Athens News Agency: News in English, 11-06-28

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

CONTENTS

[01] Medium-Term fiscal programme vote on Wednesday

[02] 48-hour labor strike Tuesday and Wednesday

[03] Parl't event on Special Olympics

[04] Fossil finds on Lesvos

[05] Athens Newspaper Headlines

[01] Medium-Term fiscal programme vote on Wednesday

A heated three-day discussion opened on Monday on the Medium-Term fiscal programme, ratification of which has been set out by the EU as a condition for the smooth financing of Greece, goes before the parliament plenary.

The programme will be put to vote in parliament on Wednesday amidst reactions by the opposition and trade unions and a 48-hour strike in protest of austerity measures and the Medium-Term programme, as well as planned nationalisations of state utilities and organisations that was launched on Tuesday.

Discussion of the Implementation Law opens in parliament's Standing Committee on Economic Affairs on Tuesday morning, to be completed the same day, while debate on the law will begin in the parliament plenary on Wednesday afternoon and completed at noon Thursday with a vote.

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[02] 48-hour labor strike Tuesday and Wednesday

Protest rallies will also be held in Athens, Thessaloniki and throughout the country on both days.

The strike, called by the country's two major umbrella federations GSEE and ADEDY, representing the private and public sectors respectively, is expected to bring transports and public services to a standstill.

Athens will be without public transport on both days with the exception of the Athens Metro, which will run normally after train drivers decided to suspend their mobilisations in order to facilitate transportation to and from rallies and demonstrations.

Air traffic will be disrupted as Air Traffic Controllers are taking part in the industrial action with four-hour work stoppages from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. on both days.

Ships will remain docked in port for both days, as port employees, dockworkers and seamen's federations are taking part in the strike.

Public Power Corporation (PPC) employees, who are currently in their second week of rolling 48-hour strikes, will also participate in the general strike under the cover of GSEE. The PPC strike has caused alternating power cuts in regions throughout the country.

Hospitals, health centers, ambulance service and welfare services will be operating with security (skeleton) staff for emergencies only, as doctors and nursing staff are taking part in the 48-hour strike.

Pharmacies throughout the country will remain closed on Tuesday.

The General Confederation of small manufacturing and merchants of Greece (GSEBEE) has also announced participation in the mobilisations.

The main Athens rally, organised by GSEE and ADEDY will be staged at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday at the Pedion tou Areos park in central Athens, while the two umbrella labor federations have called workers to demonstrate at downtown Syntagma Square, in front of parliament, on Wednesday morning, and to another demonstration at 7:00 in the evening at nearby Klafthmonos Square.

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) affiliated PAME labor organisation is staging its own separate rallies, at 10:00 on Tuesday morning in central Omonia Square and at 7:00 in the evening at the pillars of the Olympian Zeus, and another rally 1t 10:00 Wednesday morning at Omonia Square.

The ongoing Indignants' movement, in its 5th week of protests, will demonstrate at Syntagma Square at 9:00 on Tuesday morning and later join up with the striking protestors, while on Wednesday, the day of the vote on the Medium-Term fiscal program, the Indignants intend to circle parliament.

Indignants' delegations from all parts of the country are arriving in Athens on Tuesday to join the main Indignants' demonstration at Syntagma Square. Greek Indignants have been demonstrating daily outside parliament since May 25.

Journalists and media workers are also taking part in the industrial action with four-hour work stoppages from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Caption: Greek Indignants gathered outside parliament in downtown Athens. (ANA-MPA/K. Mavrona)

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[03] Parl't event on Special Olympics

"Despite the crisis, Greece is present," Greek prime minister George Papandreou said, adding that the country welcomes the efforts of the young people.

"We have a common Odyssey, but with a clear destination, which is a better and juster society," the premier said, welcoming in parliament the 250 members of the Session for Young Participants.

