Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-03-22

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 22/03/1999 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Akis Tsohatzopoulos leads Central Committee poll
• Simitis confers with party official on procedures
• Citibank branches target of bomb attacks
• Japan's Prince and Princess Hitachi end visit
• A new Aesop for the new millennium
• Greek First Division soccer results
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, a founding member of the ruling PASOK party, ranked first in the vote for a new party Central Committee, according to final results issued today following the party's four-day Congress that ended Sunday night. Tsohatzopoulos recieved 3,230 votes from among 5,802 delegates, followed by Foreign Minister George Papandreou with 2,845 votes and Development Minister Evangelos Venizelos 2,830 votes. Delegates backed about 110 new Central Committee members affiliated with prime minister Costas Simitis while about 70 belonging to the so-called internal party opposition were also elected. According to the final results, Simitis was re-elected to the party leadership with a total 68.57 percent of the valid votes. The final results released today showed Simitis re-elected with 3,723 votes from the 5,666 out of a total 5,802 delegates who voted, while 235 invalid and 1,708 blank votes were also cast.

Simitis confers with party official on procedures

Prime Minister Simitis and PASOK Secretary Costas Skandalidis later had a one-hour meeting during which the results of the congress were assessed. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Skandalidis said the congress had served to reconfirm the unity of the party, while the election of the central committee illustrated that procedures within PASOK were based on meritocracy, "since those candidates were elected who have the ability and desire to make a contribution". The new PASOK central committee is due to meet next Monday to elect its secretary and the new executive bureau.

Citibank branches target of bomb attacks

A bomb exploded early today at a Citibank branch in Athens, causing damage but no injuries, while a second bomb was neutralised at a Citibank branch near Piraeus, police said. They said a home-made timebomb exploded at midnight at a branch of the US-based Citibank in the Athens suburb of Kallithea. Half an hour later, police neutralised a similar device outside the bank's branch in Paleon Faliron. Earlier, an unidentified caller had telphoned a private television station (STAR) and the Athens afternoon daily Eleftherotypia warning of the bombs, but without claiming the attacks on behalf of any organisation. The two areas were cordoned off by police.

Japan's Prince and Princess Hitachi end visit

Japan's visiting Prince and Princess Hitachi this morning visited the archaeological site of Vergina in northern Greece. Prince Masahito -- the younger brother of Japan's Emperor Akihito -- and his wife Princess Hanako, today wind up a four-day official visit to Greece, the first ever by members of the Japanese imperial family, before flying to Frankfurt this evening. The imperial couple was in Greece to attend events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the signing of a Greek-Japanese friendship, trade and navigation pact in 1989.

A new Aesop for the new millennium

Although two millenniums separate them, ESOPOS bears more than a passing resemblance to the ancient Greek storyteller Aesop. Both come from northern Greece and both take the written word and bring it to life through speech. Developed over the past four years by postgraduate computer science students at the University of Thessaloniki, ESOPOS ( Experimental Study on Prosody of Speech) is a software programme that enables written Greek to be automatically converted into spoken Greek. Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking uses a similar electronic programme to communicate. More information on the programme can be found on the following web sites: http://esopos.ee.auth.gr and http://mri.ee.auth.gr/esopospare.html.

Greek First Division soccer results

First division soccer Kavala 2 Panathinaikos 1 AEK Athens 1 Proodeftiki Piraeus 0 PAOK Thessaloniki 0 Xanthi 0 Ionikos Piraeus 0 Iraklis Thessaloniki 2 Aris Thessaloniki 4 Ethnikos Piraeus 0 Panelefsiniakos 1 OFI Heraklion 2 Apollon Athens 5 Paniliakos Pyrgos 0 Playing today: Olympiakos-Ethnikos Astir, Veria-Panionios. Standings/points: Olympiakos 56, AEK 55, Panathinaikos 50, PAOK 44, Aris 42, Ionikos, Xanthi 39, Iraklis 36, OFI 35, Ethnikos Astir 32.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Monday's rates (buying)
U.S. dollar          291.727
Pound sterling       474.672
Japanese yen (100)   248.655
French franc          48.652
German mark          163.172
Italian lira (100)    16.482
Irish Punt           405.219
Belgian franc          7.911
Luxembourg franc       7.911
Finnish mark          53.675
Dutch guilder        144.818
Danish kr.            42.944
Austrian sch.         23.193
Spanish peseta         1.919
Swedish kr.           35.752
Norwegian kr.         37.746
Swiss franc          199.650
Port. Escudo           1.592
Aus. dollar          183.153
Can. dollar          192.091
Cyprus pound         550.560
Euro                 319.136

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