Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 03-07-21

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

CONTENTS

[01] OPENING THE CODES

[02] RUNNING OUT OF DEFENSE WITNESSES

[03] MUNICIPALITIES BEFORE BANKRUPTCY

[04] THIRD PLACE FOR GREEK YOUTHS

[05] NEWS FROM GREEK FOOTBALL

[06] RATE OF GROWTH AT 4.4%

[01] OPENING THE CODES

Prime Minister Costas Simitis will send a letter to PASOK MPs tomorrow, informing them on the decisions made on the transparency issue in Friday's meeting, with the participation of the President of the Parliament and the Minister of the Interior. The decisions include a change in the laws on background of politicians' properties, checks in PASOK MPs and Ministers' stock market transactions from 1997 to 2002, as well as checks into the properties of all active and former ministers and MPs of PASOK since 1990.

[02] RUNNING OUT OF DEFENSE WITNESSES

Today is the last day for defense witness testimonies in the trial for the crimes the 19 alleged members of the 17N terrorist organization committed. Next in the proceedings are the statements of the defendants, starting with Dimitris Koufontinas, who supported that he will not talk about his comrades' activities in 17N, but will approach the trial politically. The ruling on trial will be out in October.

[03] MUNICIPALITIES BEFORE BANKRUPTCY

Most of Greece's municipalities are on the brink of bankruptcy, according to the information of the Local Association of Municipalities and Communities of Attica. One hundred municipalities are essentially bankrupt, while another 250 cannot cover their functional expenses.

The champion in debts among the various municipalities is that of Nikea, which owes more than 30 million euro, followed by Thessaloniki, which is in debt for 29 million euro and the municipality of Cassandra, Chalkidiki, with 22 million euro.

In total, the municipalities owe 1.5 billion euro in overdue loans, while they have another 1.6 billion in current loans. As is mentioned in the Ethnos newspaper, the debts will be the topic of discussion in between the Prime Minister and the Central Association of Municipalities and Communities of Greece, on July 30.

[04] THIRD PLACE FOR GREEK YOUTHS

The third place in the Thessaloniki World Basketball Championship was conquered by Greece's teen National Basketball Team, with its victory over Croatia with 73-64. Top scorer for the Greek side was Vougioukas, with 20 points and 9 offense rebounds.First place was taken by Australia in the finals against Lithuania, which had beaten Greece in the semi-finals.

[05] NEWS FROM GREEK FOOTBALL

AEK FC will probably receive its certificate for participation in the major league championship after finding a partial solution to its debts to the public sector, and is now awaiting the approval of the Professional Sports Committee. The FC's administrators are not worried, since they believe the settlement of the whole issue is just a formality and the team will face no serious problems.

Meanwhile, PAOK will wait until July 31, the last day for transfers, for a response from Nikos Lyberopoulos. The player has set his transfer to a team abroad as his first priority and will only walk the path to Thessaloniki if he does not find a satisfactory deal abroad.

PAOK's administration is prepared to wait until the end of the month for the Greek national team's striker, since they believe that he will help the team. So much in fact that they are prepared to spend 600,000 euro, with bonuses if the team makes it to Europe and other distinctions.

At the same time, efforts are continuing to incorporate Eric Linkar in the team, after his collaboration with PAO collapsed. PAOK's coach, Aggelos Anastasiadis, believes that the Romanian player maybe the solution to the team's midfield problems

[06] RATE OF GROWTH AT 4.4%

According to the information of the National Statistics Agency, the rate of growth of the Greek economy, came to 4.4% in the second quarter of 2003, increased from 4.3% in the first quarter. In the second quarter of 2002, the growth in the GDP was at 4.2%. The Statistics Agency also recorded that expenses for final consumption also increased in relation to the corresponding quarter of the previous year by 3.8%, investments increased by 8.6% in relation to last year, exports increased by 1% and imports increased by 1.7%.

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