The special session was also addressed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is in Athens for the Special Olympics. "In these Games, everyone is an a priori winner in self-esteem and self-confidence," he said.

Parliament president Philippos Petsalnikos welcomed the guests "to the land that gave birth to democracy and the Olympic Ideal".

The special session was also attended by Special Olympics Hellas organising committee president Joanna Despotopoulou, Special Olympics chairman and CEO Dr. Timothy Shriver, and former prime ministers.

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[04] Fossil finds on Lesvos

More than 20 million years ago, the massive lake in what is now the northwestern part of the island of Lesvos and the surrounding area, with its subtropical climate, was covered by layers of lava and became petrified. Today's visitors to the area of Sigri, but also Antissa and Eressos, enjoy a tranquil natural environment and the singular geopark of western Lesvos with its unique petrified trees.(ANA-MPA)

Visitors to the Petrified Forest have justifiably been wondering about the apparent lack of animal life or, rather, fossils. The answer to their questions came a few years ago when excavations by scientists from the Sigri Petrified Forest Museum of Natural History brought to light, in the region of Gavathas, Antissa, the first indications of the existence of a large mammal. The first find, a fossilised lower jaw of a prehistoric form of a trunked animal, a proboscidean, was later identified by researchers as a representative of the Bavarian prodeinothere (species Prodeinotherium bavaricum). Although similar to today's elephants, the prodeinothere had downward curving tusks located in the lower jawbone. It is one of the lowest fossils of a vertebrate animal found in Greece to date and comes from one of the first trunked animals that migrated from Africa to Europe.(ANA-MPA)

And then...nothing. At least up until a few days ago, at the 9th congress of the European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists (EAVP) organised by the Crete Museum of Natural History in Heraklion, where geologist/paleontologist Katerina Vassiliadou, researcher at the Sigri Museum of Natural History, unveiled an incredible world of inhabitants that once lived among the fossilized trees in the Petrified Forest of Lesvos: snails, lake fish, reptiles and even prehistoric crocodiles, as well as small mammals, living creatures that walked the earth in this small part of the world millions of years before the advent of man.(ANA-MPA)

The conclusions of the Lesvos Museum of Natural History's recent research activities in the Antissa area and discovery of a small layer of lake sediment rich in fossils of small animals were presented at the 9th EAVP annual meeting in Heraklion, Crete.(ANA-MPA)

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[05] Athens Newspaper Headlines

The 48-hour nationwide labor strike and protest rallies and parliamentary votes on the Medium-Term fiscal programme and its Implementation Law dominated the front pages of Tuesday's dailies.

ADESMEFTOS TYPOS: "Medium-Term programme at the mercy of Indignants and rebel MPs".

AVGHI: "Today and tomorrow: Everyone out on the streets".

AVRIANI: "The Troika leading Greece to disaster".

DIMOKRATIA: "Venizelos" (new finance minister and prime minister George Papandreou's former adversary for the ruling PASOK party leadership) illegal gamble - Will he topple the government tomorrow (Wednesday) or in autumn?"

ELEFTHEROS TYPOS: "Vote 'NO' to the Medium-Term programme - The only honorable solution".

ELEFTHEROTYPIA: "8 last-minute changes to Medium-Term programme".

ESTIA: "Symptoms of panic in government".

ETHNOS: "Civil servants 'lose' four salaries from the cuts in 2010, the Medium-Term programme and the public sector uniform salary scale".

IMERISSIA: "Towards agreement on the debt - Rollover of up to 30 years for the bonds".

KATHIMERINI: "Critical votes for 5th tranche and PASOK".

NAFTEMPORIKI: "Plan B if parliament rejects Medium-Term plan".

NIKI: "5+1 rebels (among PASOK MPs) terrify government".

RIZOSPASTIS: "Everyone turn out for the general strike today and tomorrow".

TA NEA: "French 'key' for the debt".

VRADYNI: "Closed due to Medium-Term programme".

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