Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-02-03

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

CONTENTS

[01] Athens Bourse-Volatility Limit

[02] Cem-official visit-statements

[03] Telecoms-Bulgaria

[04] Metro-sports fans

[05] Stock market report

[06] Priceless artifact - Recovered

[07] Poll-elections

[08] Cem - Greece

[01] Athens Bourse-Volatility Limit

The capital markets commission announced on Thursday that the daily volatility limit on the Athens Stock Exchange will undergo a phased rise to 12 percent from 8.0 percent.

The daily higher and lower trading limit on individual stocks - except new listings - will increase to 10 percent either way, effective on February 7, the commission said in a statement.

[02] Cem-official visit-statements

Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem landed in Athens on Thursday at approximately 18:48, to begin an official visit amid ever-improving relations between Greece and Turkey -- barely four years to the day since a rocky eastern Aegean outcrop brought the two countries to the brink of conflict.

This is the first visit of a Turkish foreign minister in Greece in the last 40 years and comes at the heals of Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou�s visit to Ankara for talks with Turkey�s leadership � the first such official trip by a Greek FM to the neighbouring country in 38 years � punctuated by the signing of four ?low-level? agreements, the product of months of contacts and careful negotiations between the two countries� foreign ministries and in the wake of this past summer ?seismic rapprochement? between the two peoples on opposite sides of the Aegean.

Upon arrival, Cem and his Greek counterpart held an impromptu press conference at the airport noting the importance of the rapprochement of the two countries.

?I would like to welcome you along with your wife here in Athens,? Papandreou said, mentioning earlier efforts by Eleftherios Venizelos and Kemal Ataturk at rapprochement between the two countries at the wake of a war between the two nations in the 1920s, as well as efforts by Constantine Karamanlis and Suleyman Demirel and his own father Andreas Papandreou.

[03] Telecoms-Bulgaria

Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) and partner Royal Dutch Telecom (KPN) on Thursday unveiled an improved bid for a majority stake in Bulgarian telecommunications organisation, BTC.

The new bid sees the Bulgarian side receiving an extra 225 million dollars in addition to the 510 million dollars already agreed on as the price for a 51 percent stake in BTC share capital.

The new conditions will provide OTE and KPN with the licence to create a second GSM mobile phone network in Bulgaria.

The radically improved bid by the OTE-KPN consortium was presented at a news conference in the Bulgarian capital by OTE representative Vassilis Fetsis and KPN's Henk Vierenga.

[04] Metro-sports fans

Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis, worried about the wear and tear on the new Athens Metro system by sports fans, on Thursday took leading sports figures on a tour of the facilities to convince them to spread the word that the Metro should be taken care of.

All those who attended the meeting called by Laliotis said they would do what they could to make sure the message got through to fans.

Among those attending the meeting were the heads of the basketball and volleyball federations, presidents and senior officials of Greek first division football clubs and representatives of official football fan clubs.

[05] Stock market report

Equities ended higher on the Athens Stock Exchange for a second day in a row on Thursday despite an hour-long delay due to technical problems.

The trading session was extended by 45 minutes to account for the delay. It is the second time that the new transaction system has presented malfunctions since it was installed.

The climate, however, was unaffected by the glitches, with all sectors ending up, except for Investments.

The general share index hit an intra-day high of 5,325.72 points (+2.24%) to close at 5,297.32 points, up 1.69 percent.

Turnover came to 278 billion drachmas.

[06] Priceless artifact - Recovered

Two Trikala-area men have been charged with antiquities smuggling after they were arrested this week while attempting to sell a priceless marble statuette depicting the god Pan, police said.

Archaeologists at the National Museum in Athens have dated the confiscated 37-cm-tall artifact to the late Hellenistic period (first century BC to first century AD).

Athanasios Galanopoulos, 44, a farmer and 66-year-old body shop owner Constantinos Pathekas were arrested in connection with the incident.

Both are scheduled to face a prosecutor in the central Greek town of Trikala.

[07] Poll-elections

A second poll this week showed the ruling socialists PASOK leading conservative opposition New Democracy by seven percentage points in voters' preferences.

The Metron Analysis poll, conducted on 2,500 people in the prefecture of Attica December 17 to January 28 and released on Thursday, shows PASOK with 35.7 percent, New Democracy 28.7 percent, Communist Party of Greece 5.5 percent, Left Coalition 4.8 percent and Democratic Social Movement 4.2 percent.

Parties not represented in parliament, Political Spring and The Liberals, polled 0.9 and 1.6 percent respectively. Those undecided totalled 18.5 percent.

[08] Cem - Greece

Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem is expected to arrive in Athens on Thursday afternoon to begin an official visit to Greece.

Cem will sign five ?low-level? agreements with his Greek counterpart George Papandreou, while on Friday he will be received by President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos.

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