Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-04-10

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Belgium-Ecumenical Patriarch-EU-Turkey

[02] National Culture Foundation-Europe-US

[03] Mount Athos - Opposition - Papal visit

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates-Wednesday

[05] Germanos-EasyEverything-Franchise

[06] Weather Forecast-Wednesday

[07] ASE-close

[01] Belgium-Ecumenical Patriarch-EU-Turkey

BRUSSELS (ANA - Y. Zitouniati) - Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos on Tuesday said Turkey's candidacy for European Union accession, as well as the improvement in Greek-Turkish relations, have also had a favourable effect on the Ecumenical Patriarchate's relations with the Turkish authorities and expressed the hope that the country's European rapprochement will proceed "for the good of all."

Speaking to Greek reporters from Brussels who visited the Phanar at his invitation, the Ecumenical Patriarch said that despite prolonged and pending issues with the Turkish government, including the reopening of the Halki Academy of Theology, the atmosphere has improved considerably lately, compared to past years.

He attributed the change in the position of the Turkish authorities to the need for them to show sensitivity in respect for human rights as a precondition for rapprochement with Europe, as well as to steps taken by the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey, George Papandreou and Ismail Cem, resulting in the curbing of past disputes.

Giving an example, he said that a few years ago speaking the Greek language in public in Turkey was forbidden.

"We have already travelled a great distance," the Ecumenical Patriarch said, also referring to Papandreou's recent visit to Ankara, and expressed the hope that in time and with Turkey's course towards Europe, as well, its relations with the Patriarchate will also be normalised all the more.

[02] National Culture Foundation-Europe-US

The National Culture Foundation (NCF) will be organising a series of cultural events in New York, Berlin, London and Zagreb in April, May and June.

Events include the Thessaloniki-USA 2001 Cinema Festival, inauguration of the work "Agora" by sculptress Antonia Papatzanaki at Battery Park in New York, an exhibition with works by photographer Nelly in Berlin and a concert by Nena Venetsanou at the Barbican Centre's Pit Theatre in London, as part of events named 'Greece in Britain'.

An exhibition on the Parthenon will also be held at the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, Croatia, in light of an official visit by President Kostis Stephanopoulos.

[03] Mount Athos - Opposition - Papal visit

The influential monastic community of Mount Athos this week expressed its opposition to an upcoming pilgrimage by Pope John Paul II to Greece early next month, the first visit by a pontiff to the area in more than a millennium.

Opposition by the semi-autonomous community, which includes nearly two dozen Orthodox monasteries located on a jutting peninsula in northern Greece, comes after a decision by the Church of Greece's highest administrative and cannonical body, the Holy Synod, to acquiesce to the papal visit.

The pope was initially invited to Greece by the country's president, and after the Vatican had publicly aired the pontiff's long-standing desire to visit Athens as part of a retracing of the Apostle Paul's journeys in Europe.

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates-Wednesday

Wednesday's buying rates

U.S. dollar 377.897

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 545.287

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 45.290

Swedish kroner 37.272

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 303.590

Swiss franc 221.295

Norwegian kroner 41.707

Cyprus pound 584.006

Canadian dollar 242.337

Australian dollar 187.132

[05] Germanos-EasyEverything-Franchise

The Germanos Group SA, a batteries manufacturer and retailer of electronic goods, announced on Tuesday that it had signed an exclusive franchise with easyEverything internet cafes that spans Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia and Hungary.

The investment cost for Germanos, which is listed on the Athens bourse, of opening easyEverything cafes in the countries is around 2.0 billion drachmas.

The cost of the first two internet cafes to open in Athens, which will be located in Syntagma and Omonia squares, and one in Budapest, Hungary, will be 500 million drachmas.

The Athens cafes will open in the second half of the year.

The president of the London-based Easy Group, Stelios Hadji-Ioannou, told a news conference in Athens that easyEverything, which is less than two years old, has 20 internet cafes in western Europe and one in New York, attracting more than two million visitors a month.

EasyEverything is due to seek listing on the London Stock Exchange at the end of 2002, Hadji-Ioannou added.

Another member of the Easy Group is easyJet, the low cost airline.

[06] Weather Forecast-Wednesday

Light cloud is forecast throughout the country on Wednesday, turning to occasional storms in the eastern islands. Winds westerly, moderate to strong. In the north, temperatures will range from 4C to 15C; on the rest of the mainland from 9C to 18C; and in the islands from 12C to 19C. Sunshine in Athens, with temperatures between 10C and 18C. Intermittent cloud in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 7C to 15C.

[07] ASE-close

Equity prices ended sharply higher on Monday reflecting investors' enthusiasm over news of a drop in the annual inflation rate to 3.0 percent in March from 3.5 percent in February, an expected decision by Morgan Stanley to review its world stock market indices and a positive climate in other European markets.

Traders said buying activity gradually expanded from blue chip stocks to almost all sectors in the market, although turnover remained low.

The general index ended 1.44 percent higher at 3,073.88 points, near its day's highs of 3,087.37 points, with turnover at 113.26 million euros, or 38.59 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index ended 1.48 percent up at 1,775.08 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index rose 1.0 percent to end at 369.84 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 323.79 points, up 0.54 percent.

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