From: miltos@nfl2.irc.nrc.ca Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Wed, 3 Nov 1993 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias embarks on a tour of Balkan capitals on Sunday with first stop Belgrade where he will have talks with the Serbian leadership. Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said that Mr Papoulias would visit Montenegro, Sarajevo and Zagreb on November 9 and Ljubliana the following day. On November 11 he will visit Sofia, and Bucharest and Tirana on November 12 from where he will return to Athens on November 13. The spokesman said that Mr Papoulias' tour constituted a Greek government initiative on the Balkans. Mr Venizelos added that Mr Papoulias was still working on the letter which the government will send to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali setting out Greece's positions on the Skopje issue. The spokesman added that the letter would be sent by the end of the week. Mr Venizelos reiterated the government's "clear and unnegotiable" position that Greece would not recognise state on its northern border with the name of 'Macedonia' or any derivative of that name. Blegrade, 3/11/93(ANA-N.Georgiadis)--The Greek embassy's military attache in Belgrade, Brigadier General Bourmouris, has been appointed deputy chief of operations of the EC military observers unit in Belgrade. General Bourmouris will serve in the post for six months. His deputy in Belgrade, Colonel Manousopoulos, has been appointed chief of staff in Zagreb. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--An allied naval exercise code-named "Nereis 93", organised by the Greek Navy, will be held November 3-14, a spokesman for the Greek Admiralty said yesterday. "Nereis 93" is a medium-scale technical exercise of the INVITEX type, aimed at training participating units in the whole spectrum of combined air and naval warfare, as part of a framework to maintain cohesion and support among allied countries, the spokesman added. Five countries will take part in the exercise: France (a corvette and Atlantiue naval support aircraft), Italy (two frigates), Spain (two frigates), United States (a cruiser, a submarine and P-3 aircraft) and the United Kingdom (Nimrod aircraft). The allied force is due in Piraeus on November 3. The vessel will also visit Volos and Crete. Paris, 3/11/93(ANA-O.Tsipira)--Five sculptures--the work of internationally acclaimed Greek sculptor, Takis -have been placed in the gardens of the Paris-based UNESCO headquarters alongside the works of nine other world-acclaimed sculptors. The sculptures, called "Aeolian Signs", were presented to a group of selected guests at a special ceremony yesterday. Culture Minister Melina Merkouri, who attended the ceremony, told the audience that Takis' five sculptures were "the reflections of the Aegean sea windmills". UNESCO Director General Federico Mayor expressed satisfaction at the fact that "Greece, which is the root of all of us, is represented today by Takis, in this great meeting place of international culture, UNESCO, ...alongside with the works of Kalder, Henry Moor, Giacometti and Picasso". Following the ceremony, Ms Mercouri attended the afternoon session of the 27th UNESCO's General Synod during which the culture minister presented "Archipelagos-- a culture programme which is Greece proposing for integration in UNESCO's "Meetings of Peoples' programme. "Archipelagos ' is a 'parade' through the Greek islands some of which have monuments of world cultural heritage," Ms Mercouri said. Melbourne, 3/11/93(ANA-S.Hatzimanolis)-- Victorian State Premier Jeff Kennet yesterday announced that he would visit Greece in April and hoped to meet Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou during his five-day visit. He said that he would make an effort to attract investors to Victoria during his trip to Greece. Mr Kennett, the first politician in Australia to fully adopt the Greek positions on the Skopje issue, was recently honoured for his conviction by Melbourne's Greek community. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--President of the German Bundestag Dr Rita Sussmuth arrives here today on a two-day visit at the head of a parliamentary delegation for talks with Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and other officials. During her stay here, Ms Sussmuth will also have talks with Parliament Speaker Apostolos Kaklamanis, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias, Interior Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, former House speaker Athanasios Tsaldaris as representative of the main opposition New Democracy party, Political Spring leader Antonis Samaras and Communist Party of Greece Secretary General Aleka Paparriga. Among those accompanying Ms Sussmuth will be member of parliament and president of the German-Greek Parliamentary Group Dr Sigrid Skarpelis-Sperk and Peter Gotz, also a member of Parliament and of the German-Greek Parliament Group. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--The government is considering setting up a special border force to check the flow of illegal immigrants into the country, Public Order Minister Stelios Papathemelis said yesterday. Mr Papathemelis added that the National Defence Ministry was presently taking special measures at possible entry points as part of efforts to prevent Albanians illegally entering the country and arresting those who have already entered. Greece, he said, may sign a bilateral agreement with Albania on the issue of illegal immigration during Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias' visit to Tirana next week. In the last two and a half years, Mr Papathemelis said, a total of 559,000 Albanian illegal immigrants had been deported from Greece. In 1992 alone, he added, Greece footed a bill of one billion drachmas for feeding and transporting Albanians who had been arrested and deported. Mr Papathemelis said that the government would seek assistance from the European Community to held tackle the problem of illegal immigration since Greece now formed part of the Community's border. Albanian illegal immigrants, he continued, were responsible for the sharp rise in crime in Greece in recent years. In just three years, he said, Albanians had committed 40 murders and hundreds of other offences including rape, robbery, smuggling and drug-related crimes. Mr Papathemelis said that the measures taken by Greece up to now had been ineffective, since the Albanians arrested had simply been "given a free trip home" before re-entering the country soon afterwards virtually unobstructed. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides will visit Greece on November 16, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday. Mr Venizelos said that the previously scheduled date of November 4 had been changed due to both Alternate Foreign Minister Theodore Pangalos and Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias' absences abroad. Mr Pangalos begins a tour of European capitals today while Mr Papoulias will visit the capitals of the Balkan countries. Istanbul, 3/11/93(ANA)--The Cyprus problem continues to affect Turkey's relations with the European Community, Alternate Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos told reporters in Brussels, according to reports in the Turkish press. "The Cyprus problem still affects Turkey's relations with the EC. This is not just our view but it is also shared by the Community", Mr Pangalos was quoted as saying to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet. Mr Pangalos was also quoted as saying he was in favour of the appointment of a European Community observer to participate at the UN- sponsored Cyprus peace talks. "If all are sincere and honest in their positions, why shouldn't there be an EC observer? We shall then see whether (Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf) Denktash will repeat the statements he makes during official talks an din the presence of a witness, outside official meetings. This issue is one of the UN secretary general's most serious problems", Mr Pangalos was quoted as saying. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos yesterday announced the names of the new state bank governors. Mr Venizelos said George Mirkas was appointed governor of the National Bank of Greece, while Panayotis Poulis, Th. Gamaletsos, Andreas Boumis, and Evangelos Kouloumbis were appointed governors of the Commercial Bank, the Hellenic Industrial Development Bank, the Bank of Macedonia-Thrace, and the Mortgage Bank respectively. The spokesman said the government had appointed the new governors on the basis of "prudence" and "merit". He said the names of other state bank governors and state companies' new general managers would be announced in due time. Mr Venizelos also told reporters that Interior Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos chaired a meeting of the sub-committee on major infrastructure projects yesterday. The National Economy Minister George Yennimatas, Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis and Prime Minister's special advisor Lambis Nicolaou attended the meeting. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--The large increase in the number of charter flights to northern Greece has more than compensated for the fall in the flow of tourists caused by the fighting in former Yugoslavia, National Tourism Organisation director for Macedonia- Thrace Thomas Goutadzis said in Thessaloniki yesterday. Speaking at a press conference at the offices of Helexpo, Mr Goutadzis added that charter flights had increased so much in the first nine months of the year that the " massive flow of tourists" had "closed the gap" caused by the parallel of tourist arrivals through former Yugoslavia. Mr Goutadzis quoted figures showing there had been, 2,069 charter flights carrying 277,815 tourists to northern Greece in the first nine months of the current year, as against only 1,250 such flights and 157,142 tourists in 1991. Nearly twice as many tourists--432,000 in the first nine months of the year versus 226,000 in 1991-- arrived through the border checkpost of Promahon on the Greek-Bulgarian border, he added. Mr Goutadzis recalled that tourism accounted for at least 7.5 percent of Greece's GDP, adding the Centre for Economic Planning and Research put that figure at 9.6 per cent. Tourism also provided employment for 7.6 per cent of the total labour force of Greece. On the average, ten million tourists visit Greece annually, providing the national economy with foreign exchange revenue of approximately five billion US dollars. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--One person a day is infected by AIDS in Greece while there has been a sharp rise in the number of women who have contracted the disease, Professor Ioannis Doutsos told a press conference in Thessaloniki yesterday . Professor Doutsos of Thessaloniki University and director of the Northern Greece Aids Centre said that there had also been a sharp rise in the number of heterosexuals who had been infected by the virus. This group, he said, now accounted for almost 58 per cent of carriers while women accounted for one eighth of the total number of infected persons in Greece. Of particular concern, he added, was the fact that the majority of new carriers were under the age of 30 and heterosexuals who were neither intravenous drug users or had not received blood transfusions. Athens, 3/11/93(ANA)--Andreas Christodoulides was yesterday appointed general director of the Athens News Agency, a post he previously held between 1981 and 1987. Born in Paphos, Cyprus, in 1942, Mr Christodoulides studied law at Athens University but was forced to continue his studies in London due to the military dictatorship in 1967. He was arrested and imprisoned in Germany for activities against the Greek junta. Between 1974 and 1982 Mr Christodoulides was a member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) Executive Bureau and Central Committee. Mr Christodoulides will officially take up his duties on Monday after attending a four-day European forum on audio-visual media which starts today in Istanbul.