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Athens News Agency: Daily News Bulletin in English, 15-10-05Athens News Agency: Daily News Bulletin in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>Athens News Agency keeps you up to date since 1903Weekend News Bulletin Monday, October 5 2015 CONTENTS
[01] Tsipras, Merkel, Faymann discuss refugees issueGreek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday had a phone contact with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann.Their discussion focused on the management of the refugees' inflow issue. According to an announcement issued by the Greek government, the three leaders agreed on the further cooperation of their countries on the management of the refugees' issue. Germany and Austria pledged to support Greece's efforts for additional European support not only on funding level but also on staffing of services responsible for refugees. It was also agreed that Austria will send a group of experts in order to join Frontex and EASO. Finally, Chancellor Faymann's visit to Greece next week was also discussed. [02] PM Tsipras: Greece must fundamentally change in the next four yearsPrime Minister Alexis Tsipras in his address on Saturday to SYRIZA parliamentary group said that the government's strategic plan is "Greece to fundamentally change in the next four years".The government's main target, stressed Tsipras, is to implement all those provided in the agreement with the lenders in order the discussion for the debt to open. Moreover, he noted that the government will implement the programme approved by SYRIZA for the relief of the weaker adding that the country must leave from the supervision as soon as possible and to restore the access to the international markets. Referring to his participation in the UN general assembly, Tsipras said that the first aim was the internationalisation of the Greek debt issue. The debt issue is not simply an issue of figures, because "the return to growth and to the social and economic stability largely depends on its solution". "Our second aim was to open, on our part, the issue of the refugees flow" said Tsipras noting that Europe must prove its open humanitarian face to this crisis and to shut the door to the extreme right, to the racism and to the xenophobia. The prime minister stated that in the immediate future the government must negotiate on the open points of the agreement in order to safeguard: The banks' recapitalisation along with the longstanding problem of the bad loans and the protection of the first home, the adoption of equivalent measures, the restoration of the collective negotiations in labour and the public character of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) and of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) with the adoption of a realistic plan on the deregulation of the energy market in Greece according to the European rules. Concluding, Tsipras stressed that the government and the parliamentary group "we must create a democratic parliamentary group, a group-model of collective thinking and action with driver the collectiveness, the political understanding and the participation of all". [03] PM Tsipras to address the parliament plenum on Monday eveningPrime Minister Alexis Tsipras will open the debate on the government's policy programme with his address to the parliament plenum on Monday at 19:30.The debate on the programme will last three days. The procedure will be completed at midnight Wednesday and the parliament will be asked to give vote of confidence to the government. [04] NIkos Voutsis elected new parliament presidentSYRIZA MP Nikos Voutsis was elected new parliament president on Sunday. Voutsis was voted by 181 MPs, 113 deputies cast a blank vote and 3 ballots were not valid. Three MPs were absent from the voting procedure.Short bio The new parliament president was born in 1951 in Athens and has studied Civil Engineering at the National Metsovio Polytechnic. He was appointed Interior Minister in SYRIZA-ANEL first government (January 2015- August 2015) He was elected SYRIZA MP in Athens in 2012 and re-elected in January 2015 and September 2015. Voutsis is member of SYRIZA central committee for the first day of its foundation until today. He is married and has three children. [05] Economy Minster Stathakis sees restart of economy before summerThe restart of the economy will certainly be achieved before summer , maybe in the first three months of 2016, reassured Economy, Development and Tourism Minister George Stathakis in an interview to Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper and characterised "all indications positive for the growth that have been squeezed in the last period".He underlined that the trust to the national banking system will be restored very soon with the completion of their recapitalisation until Christmas and its incorporation in the European banking system. Stathakis said that "today the banks are safer that they were in the past" adding that the danger of haircut on bank deposits is unrealistic. [06] ND election committee accepted Adonis Georgiadis candidacyMain opposition New Democracy (ND) election committee accepted Adonis Georgiadis' candidacy for