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Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English, 99-01-19Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.BRIEF GREEK NEWS BULLETIN BY THE MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCYThessaloniki, January 19, 1999TITLES
NEWS IN DETAIL[01] STUDENTS TO HOLD ANOTHER ROUND OF RALLIES TODAYThessaloniki, January 19 (MPA)Students throughout Greece are to continue with their protests against the education reforms by holding another round of rallies today. At the same time, they continue to occupy about 600 high-schools throughout the country.Teachers have joined the protests as their unions have given them the go-ahead to hold two 24-hour strikes on Thursday and Monday. The Archbishop of Athens and All of Greece Christodoulos has offered to mediate the fermenting crisis and has appealed to the students that they return to class. A.F. [02] GREEK FOREIGN MINISTER IN SOFIA TODAY, BUCHAREST TOMORROWSofia, January 19 (MPA)Greece's Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos is presently on an official visit to Sofia where he will meet with his Bulgarian counterpart Nadeja Michailova.The two officials are to discuss issues concerning the course of agreements already in effect, i.e. the three new border crossings at Exohi, Ehinos and Nimpheon, and the management of the Nestos River waters. He will also be received by Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov, Premier Ivan Kostov and the Speaker of the House Jordan Sokolov. Following his stay in Sofia, Mr. Pangalos will travel to Bucharest where he will have contacts with his Romanian counterpart and other political and state leaders. A.F. [03] DEVELOPMENT MINISTER DEPARTS FOR THE US TOMORROWAthens, January 19 (MPA)The Minister of Development Vaso Papandreou is to embark on an official, eight-day visit to the United States tomorrow.During her stay in the US, Ms. Papandreou will have a series of meetings and contacts with US government officials and Greek-American leaders, among them the US Secretary of Energy, assistant Secretary of State, and others. She will give an interview to CNN will visit Houston's energy installations. On the 25th of January she will attend a luncheon given in her honor by the Foreign Policy Association, at Manhattan's Yale Club. Ms. Papandreou will also be received by the Archbishop of America Spyridon. A.F. [04] SOLANA, ALBRIGHT, DON'T RULE OUT MILITARY INTERVENTION IN KOSOVOBrussels, January 19 (MPA)The head of OSCE's verification mission in Kosovo William Walker has been expelled from the province by Yugoslav authorities who declared him "persona non grata", provoking the ire of NATO's secretary-general Javier Solana and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.They both warned that the possibility of military strikes in Kosovo is open. NATO chief Wesley Clark is to meet with the President of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic today. A.F. [05] ESP CONFERENCE TO BEGIN IN THESSALONIKI ON FRIDAYThessaloniki, January 19 (MPA)The "European Socialist Party" is to hold a three- day conference concerning southeastern Europe on Friday in Thessaloniki, featuring the participation of the Party's leader and German Defense Minister Rudolph Scharping, the President of the European Parliament's Socialists Pauline Green and other Socialist leaders from European and Balkan countries.Greece's Defense and Foreign Ministers, Akis Tsochatzopoulos and Theodoros Pangalos respectively, will also be present, as well as the ruling PASOK party's central committee secretary Kostas Skandalides. A.F. [06] BALKAN PEACEKEEPING FORCE TRAINING CAMP INAUGURATION TOMORROWThessaloniki, January 19 (MPA)The Balkan Peacekeeping Force's training camp, with headquarters in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, is to be inaugurated tomorrow near northern Greece's city of Kilkis.The ceremony will be chaired by Defense Misnter Akis Tsochatzopoulos and will be attendee by defense ministers, undersecretaries and chiefs of staffs from Balkan countries and the former Soviet bloc. A.F. [07] EUROPEAN COMMISSION REPORT ON GREEK ECONOMY IS "THUMBS UP"Thessaloniki, January 19 (MPA)The European Commission's annual economic report on Greece grants kudos to the Greek state for its exceptionally positive results in reducing the country's public deficit, thereby placing the country on a steady course towards convergence.Nevertheless, the report, expected to be issued today, also recommends an intensification of efforts to further reduce inflation and adhere to a tight salaries' policy