Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-02-04

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek Basketball Cup

[02] Inflation - January

[03] Ancient Clinic-Restoration Effort

[04] Stock market report

[05] Simitis-Cem

[06] Papandreou - Cem - Press conference

[07] Inflation-January

[01] Greek Basketball Cup

The semi-finals of the Greek Men's Basketball Cup will finally be held in March and not in April due to the announcement of early general elections on April 9, the president of the Greek Basketball Federation, Giorgos Vasilakopoulos, said on Friday.

[02] Inflation - January

Consumer price inflation was running at 2.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in January, Greece's National Statistics Service (ESYE) announced on Friday.

ESYE attributed the 2.6 percent inflation rate to increases of 4.6 percent in the alcoholic beverages and cigarettes basket and to a 5.5 percent increase in the hotels, cafes and restaurants grouping, as well as increases in housing costs.

According to provisional estimates, the year-on-year harmonised consumer price inlation index, which is used as a criterion for EMU entry, was 2.3 percent higher in January.

[03] Ancient Clinic-Restoration Effort

One of antiquity�s pre-eminent centres for medicine, the ?sanctuary? (avaton) of the Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, is undergoing a partial reconstruction these days to allow visitors to the well-known archaeological site a glimpse of what this unique ?psychiatric clinic? of Classical Greece looked like some 24 centuries ago.

The Epidaurus site in the north-central Peloponnese is, of course, associated by most tourists and classical scholars with the exquisite centuries-old outdoor theatre of the same name � hailed as the best-preserved ancient Greek or Roman venue in the world. Asclepius, on the other hand, was revered by ancient Greeks (known as �Aesculapius� to the Romans) as the god of healing and medicine.

[04] Stock market report

The Athens Stock Exchange warmly greeted the news on Friday of early general elections being set for April 9, with the general share index hitting an intra-day high of 5,525.94 (+4.31%) before closing at 5,379.08 (+1.54).

Turnover was an impressive 476 billion drachmas.

Analysts said that the market - on the upturn over the past two days - had reckoned on the government clearing the air and settling on a date for elections.

Led by small cap parallel market shares and the construction sector, all sectors, except for Leasing, ended with profits.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks rose by 1.75 percent to close at 2,806.14 points. The FTSE/ASE MID 40 also rose, by 1.98 percent, to finish at 966.39 points.

[05] Simitis-Cem

Prime Minister Costas Simitis met with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem on Friday, telling him that Greece hoped to see Turkey build substantively on the recent European Union decision to accept it as a candidate country.

"Greece as a member of the Union supported Turkey's candidacy during the recent Helsinki summit. For us the issue was not confined to opening the Turkish market to foreign products. It was found mainly in the reconstruction of Turkey on a democratic basis, to its incorporation in a framework defined by the European Union's guidelines for cooperation, in dealing with divisive issues, such as the Cyprus issue and that of the Aegean continental shelf, in accordance with international law," Simitis said during a reception for Cem and visiting Turkish journalists.

"I am pleased that the Turkish political world responded to the European Union's invitation," the Greek prime minister said.

[06] Papandreou - Cem - Press conference

The latest round in a �thaw� of Greek-Turkish relations was taken in Athens on Friday with the signing of another five �low-level� bilateral agreements amid guarded optimism expressed by each country�s foreign minister.

Both Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and his visiting Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem � the �point men� in a recent flurry of heightened bilateral Greek-Turkish contacts and discussions � stressed to reporters after their morning talks that more has been done to further cooperation between the countries ?over the past six months than has been accomplished in the last 40 years.? Additionally, the two FMs cited some ?130 initiatives? for cooperation in various fields proposed by the public and private sectors of the two countries.

?We are finding areas of cooperation where we can both profit,? Papandreou said, adding: ??only two things can be negative: either if we are expecting results in an overly quick way -- that we will solve everything as magicians in one or two days; or, on the other hand, since we have problems, we can�t do anything. Both these approaches are doomed for failure. We have chosen the approach of a very cautious, systematic way? creating the basis to be able to deal with obviously more sensitive issues.?

[07] Inflation-January

Consumer price inflation was running at 2.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in January, Greece's National Statistics Service (ESYE) announced on Friday.

ESYE Secretary General Nikos Karavitis said that the consumer price index had fallen 1.1 percentage points in January from the preceding month.

Year on year inflation in January was running at 2.6 percent compared to 3.7 and 4.4 percent in 1999 and 1998, respectively.

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