Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 98-09-07

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr>

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 07/09/1998 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Bosnian Serb PM in Athens
• Condolences from Swiss president
• Greenpeace activists seize factory
• Four Albanians arrested with illegal immigrants
• Greece to keep tight economic policy in 1999 for EMU entry
• Greece speeds towards EMU, PM tells press conference
• Burns tells US investors Greece is a good bet
• Reppas inaugurates digital radio station
• Thessaloniki Festival to be set-up
• All is calm in the Aegean Sea, PM says
• Jospin terms Cyprus division "deplorable"
• Russian works of art in Thessaloniki
• Greece draws 2-2 with Slovenia
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said today that general elections scheduled for this weekend would provide the Bosnian Serb republic with the wherewithal to implement the 1995 Dayton peace accords which ended the Bosnian war. "With a new government, the Serb Republic of Bosnia is well on the way to implementing the Dayton accord," Dodik said in Athens, following a working meeting with Foreign Minister Theodore Pangalos. In the elections, Bosnians will choose members of the three-man state presidency. They will also elect deputies for the state parliament and the two entities' assemblies, as well as a president in the Serb entity.

Condolences from Swiss president

Swiss President Flavio Cotti today sent a message of condolences to the families of the victims of Swissair Flight 111 which crashed off the Canadian coast early on Thursday. In a telegram to his Greek counterpart, Kostis Stephanopoulos, the Swiss president expressed his grief over the loss of the 229 lives aboard the aircraft. Two Greek citizens - Chronoula Bonanou-Economopoulou,42, from Patras, and Nikos Kefalidis, 55, a U.S.- based businessman - were travelling on Greek passports. Another 12 passengers were Greek nationals, with families resident in Greece, were on board the ill-fated airliner.

Greenpeace activists seize factory

Greek and foreign Greenpeace activists today siezed a factory on the island of Evia in a bid to block the dumping of toxic slag in the northern Euboan Sea, police said. The activists disembarked the Greenpeace ship "Sirius" to prevent a crane from dumping waste in the water and they unfurled a banner reading in both Greek and English "No toxic waste in the sea - Stop dumping now".A spokesman for the activists told ANA that Greenpeace is demanding "an immediate stop of waste dump in the region by LARKO ore industry and is calling on the responsible ministries to revoke dumping permits in adherence with international and national law".

Four Albanians arrested with illegal immigrants

Police in northern Greece today reported three separate instances of Albanian nationals found transporting illegal immigrants from border regions. A total of 17 illegal immigrants - all Iraqis - were arrested. Albanian national Thomas Bakula, 29, was arrested at the Pedini-Ioannina junction with four illegal immigrants in his car. Also arrested in another incident was Albanian national Gtika Zani, 28, with four Iraqi illegal immigrants in his car and finally, Drokas Almalino, 26, and Kogeri Zamir with nine illegal immigrants in their car.

Greece to keep tight economic policy in 1999 for EMU entry

Greece, holding its ground in the throes of global market turmoil, will see another year of tight economic policy aimed at steering the country into European economic and monetary union on target by 2001, Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Saturday. "The coming year - 1999 - is a landmark in our effort. Despite mounting difficulties on an international level, Greece must attain the goal it has set, which is meeting the entry conditions for EMU," Mr. Simitis said in his annual economic policy statement.

Greece speeds towards EMU, PM tells press conference

Greece will have met four of the five Maastricht convergence criteria by the end of the year to enable Greece to take its place in European Economic and Monetary Union, Prime Minister Costas Simitis stressed yesterday. Speaking at a news conference at the 63rd Thessaloniki International Fair, Mr. Simitis said Greece was among the countries which would adopt the European single currency, the euro. "The only remaining issue will be inflation," he said. Following the drachma's entry to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in March, Mr. Simitis said, the Greek economy stabilised further.

Burns tells US investors Greece is a good bet

Speaking during a visit to the 63rd Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) yesterday, US Ambassador to Athens Nicholas Burns called on American investors to invest in Greece without fear. Mr. Burns, who was speaking while visiting the pavilion of the American Hyatt Regency company which is exploiting the casino in Thessaloniki, said he was particularly impressed by the TIF which he was visiting for the first time and referred to Greece's vital economy which is forging ahead. He also said that having Greece as an active and dynamic partner was great support for Balkan countries.

Reppas inaugurates digital radio station

Press and Information Minister Dimitris Reppas inaugurated the first digital radio station in Greece, as well as in the Balkans, in Thessaloniki at noon on Saturday. The new station is the ERT 3, while its new building installations were also inaugurated in Angelaki street. Speaking during the inauguration, Mr. Reppas referred to "justified pride" over the functioning of the first digital radio station in Thessaloniki. He said that the investment for digital radio was in the region of 700 million drachmas.

Thessaloniki Festival to be set-up

A founding document was signed in Thessaloniki on Saturday by which the "Thessaloniki Festival" will be created. It is a new cultural "umbrella" body for the management, organisation and programming of cultural events in the city by almost all its cultura l bodies (the State Theatre of Northern Greece, the State Conservatory, the State Museum for Modern Art, the Cinema Festival, etc). The creation of this non-profit company under the name of "Thessaloniki Festival" had been announced by the relevant minister in Thessaloniki last March.

All is calm in the Aegean Sea, PM says

Prime Minister Costas Simitis said yesterday he did not believe the Aegean Sea to be a region in which developments could spiral out of control. "I do not believe that the Aegean, despite the expansionist Turkish policy and the tension which it creates, is a region in which conditions are not under control and that there will be problems," he said addressing a press conference in Thessaloniki yesterday. He was responding to a question whether he shared US President Bill Clinton's recently expressed view that the Aegean was among world "flash points". Mr. Simitis said Greece had proposed a step-by-step rapprochement with its NATO ally Turkey and was cooperating within the framework of the European Union.

Jospin terms Cyprus division 'deplorable'

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin denounced the division of Cyprus saying it was a "deplorable situation for international law" in an interview with the Sunday 'To Vima' published yesterday. "The real question" in Cyprus is the "division of the island...which persists since nearly 25 years," Mr. Jospin said. "What France wishes, is to achieve putting an end to a deplorable situation for international law," he said. Mr. Jospin was on a one-day visit to Athens last Monday where he addressed, together with Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, a conference on the prospects of socialism in Europe.

Russian works of art in Thessaloniki

The famed "Costakis Collection" of Russian avant-garde works of art will be in Thessaloniki for public viewing by the end of September, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos announced on Saturday. The Cologne-based works of art, collected over thirty years by George Costakis, a Muscovite of Greek descent, will be kept initially at the Lazarist Monastery until the completion of the city's new Modern Art Museum which is to house the collection. Costakis built up the collection between 1930 and 1960 by exchanging works by western artists for paintings dating from the period 1910-1930 by then unknown Russian avant-garde artists.

Greece draws 2-2 with Slovenia

Greece drew 2-2 with Slovenia in a group-two opening qualifying match in the European soccer championship in Athens yesterday. Zladko Zahovic scored twice for Slovenia while Greece scored with Nikos Machlas from the penalty spot in the 55th minute and with Costas Frantzeskos three minutes later. Slovenia dominated the midfield and opened the scoring in the 19th minute. Machlas's equaliser was his 12th goal for the Greek national team.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(M.P.)

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