in order to avoid inflationary pressures. Specifically, the report stresses that Greece's growth rate has been on an steadily upward course since 1994, mostly due to the impressive increase of private and public sector investments. The Commission estimates that the country's GNP will rise to 3.5% during 1999, mostly due to domestic demand. Moreover, the report points out that the privatization program of 1998 has materialized to a great extend and the few exceptions marring the positive impression were due to difficult market conditions. A.F. [08] GREEK PENSIONERS TO CONDUCT MASSIVE RALLY TODAYAthens, January 19 (MPA)In protest to the government's economic and tax policies, Greece's pensioners are to conduct a massive rally in Athens today where they will try to achieve a meeting with the Premier Kostas Simitis.Pensioners from Western Macedonian and Thrace are not to take part in Athens' rally as they will hold a similar event in the northern Greek city of Kavala. Among the pensioners' demands are an 80% increase of the minimum level of retirement pay and also the indexing of the tax scale. A.F. [09] GREECE-BULGARIA SIGN ACCORD ON BORDER COOPERATIONSofia, January 19 (MPA)A Greek-Bulgarian accord on border cooperation is to be signed this afternoon in Sofia during the course of the official visit to Bulgaria by a Greek delegation headed by Foreign Misnter Theodoros Pangalos.The accord foresees the exchange of information between the two countries' border patrols, mutual combat of illicit trade and drug trafficking, as well as the electronic link-up between Greek and Bulgarian border stations. Mr. Pangalos will meet with his Bulgarian counterpart Nadejda Michailova with whom he will discuss regional cooperation and will be briefed on the security standards of the nuclear energy plant in Kozlodui. A.F. [10] EUROSTAT: GREECE'S INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION IS STEADILY RISINGThessaloniki, January 19 (MPA)Greece's industrial production pace has surpassed the median rate noted in the other European Union member- states, ranking among the top three member-states according to Eurostat.Specifically, Greece has presented an industrial production increase of 1.3% for the August-October period of 1998, in relation to the immediately preceding quarter. Ireland and Finland rank on top, with a 4.5% and 1.7% respective increase in industrial production. The mean overall rate for the EU member-states was .3%. According to Eurostat, Greece's industrial production performance fared even better when the statistics took the actual working days into consideration, ranking it second with an increase of 8.3%. A.F. [11] ROMANIA: POLICE CONCEDE ROADS TO PROTESTING COAL MINERSPetrosani, January 19 (MPA)Fifteen thousand coal miners in Romania stormed through police roadblocks outside the city of Petrosani and embarked on a 300-mile course to Bucharest, defying government warnings.According to the AFP, the police forces tossed tear gas to the miners who managed to push through the security forces and forced them to concede. Police chief Georgi Lupu said that the police decided to allow the miners to continue their march as far as the next town, Bubesti, expecting them to gather to the city's stadium, 200 kilometers north-west of Bucharest in the Carpathian Mountains. The miners stormed the roadblock after having spent the night outdoors. They had marched yesterday for 11 hours. They have been on a strike for 16 days, demanding a 35-percent wage increase and the cancellation of government plans to close thirty non-profitable plants which would cost the jobs of 6,500 workers. Romania's Industry Minister has rejected their demands. A.F. [12] "HISTORY OF GREECE" IS A BEST SELLER IN THE CZECH REPUBLICPrague, January 19 (MPA)The recently-released "History of Greece" is such popular read in the Czech Republic that, after almost a month in the bookstores, it has sold out.The book's first edition of 5,000 copies, released on December 21, 1998, had sold like "hot cakes" by January 5 and a second edition is expected by the end of this month. It is an 800-page account of Greece's classical age, Byzantine era and modern times. The ancient era is abridged in the first chapters, while a lengthier account of the Byzantium follows. It further focuses on the Turkish rule period and gives extensive analyses of developments in post-civil war Greece to date. Furthermore, the book provides an array of interesting data concerning Greek-Czech relations and also features an appendix on Greek modern art. A.F. 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