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Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-02-15
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 15/02/1999 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- PM warns of inflationary pressure
- Locals protest over Kurdish refugees
- One killed, four injured in police raid
- Farmers begin gradually heading home
- PM underlines commitment to health care
- New Chief of Staff for armed forces
- 15 Kurds on hunger strike for Ocalan
- Athens hosts first regional audio-visual meet
- Weather
- Foreign Exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
PM warns of inflationary pressure
Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Monday that inflation would continue
to fall to reach 2.5 percent at the end of 1999 but warned of possible
inflationary pressures before then. "Lower inflation is not only the
responsibility of the government but all of those who participate in the
economy," Simitis said in Thessaloniki during a luncheon held in his honour
by the city's MPs and businessmen. He said inflationary pressures were
possible through an increase in currency circulation. Unemployment had
fallen "marginally" on the basis of the latest figures, he said, adding
that there was a need for more effective employment programmes.
Locals protest over Kurdish refugees
Tension mounted in an Athens suburb on Monday as local residents protested
the transfer of more than 300 Kurdish political refugees from a downtown
Athens square that had been turned into an refugee camp. The Kurdish
familes had been languishing in Koumoundourou Square for more than a year
after being illegally ferried to Greece from Turkey. Police swooped on the
make-shift camp at dawn Monday, and transferred the Kurds on police buses
to the Welfare Services building in Aghia Varvara suburb, next to the
Egaleo suburb in eastern Athens. On seeing the busloads arriving,
local residents took to the streets led by the two mayors, and tried to
bar the refugees' relocation to a disused hospital for contagious
diseases.
One killed, four injured in police raid
One person was killed and four policemen were injured in a handgrenade
explosion when police raided a ferryboat in the central Greek port city of
Rio, public order ministry sources said today. According to initial reports,
police acting on a tip raided the ferry "Eleni B" as it entered the port
from Antirio to arrest a group of seven Albanians who were due to arrive in
three cars loaded with drugs. Spotting the police, the Albanians opened
fire and one of them threw a handgrenade, killing one of the other suspects
and wounding four policemen, who were rushed to a local hospital. Two of
the policemen also had bullet wounds. The other six Albanians were
arrested and a search of their cars revealed 50 kilograms of hashish, a
kalashnikov rifle and a handgrenade.
Farmers begin gradually heading home
Farmers in central Greece threatening to close national roads on Monday
abandoned protests with "their heads held high," a farmers' representative
said. Farmers had lined up their tractors along the sides of national roads
at several points along the Athens-Thessaloniki motorway in central Greece
last Monday, to demand lower debt repayment rates. They warned of a repeat
of protest action in 1997, when the country's road and rail network was
paralysed by tractor blockades. Last week, the government announced a
package of measures to facilitate the repayment by farmers of debts to
the Agricultural Bank of Greece, according to which 50 per cent of
outstanding debts will be written off.
PM underlines commitment to health care
Prime Minister Costas Simitis said today that the government was determined
to improve the national health system, smoothing access to efficient
healthcare for all Greek citizens. He was speaking at the inauguration of a
new Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Thessaloniki's Papanikolaou Hospital in
northern Greece. The unit was a donation by the Association of Friends of
Children with Cancer. Simitis said there were numerous problems and issues
in the health sector that needed to be solved.
New Chief of Staff for armed forces
Outgoing Greek Chief of Staff Athanasios Tzoganis handed over the reins to
his successor Manoussis Paragioudakis on Monday at a ceremony at the
national defence headquarters. Present at the ceremony were the political
and military staff of the ministry and armed forces. Paragioudakis,
formerly chief of the Army General Staff, was named by the Cabinet as the
new head of Greece's armed forces in November. General Athanasios Tzoganis
will retire with the title of honorary chief of the general staff, after
completing the longest permissible term in the post.
15 Kurds on hunger strike for Ocalan
Fifteen Kurds began a hunger strike outside the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry
in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Monday to demand political
asylum for fugitive Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. A statement from the
Solidarity Committee for Kurdistan condemned "the continuing hypocritical
policy of the international community over the Kurdish issue and the issue
of poltical asylum" for Ocalan. Ocalan, in a statement faxed to Greek and
foreign media over the weekend, castigated the Russian, Greek, German and
French governments for their stance on the Kurdish issue and failure to
give him asylum.
Athens hosts first regional audio-visual meet
Greece hosts the first Southeast European conference on audio-visual media
on February 19, with the participation of 11 countries. The two-day
conference hopes to lay the groundwork for greater cooperation in the
sector among the countries of the Balkans. Countries participating include
Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey. On the agenda
of the inaugural conference, which is organised by the Greek Institute
for A-V Media, are the legal and institutional framework for A-V means in
southeast Europe and the social and economic aspects of the sector. The
conference will be held at the Zappeion Hall.
WEATHER
Unsettled weather will prevail throughout Greece today. Sleet or snow in
northern Greece and the mountainous regions of the country, with improvement
later in the day. Rain with sunny spells in central and southern Greece.
Winds variable, moderate to strong. Athens will be partly cloudy with
possibility of rain and temperatures ranging from 4-12C. Same in Thessaloniki
with temperatures from 1-8C.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Monday's rates (buying) U.S. dollar 283.920
Pound sterling 461.915 Japanese yen (100) 248.069
French franc 48.699 German mark 163.329
Italian lira (100) 16.498 Irish Punt 405.610
Belgian franc 7.919 Luxenburg franc 7.919
Finnish mark 53.727 Dutch guilder 144.957
Danish kr. 42.962 Austrian sch. 23.215
Spanish peseta 1.920 Swedish kr. 35.764
Norwegian kr. 36.952 Swiss franc 199.491
Port. Escudo 1.593 Aus. dollar 182.325
Can. dollar 190.206 Cyprus pound 548.576
Euro 319.444
(M.P.)
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