Antenna: News in English (PM), 97-11-21

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

Last Updated: Friday, 21-Nov-97 12:32:01

CONTENTS

[01] Simitis-EU

[02] Damanaki

[03] Parliament

[04] Christina Onasis

[05] Quakes

[06] Basketball

[01] Simitis-EU

With 18 million people out of work in the EU, leaders discussed the issue at a special summit in Luxembourg Thursday.

After meeting with his Danish counterpart on the sidelines of the summit, Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis said 'we discussed the jobs issue, the policies needed to fight unemployment'.

With unemployment at 10.6 per cent in the EU, many European leaders told people not to expect too much to come out of their two-day summit, the first of its kind. EU leaders want to reduce joblessness to 7 per cent by the year 2002.

Thousands of people from all over Europe travelled to the summit locale to make their voices heard in protest.

One Greek trade unionist flew in for the event. He said, 'The leaders have got to do something. If I was without hope, I wouldn't be here'.

Simitis said that he had also talked to his opposite number from Denmark about EU enlargement - how it will take place, and which countries will be included - and Cyprus's entry into the EU. They also talked about Greek- Turkish relations, but Simitis emphasised to reporters that the main point of the deliberations in Luxembourg is jobs, adding that that issue shouldn't be papered over by talking about other issues.

[02] Damanaki

Damanaki, the former Left Coalition leader, announced her candidacy last week, and so far it looks like she'll be able to bank on Coalition and Pasok support.

Meeting with Political Spring leader Antonis Samaras Thursday, Damanaki began a series of contacts with political leaders.

Afterward, Damanaki told the press, 'I underscored that my candidacy has nothing to do with party colours. I want to surpass party discriminations', she added, referring to Spring's use of the term 'surpassing' when it talks about the changes that need to be made to the nation's political map.

Samaras said it's too early for his party to come down behind any candidate, but he distanced himself from Damanaki by using harsh words against Pasok. 'We think that starting election campaigns prematurely hurts local government as an institution', said Samaras. 'It also plays along with goverment attempts to distract public attention from the country's big problems'.

Damanaki got her first thumbs down from a party leader. Democratic Movement leader Dimitris Tsovolas refused to meet with her.

[03] Parliament

One article in development minister Vaso Papandreou's development bill passed by a 119-118 vote.

The article in the industrial development bill wouldn't have passed if Papandreou hadn't won over three Pasok dissenters by removing forest land from the industrial and business areas it would have opened up.

And even that wasn't enough, as the 119th and passing vote came from a non- Pasok MP.

Shaking off the close call, justice minister Evangelos Yiannopoulos said there were absences from all the parties, implying that if all the Pasok members had been present, the article would've passed easily.

There was a heated exchange between Papandreou and Pasok MP Nikos Sifounakis over another article in the bill, Sifounakis criticising its provisions for the development of tourist areas.

Papandreou accused him of serving the interests of large hoteliers.

Later, government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said

Sifounakis had been off base with his comment.

And Yiannopoulos said Sifounakis and those around him should learn to follow the party line.

And there's been more infighting in Pasok. Central Committee member Giorgos Panagiotakopoulos has sent a letter to the executive bureau, charging that people close to Simitis are using quote 'Stalinist methods', unquote, to modernise the party. In a slight against Thodoros Tsoukatos, he calls Pasok headquarters a centre for political mud-slinging.

MP Moschos Gikonoglou, who voted against the Pasok bill that passed by one vote, said what Tsoukatos says in his letter has been going on for a long time.

But not all MPs agree. Fivos Ioannides says he doesn't have much truck with party organisations, but he hasn't seen any evidence of Stalinist methods being used to change Pasok.

[04] Christina Onasis

And nine years on, mystery still shrouds her death in Bueno Aires.

As we hear in this report, some people who were close to her don't believe she died of natural causes.

[05] Quakes

In Kyparissia, schools were badly cracked. On Thursday quake experts and local officials gave

schoolkids an exercise in how to deal with quakes.

When a shaker starts, they should get under their desks and wait for it to pass.

Above all, they were told not to panic or worry about coming quakes.

Two students have been appointed from each class to get their fellow pupils outside after the shaking stops.

Residents spent a second night outdoors in many quake-hit areas Wednesday. One man said rain has made things even worse, there are leaks in the roofs of many buildings hit by the quake.

There were more aftershocks Thursday. The largest was a 4.3 richter. Seismologists says the big one was Tuesday.

[06] Basketball

Michalis Kakiouzis is unhindered by a broken finger, holding Dominique Wilkens to just 7 points. And 16 points a piece from David Rivers and Myers aren't enough to compensate for Dominique's poor showing.

Despite the off-key Wilkens, Aek is down 36-35 just before half time, but the second half is a different story. The home team out rebounds its guest 21 to 7 after the break.

Aek uses tough defence and 20 points on the night from guard Pane Pre- levich and 17 more from big man Victor Alexander in smothering Team System 80-57.

With the victory, Aek moves into a first-place tie with Team system in their 6-team Euroleague group.

(c) ANT1 Radio 1997

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