Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-12-29

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 29/12/1999 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Police clean-up to continue, ministry vows
• Greek, Turkish FMs to open Athens conference
• Greek equities continue new rally
• PM praises EMAK rescue services 1999 performance
• Economic figures to improve - ministry
• Ioannina police find 88 kilos hashish
• Two arrested in shooting spree
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Greece's public order ministry on Wednesday said it had been taken aback at the results of an internal affairs investigation into corruption in the Greek police force but that it was determined to apply the law in each case. "The extent of corruption and number of police involved were more than we expected," ministry secretary-general Dimitris Efstathiades said. "But the law will be applied without any exceptions. It is a shame for other police officers to be stigmatized by these cases," he added. The Greek Police Force's new Internal Affairs Bureau said on Tuesday it had uncovered at least 14 instances of police officers involved in serious breach of duty. It has forwarded a preliminary report to an Athens prosecutor.

Greek, Turkish FMs to open Athens conference

The foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey, George Papandreou and Ismail Cem, respectively, will open a Greek-Turkish Conference of Journalists and Media Officials to be held February 5-6 at the Zappion Mansion in Athens. The two ministers accepted a proposal by the conferences contact group to deliver the opening addresses at the event, an organisers' announcement said. It said that during the Turkish officials' stay in Athens, some of the bilateral accords on low-impact issues, discussion of which at senior ambassadorial level has been completed, would prospectively be signed. More than 40 personalities from the sectors of journalism, publishing and higher education in Turkey would be attending the Athens conference, the announcement said.

Greek equities continue new rally

Greek stocks continued moving higher for the third consecutive session on the Athens Stock Exchange pushing the market above the 5,300 level. Dealers said trading conditions have improved and that buying activity focused again on smaller capitalisation and telecommunications stocks. The general index ended 2.46 percent higher at 5,359.11 points with turnover at 283.48 billion drachmas. The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 5.83 percent higher at 1,470.30 points. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks rose 1.86 pct to 2,836.06 points and the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index jumped 5.08 percent to 948.27 points.

PM praises EMAK rescue services 1999 performance

1999 has been an outstanding year for emergency search and rescue services EMAK, Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Wednesday. "1999 has been EMAK's year," Simitis said, referring to EMAK's contribution to rescue efforts during the quakes in Turkey and Greece. Simitis was speaking during an EMAK demonstration put on for his visit to the squad's headquarters. The prime minister, accompanied by Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysohoides and ministry secretary-general Dimitris Efstathiades, was briefed on new equipment acquired by EMAK, such as three new sniffer dogs, trained in France.

Economic figures to improve - ministry

Greece's economic figures will improve in the next three years, beginning 2000, a semi-annual economic bulletin published by the National Economy Ministry said. One of the main features of expected developments is the course of gross fixed-capital investments, which are expected to rise to 1.571 trillion drachmas in 2000, from 1.469 trillion this year and 1.255 trillion in 1998. Gross fixed-capital investments' growth is expected to accelerate in the next two years, to 1.705 trillion in 2001 and to 1.867 trillion in 2002.

Ioannina police find 88 kilos hashish

Ioannina Police said on Wednesday they had rounded up some 88 kilos of unprocessed cannabis destined for the Athens market. Albanian national Ontishe Dede, 19, from Gjirokaster was arrested. He was driving the car in which the cannabis had been hidden.

Two arrested in shooting spree

Two men were arrested early Wednesday, after shooting into the air from their car outside the Egyptian Airlines offices on Vouliagmenis street in Athens, police said. They said two men in a car fired several shots in the air outside the airline's office at 4:35 a.m. The building guard immediately notified police, who tracked down the car and arrested Anastasios Constantinidis, 24, and Thrasyvoulos Louvaris, 19, and confiscated a .22 calibre pistol and three cartridges found in the car.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Wednesday's rates (buying)
U.S. dollar          322.995
Pound sterling       522.658
Japanese yen (100)   315.258
French franc          49.876
German mark          167.275
Italian lira (100)    16.897
Irish Punt           415.410
Belgian franc          8.110
Finnish mark          55.024
Dutch guilder        148.460
Danish kr.            43.965
Austrian sch.         23.776
Spanish peseta         1.966
Swedish kr.           38.132
Norwegian kr.         40.394
Swiss franc          203.826
Port. Escudo           1.632
Can. dollar          221.117
Aus. dollar          208.414
Cyprus pound         569.051
Euro                 327.162

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