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Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 2001-07-27
MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Thessaloniki, July 27, 2001
SECTIONS
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
NEWS HEADLINES
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[01] THE GREAT "EXODUS" FROM THE CITIES
[02] MONUMENT FOR DEMOCRACY TO BE SET
[03] MEDITERRANEAN MUNICIPALITIES FOR PEACE
[04] MISSING TOURISTS WERE FOUND
[05] VASILIS KARRAS WILL SING FOR A DISABLED BOY IN LEHOVO
[06] SIGNIFICANT GAINS IN THE ASE
[07] THE GERMAN EMBASSY ECONOMIC ADVISER WILL VISIT PAROS
[08] POSITIVE CONCLUSIONS ON THE ECONOMY
[09] THE PRIME MINISTER WILL ANNOUNCE TAX REFORMS
[10] THE SEARCH FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONTINUES IN EVROS RIVER
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
NEWS IN DETAIL
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[01] THE GREAT "EXODUS" FROM THE CITIES
The "exodus" of city dwellers for their summer vacations
beginning today is expected to be the greatest this summer. The
situation at the harbor of Piraeus is suggestive, from where, this
morning, in the time span of 3 hours 9 ships set sail, without any
serious problems arising. 38 ships have been scheduled to leave
from the harbor of Piraeus today, and the situation in the
Thessaloniki harbor is expected to be similar.
The traffic on all national roads is expected to be greatly
increased, as well as the traffic on the roads to Halchidiki,
Kavala and Katerini. For this reason the traffic police has taken
special measures to ensure the easier passage of the vacationers.
[02] MONUMENT FOR DEMOCRACY TO BE SET
Mikis Theodorakis accepted the Prime Minister's proposal
following to lead the committee for the creation of a monument on
the island of Gyaros which in the past was ised as an exile for
democratic greeks.
The minister of the Aegean Mr. Nikos Sifounakis in
cooperation with Mikis Theodorakis, will, in the next few days,
compose a committee of 7 members . The members of this committee
will be people that were exiled and tortured by the broader
political spectrum as well as artists and intellectuals that have
in the past been exiled and members of the resistance.
[03] MEDITERRANEAN MUNICIPALITIES FOR PEACE
The three-day meeting of the members of the Mediterranean
Prefectures Network, "Amphictionia", started yesterday in
Kastanies, near the Greek turkish border, in an attempt to bring a
few hours or maybe even days of peace, in view of the 2004
Olympics.
The members of the Network will visit the turkish city of
Erdine today, in order to discuss the details of the accession of
the Turkish city in the Mediterranean Prefecture Network.
The three-day meeting will be completed tomorrow in Istanbul,
where they will meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch mr Vartholomeos
[04] MISSING TOURISTS WERE FOUND
A Greek Air Force helicopter located the three Czech tourists
missing since last Wednesday. After a coordinated rescue
operation, the three were found at the rocky coast of Agala, in
the Ionian Sea island of Zakynthos.
As it was made known, they had left the Alikes beach on
Wednesday morning with their small boat and since then they were
missing.
All three of them were taken to Zakynthos Hospital with
hypothermia symptoms.
[05] VASILIS KARRAS WILL SING FOR A DISABLED BOY IN LEHOVO
The Lehovo high-school students in Florina, northwestern
Greece and singer Vasilis Karras, have embraced fifteen-year-old
Panagiotis Kantsis, who was seriously injured in an accident and
is now bound to a wheel-chair.
Panagiotis Kantsis was seriously injured when he fell off his
bicycle in September 1999 and was in a coma for a year. Now, the
boy has communication problems, cannot stand up, and his treatment
costs 700.000-800.000 drachmas a month. His father, who is a
construction worker, and has other three children, cannot afford
the expensive treatment.
The fifteen-year-old boy has to go to a hospital abroad in
order to get well and the students in Lehovo have already managed
to raise 6 million drachmas from a theater performance by the
National Theater of Karditsa.
Now, popular singer Vasilis Karras will also offer his help
to Panagiotis Kantsis with a concert in Lehovo on July 30 as he
decided to offer all proceeds for his treatment.
[06] SIGNIFICANT GAINS IN THE ASE
Significant gains were recorded in the Athens Stock Exchange
today. The general index rose to +2.50% at 2.729,36 points, while
the volume of transactions was at 154.36 million Euro or 52.599
billion drachmas.
Of the stocks trading today, 323 recorded gains and 21 had
losses, while the value of 29 stocks remained stable.
[07] THE GERMAN EMBASSY ECONOMIC ADVISER WILL VISIT PAROS
A computer featuring a tele-medicine program will be
delivered to the Paros Health Center by German embassy economic
adviser Karl George Schon on July 31.
Already, a number of German firms have offered about 12
million drachmas to the Health Center in the Aegean island of
Paros in appreciation of the fact that many German tourists,
passengers of the "Samina" ferry-boat that sank in September 2000,
were rescued by islanders.
The sum donated to the Health Center was used for purchasing
a respirator and a biochemical blood analyzer
Mr. Schon will meet with the Health Center's scientific
director, Mr. Arkas to examine ways for closer cooperation.
[08] POSITIVE CONCLUSIONS ON THE ECONOMY
Prime minister Kostas Simitis had a meeting today with
Minister of National Economy Yiannos Papantoniou and other members
of the government's economic staff.
The main topics discussed in the meeting were the budge, tax
reform, and the announcements that will be made by Mr. Simitis in
Thessaloniki's International Trade Center in September.
Mr. Papantoniou stated that economic stability is the law of
survival for the Greek economy, adding that high inflation in the
past years was a big problem but this is not true anymore.
Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas, responding to right-
wing main opposition party of New Democracy criticism, stated that
the country's progress is obvious and changes will be made if
deemed necessary.
[09] THE PRIME MINISTER WILL ANNOUNCE TAX REFORMS
Prime Minister Kostas Simitis will announce tax reforms in
his speech in the opening of Thessaloniki's International Trade
Fair when he will outline his government's economic policy for the
period until the year 2004.
The form of the Prime Minister's speech was finalized in a
meeting he had today with Minister of National Economy Yiannos
Papantoniou and members of the government's economic staff.
They discussed the content of the 2002 "social package" that
will be announced by Mr. Simitis and will provide for further
pension and unemployment benefit increases, as well as benefits
for the handicapped, and other weak social groups.
Mr. Papantoniou stressed that the growth rate in Greece,
which is double the Euro-zone average, creates the necessary
resources for a meaningful social policy having as a goal the
redistribution of income.
[10] THE SEARCH FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONTINUES IN EVROS RIVER
The search, along the Evros river banks conducted by the
Greek branch of the UN High Commission on Refugees, aimed at
locating a group of illegal immigrants from Africa, has been
fruitless so far. According to information from the Turkish branch
of the Human Rights Committee, the Africans were trapped on an
islet situated between Greece and Turkey.
In a press conference that was given in Alexandroupolis,
northeastern Greece today by representatives of the UN High
Commission on Refugees in Greece, it was stated that the incident
with the illegal immigrants began on July 8 and the news traveled
around the world after the information that was given by the Human
Rights Association in Turkey.
Based on the available information, the illegal immigrants
were in a very bad state and some of them had been maltreated by
the Turkish authorities. As it was made known, a group of 70-250
individuals was trapped on an islet in Evros river and neither
Greece nor Turkey allowed them to enter their territory.
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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