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

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

CONTENTS

[01] ND leader tours Nafplio, calls for early elections in February

[02] FM Papandreou more popular than PM and ND leader, poll shows

[03] Record number of New Year messages sent through mobile telephony

[04] Weather Forecast: Rain and sleet on Monday

[01] ND leader tours Nafplio, calls for early elections in February

Main opposition New Democracy party leader Costas Karamanlis toured the town of Nafplio, in the Peloponnese, on Sunday morning and urged the ruling PASOK party to choose and select its leader and call early elections in February.

Karamanlis said 2004 is the year of great political change, a year for the government of all Greeks and of responsibility, understanding, honesty, modesty and humility.

The ND leader further said it will be a year for a government which shall care for all citizens and not for organised interests and for a government for all and not a few.

Karamanlis said his party is struggling with faith and optimism to handle problems at a time when the establishment is looking for another leader and another wrapping to cover up its failure.

He also added that his party will continue to voice its positions with boldness, responsibility and realism and present ambitious proposals to handle new poverty, the high cost of living, unemployment and problems in the health and education sectors.

[02] FM Papandreou more popular than PM and ND leader, poll shows

Foreign Minister George Papandreou appears to be ahead of Prime Minister Costas Simitis and main opposition New Democracy party leader Costas Karamanlis in popularity, according to a nationwide opinion poll carried out on the three politicians by the Metron Analysis company and published in the Sunday newspaper ''Kyriakatiki Eleftherotypia.''

According to the poll, conducted in November 2003 among 2,200 people on the question of overall popularity, Papandreou comes first with 72.2 percent and is followed by Karamanlis with 54.3 and Simitis with 51.4.

[03] Record number of New Year messages sent through mobile telephony

A record number of New Year messages were sent on New Year's Day through SMS, compared to previous years.

According to data released by the four mobile telephone companies, a record 35.9 million messages were sent on New Year's Day.

A total of 13.6 million messages were sent through Vodafone. This number is a record for Greece and is up 10 per cent compared to the previous year and two times greater than on a normal day. In the first two hours on the New Year's Day 3.1 million messages were sent.

From Cosmote 13.2 million messages were sent. From 7 a.m. until the afternoon, the proceeds from messages sent through Cosmote went to philanthropic institutions.

From Telestet 8 million messages were sent and 1.1 million through Q-Telecom.

[04] Weather Forecast: Rain and sleet on Monday

Rain or sleet is forecast, primarily in eastern regions, and periodic snowfall in mountainous areas. Winds westerly, southwesterly light to moderate. Temperatures in Athens 4C to 8C and in Thessaloniki 1C to 4C.

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