the party's leadership.The election committee on Friday afternoon rejected MP Georgiadis' candidacy because he submitted it with a few minutes delay. The committee reconvened on Saturday morning to reconsider its decision following disapproving comments from the other three contenders and former ND leader Antonis Samaras who called the committee's decision "wrong and traumatic for ND'. On Friday, the committee had approved the candidacies of current ND leader Evangelos Meimarakis, MP Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the governor of the region of Central Macedonia Apostolos Tzitzikostas. General News [07] Technology casts light on Methoni sunken town and Sapienza island shipwrecksTechnological advances used in the bay of Methoni, southwest Greece, and the northern coast of nearby island Sapienza have revealed more details about the geological features of the seabed and supplied further details about two of the known shipwrecks there.Research was conducted by the ministry of Culture's Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities in cooperation with the University of Patras' Geology department, and its Laboratory of Marine Geology and Oceanography, in particular. According to a statement by the ministry of Culture, research in the area had two purposes, "to locate ancient and historical shipwrecks lying on the bottom of the sea or buried in its sediments, and the palaeogeographic reconstruction of the bay of Methoni in the last 10,000 years." The ministry said the following equipment was used: a sub-bottom high-resolution profiler, which can locate targets buried several metres below the surface of the seabed; a side-scan sonar to locate objects lying on the seabed surface; a magnetometer to locate metal objects and magnetic targets (including amphorae, the vessels with handles that were used to transport liquids) on the seabed or below it; and a multi-beam echo-sounder to map the depth and underwater terrain in detail, allowing the modelling of the seabed in threedimensional format. The equipment allowed the detailed recording of two known shipwrecks off the northern coast of the Sapienza island, possibly of the Roman era, and of the sunken settlement in the Methoni bay which dates to the Middle Bronze Age. "In one of the shipwrecks, the magnetometer showed buried metal targets, which may possibly relate to the ship's cannons," the ministry said. "A large number of metal and magnetic targets were located in the Methoni bay which will be examined through close inspection at a later stage," it added. Commenting on the geological findings, the ministry's announcement said the area "may serve as an excellent natural laboratory for the testing and development of new methodologies and technologies in underwater geoarchaeology and in the management of underwater archaeological sites." Research on the sunken settlement revealed "the full extent of the settlement, a significant part of which appears to be buried under the seabed sediments, therefore it remains unexplored to the present. In addition, the sub-bottom profiler identified the geological formation on which the settlement had been built and the geological reason of its submergence under the sea." According to the ministry's site, one of the two shipwrecks ("the shipwreck of columns") lies close to the northern shore of Sapienza, at a depth of 10 metres. It features columns made of reddish granite scattered over an area of 30sq.m.; only one of them remains whole (8m high, 0.90m diameter). It is tentatively dated to the Roman era. Nearby is the "shipwreck of the sarcophagi", at a depth of 15 metres. The cargo consisted of stone sarcophagi with their covers, and it is dated to the 3rd century AD. The research project is being directed by Ephorate of Underwater Archaeology director Angela Simosi and the head of the Laboratory, professor Yiannis Papatheodorou, with the assistance of professor M. Geraga, who will participate in the reconstruction of the palaeogeography of the Methoni bay. [08] Weather ForecastUnstable weather and winds from variable directions are forecast for Monday. Wind velocity will reach 5 on the Beaufort scale. Partly cloudy with a chance of rain in the northern and western parts of the country and temperatures ranging from 14C-26C. Clouds with rain in the afternoon in the eastern parts of country and temperatures between 13C-25C. Partly cloudy over the Aegean islands and Crete, 17C-24C. Partly cloudy in the morning and rain in the afternoon in Athens, 14C-24C. Clouds in Thessaloniki, 16C-22C.[09] Athens Headlines at a glanceAVGHI: The huge game with the banks.ELEFTHEROS TYPOS: "Peru" plan for the new social insurance system. EPOCHI: Vote of confidence with social control. ETHNOS: Civil servants mandatory transfers. KATHIMERINI: What they (Washington, Paris, Berlin) want, what they give to Athens. KYRIAKATIKOS RIZOSPASTIS: The people can find the power to fight the new antisocial attack TO PARON: They open the file of corruption. TO VIMA: Sacrifices for the tranche. PROTO THEMA: Pierre Moscovici: Additional measures will be needed. Real News: Terror list or...haircut to bank deposits. 36, TSOCHA ST. 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