Greek Railway Organization, who were kidnapped and held hostage by a band of Albanians for 12 hours.

Two men with the Greek Railway Organization were driving back to Athens from Tirane in the organisation's bus when a group of armed Albanians stopped them just outside the town of TepelEni.

Hostage Nikos Do-do-ka-nA-kis explains, "Four to five men holding Kalashnikof rifles stopped us and said "Were kidnapping you and holding you for a ransom of three million drachmas", saying that if we didn't give them the money they asked for they would kill us.

They then released one of the two drivers, Spyros Tsa-our-dAs, and ordered him to return with the money, keeping his partner, Nikos Do-do-ka-nA-kis as a hostage in the nearby cemetery of KakaviA.

The self-appointed Albanian musketeers soon heard of the kidnap and undertook the mission to release the Greek driver. One member of the group says,"we fought with them to get the Greek hostage back tricking them at some point.

Do-do-ka-nA-kis, the driver remembers, "When these good Albanian men came a shoot out ensued kicking off a war between them. After they rescued me they took me to the Greek consulate.

The protection and peace keeping group of Albanians are so fearless they guarantee that anyone who steps foot into Albanian territory will be safe. Adding that, "We are doing this because we don't want to fight anymore, we only want to be in peace.

MADRID

Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis and his Turkish counterpart Messout Yilmaz will attend the meetings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Although no formal meeting is arranged between them, sources say it is quite certain that the two premiers will have the opportunity to exchange views on several matters of bilateral concern.

One such matter expected to be discussed during these talks, is NATO's proposal on confidence building measures in the Aegean.

Also expected to be reviewed but with no final decisions is the Alliance's new military structure. All of NATO members agree, EXCEPT for Turkey, that the new structure should include two headquarters, one in North and another in South. In the South, they agree four under-headquarters should be founded, in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

Final decisions on the issue are expected to be made at the next NATO summit in December.

The topic in this summit to be decided on is the Alliance's enlargement to eastern European countries. All eyes are on Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Southern Nato members also propose the partnership of Rumania, Slovenia and Bulgaria, stressing that all Balkan Countries will eventually become NATO partners, should be faced equally. Northern NATO members disagree due to the economic cost.

MEDICAL

Randas Batista, the Brazilian cardiosurgeon who was in Greece this week gave an exclusive interview to Antenna television.

Randas Batista has pioneered a new method which can be salutary in all cases of cardiac insufficiency, consisting in removing inflamed parts of the heart, instead of resorting to a transplant.

In his interview, Batista explains that the removal of the biggest part of the left cavity of the heart, makes it easier for the heart to work with less energy.

Here with great humility, the Brazilian doctor doesn't hesitate to admit that some of his patients have unfortunately died due to the lack of proper hospital care.

"If I would be doing it here, I think its success rate would be much better. I would say 99 per cent would leave the operating room, maybe 95 per cent would leave the hospital. You see, the results should be better, because you have better people to take care of these patients".

The Batista operation is considered by the international scientific community as a technique so promising it could literally change the future of cardio-surgery.

SPORTS/B-BALL

On Saturday, Greece lost to Yugoslavia 88-80.

Greece played against Russia securing its fourth place position. Russia winning over Greece takes a third place position with a score of 97-77.

The two highest scorers on the Russian team were Mikhail Mik-haEE-lov with 35 points and Vassily Ka- rA-ssev with 19.

Greek Center Efthi-mis Ren-giAs led Greece with 28 points, nearly all of it in the first half. After scoring 22 before halftime, 7-foot giant only scored six in rest of the game.

Greek forward NikO-laos E-konO-mou added 12 points.

Yugoslavia won the title in the tournament's final gainst the Italians with 61-49 late Sunday.

CULTURAL

"A live creation" is the name of an avant-guarde work of art made by three talented Greek women, where ? Well... not in Greece, but quite far from here...in the Egyptian desert, near the Red Sea.

The name of their group is called DAS, named after their first names; sculptor Danae StrA-tou, designer Alexandra StrA-tou and architect Stella Kon- stan-di-nEE-dou. The three women worked diligently for three months to create a huge sculpted architectural work : two spirals starting from a center, which are made up of sand cones.

The structure is made up of small and big cones; the so-called "positive" ones, which protrude out of the earth, and the "negative" ones, which are buried in the desert. All the cones were developed following a logarithmic progress.

The desire of the three women was to create something beautiful yet fleeting, a 'live creation'. The idea of the work of art was transiency of life, to be made of the desert and consequently destroyed by nature itself. Blowing winds are expected to slowly erode the 'live creation'.

The architectural masterpiece was praised by international press and art lovers from all over the world.

© ANT1 Radio 1997

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