Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-08-24

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

CONTENTS

[01] Athens - Olympics- IOC - Public works minister

[02] Israel-Archbishop-Visit

[03] Stock Exchange-New Measures

[04] Prespes - festival

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

[06] Weather Forecast-Friday

[07] Stock Market-Close

[08] Wildfires - Arcadia - State of emergency

[09] Greenpeace - Director - Arrested - Soya

[01] Athens - Olympics- IOC - Public works minister

Officials of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday expressed satisfaction with the progress of projects for the Athens Olympic Games of 2004 after successive meetings with Greek officials.

"We are very satisfied with the progress of works and with the close cooperation we have with the minister (of public works Costas Laliotis) and his department," said IOC Vice-President Jacques Rogge who is heading a delegation. The delegation includes IOC General Secretary Francois Carrard.

Earlier, Laliotis unveiled plans for 18 major roads, which will cost 390 billion drachmas, and radically change traffic conditions in Athens and ease access to all the sports installations during the Games.

Five of the projects will be completed by the end of 2003 and the remainder in May 2004, four months before the start of the Olympic Games.

They concern arterial roads and major flyovers.

[02] Israel-Archbishop-Visit

JERUSALEM (ANA - M. Papoutsaki) - Archbishop of Athens Christodoulos began an official visit to Jerusalem on Thursday, being warmly greeted by Orthodox Christian faithful and representatives of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The Archbishop Archbishop attended a te deum service at the Church of the Resurrection and then made his way to the hill of Golgotha where he read an excerpt from the New Testament.

Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem greeted Archbishop Christodoulos at the Patriarchate where a welcoming ceremony was held with the participation of representatives of other dogmas as well.

The Archbishop sent a message to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, conveying his best wishes for the consolidation of peace in the region. The two men are due to meet on Friday.

[03] Stock Exchange-New Measures

The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) is to launch measures to improve trade, including swifter listing procedures for new economy companies, ASE president Panayotis Alexakis said on Thursday.

The new economy category includes software manufacturers, telecoms companies and media firms.

The step is part of a plan to give priority to new listings in sectors that will most enrich the market, focusing on dynamic, fast-growing enterprises, said Alexakis, newly appointed to his post.

Applicants to the Athens bourse will be categorised by line of business, with financial services companies, including banks and portfolio investment firms, also expected to be eligible for the swifter entry process.

Other groups likely to fall under the category are companies being privatisated and new sectors including merchant shipping.

A separate category will be created for enterprises based in Thrace and the eastern Aegean.

[04] Prespes - festival

Political figures, artists and members of the public from Balkan countries will be converging onto the little island of Aghios Achilleios in Florina, northern Greece, over the weekend to attend the start of the "Prespes 2000" festival.

Among the dignitaries will be New Democracy leader Constantine Karamanlis and his wife, Natasha, who will arrive on Saturday morning and are visiting the festival for the first time.

Government ministers will be using the festival as an opportunity to meet with visiting politicians from the Balkans.

On Sunday, Culture Minister Theodoros Pangalos and Deputy Culture Minister George Floridis will meet their counterparts from Balkan countries, while in the evening Pangalos will inaugurate the Prespes Library at Aghios Germanos.

The opening ceremony for "Prespes 2000" will take place on Sunday evening at Aghios Achilleios, under Macedonia-Thrace Minister George Pashalidis.

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

Following are indicative rates released by the central bank for the next working day.

Fridays rates (buying)

Euro 334.770

U.S. dollar 371.683

German mark 171.166

[06] Weather Forecast-Friday

Sunny weather is forecast throughout the country on Friday with scattered cloud in the east and northeast. Winds will be northerly, light to strong, turning very strong in parts of the Aegean.

[07] Stock Market-Close

Stocks fell sharply on the Athens Stock Exchange on Thursday, sinking below a key support level at 3,700 points.

The general index shed 1.99 percent to finish at 3,676.62 points. Turnover was 61.28 billion drachmas.

[08] Wildfires - Arcadia - State of emergency

A state of emergency was declared in Arcadia prefecture, central Peloponnese, on Thursday afternoon as several wildfires blazed throughout the verdant region.

The worst blaze was reported in the region surrounding the village of Kastanohori, which was being evacuating at presstime, and near the Kotylio communities of Gortyna municipality. A new wildfire also sprung up during the early afternoon in a forest at the picturesque coastal district of Kynouria, authorities said.

[09] Greenpeace - Director - Arrested - Soya

The director of Greenpeaces bureau in Greece was arrested on Thursday on charges of conspiring to organise this weeks blockade of a local grains and cereals processing plant, a high-publicised protest the group said stemmed from the companys importation of genetically altered soya.

The arrest of Nikos Haralambidis brings the number of Greenpeace members taken into custody this week at 13.

Twelve Greenpeace activists on Wednesday were arrested for a second consecutive day on charges of blocking access at the large soya processing plant. They are due to face a Halkida, central Greece, prosecutor in the evening.

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