Greece with 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals ranks 13th on the list with the medal winning countries. The United States top the list with a total of 66 medals followed by China with 50 and Japan with 32.

Yesterday, Athanasia Tsoumeleka won a gold for Greece in women's 20 km Walk, while Pigi Devetsi won a silver medal in the Triple Jump.

Many Greek athletes are very close to winning an Olympic medal given the fact that they have secured their participation in the finals of the sports they compete in.

The Women's Greek National Water Polo team will qualify for the final if it defeats Australia at 6:15 pm this afternoon in the first seminal of the tournament. The United States will play against Italy in the other semifinal.

The members of the two national teams characterize their course in the Olympic tournament as the best moment in the Greek Water Polo history.

The Men's Greek National Basketball Team which defeated Puerto Rico yesterday (78-58) will face Argentina in the quarterfinals, while the Women's Basketball Team will have to defeat the United States tomorrow to qualify for the semifinals.

The Men's Greek National Handball Team will face world champion Croatia.

Each of the games mentioned is regarded as very difficult because all opponents are formidable but the Greek teams are optimistic that winning at least one medal is feasible.

Periklis Iakovakis qualified for the Men's 400 m hurdles semifinal with the 7th best time and will compete at 9:15 pm this evening for a place in the final.

Shortly afterwards, Olga Kaidatsi will compete to qualify for the Women's 200 m final.

Ilias Petridis will compete to secure his participation in Boxing (81 kg). Even if he is defeated he will have the opportunity to compete for the bronze medal.

Greek government spokesman Thodoris Rousopoulos stated that there is no such issue when he was asked to comment.

The Greek government prepares for the two-day visit of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to Greece, who will be in Athens during the weekend to watch the Olympic Games closing ceremony.

US ambassador Thomas Miller was scheduled to meet with Greek Foreign Minister Petros Moliviatis today to discuss the US Secretary of State program while in Athens. Mr. Powell will meet with Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis and his counterpart Mr. Molivia tis.

The visit, according to the Athens newspaper "Eleftherotipia", was characterized by reliable sources in the Kremlin as "strictly private" even though it will be the first trip by a Russian head of state to the monastic community of Mount Athos, a Christi an monument with strong ties with the Russian Orthodox Christians.

The Russian President had cancelled his visit to Mount Athos in December 2001 during his visit to Athens due to bad weather.

Of the stocks trading today, 137 had gains and 126 had losses, while the value of 140 stocks remained unchanged.

Based on the findings during the first week of the games in a sample of 1,025 people, 97.3% were satisfied with security, 95% with services offered by the personnel and volunteers, 93.8% with the Olympic facilities, 93.8% with the sports events and 81.8%

with mass transportation.

Regarding the foreign spectators who responded to the questionnaire, 56.3% stated that they came to Greece just for the games and 37.2% for the games and tourism.

Thessaloniki's Aristotle University Seismologist Manolis Skordilis stated to MPA that based on the existing evidence there is no reason for concern. He also stated that at 3:41 pm today another tremor was recorded in the same area measuring 3.5 on the Ri chter scale.

The tremor was felt in the region of Athens and according to police, no damages were recorded.

Earthquakes measuring between 4 and 4.9 on the Richter scale were recorded in the area back in June 2003. Mr. Skordilis stressed that there are no known epicenters giving major earthquakes in the region and the biggest earthquakes recorded were a little above 5 on the Richter scale.

In the second semifinal, Italy defeated the United States (6-5). The Italian team scored the golden goal just 2 seconds before the end of the game.

The Men's Greek National Water Polo team also qualified for the semifinals on Monday after defeating Italy (6-4).