Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-05-21

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece-Turkey-Europe-Human rights

[02] Retail Gasoline Prices-Drop

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

[04] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

[05] ASE-close

[01] Greece-Turkey-Europe-Human rights

The European Union was the focus of accusations leveled by Turkey's leading human rights campaigner Akin Birdal on Monday in Athens, in his address to a conference entitled "Greece-Turkey-Europe: Human Rights", which was organized by the Greek Union for the Rights of Man and Citizen.

Birdal, an honorary president of Turkey's Human Rights Union, stressed that the European Union granted the status of candidate country to Turkey, despite the fact that his country did not move toward democratisation, noting that Turkey not only did not move in the direction of the Copenhagen criteria, but it went further backwards.

Birdal, who was targeted by far rightists after accusations of links to Kurdish rebels, was shot and critically wounded by two gunmen in his office in 1998.

"The EU is a simple viewer to all that happens in Turkey," he said, adding that instead of implementing all its commitments towards the EU, as every other country, it haggles continually.

He said that this fact is being accepted by both the EU and Turkey, as the EU does not want Turkey to become one of its members and Turkey's political leadership does not wish to see Turkey's European course being successful.

"Appalling things are happening in Turkey. Prisoners, that is people who are wards of the state, often lose their lives. Europe follows all that in silence," he said.

He spoke of Germany and Sweden's lack of reaction to atrocities in Turkey, saying that they maintain their silence for reasons of political expediency.

Birdal said that Turkey has enacted 152 laws, 713 articles of different laws and 11 governmental decisions against free speech and anyone can be convicted for expressing different views to those officially accepted.

Current Turkey's Human Rights Union President Yiavuz Onen also addressed the conference.

[02] Retail Gasoline Prices-Drop

Retail gasoline prices in Greece are likely to drop from midnight Wednesday for the coming week, tracking world markets, Development Minister Nikos Christodoulakis told reporters after talks with fuel industry officials.

Under indicative prices released weekly by the ministry, super and leadless petrol are expected to decline by 7.0 drachmas a litre, barring surprises, Christodoulakis said.

Super gasoline in the Athens and Thessaloniki prefectures currently costs about 281.4 drachmas a litre at the pumps and leadless about 268.4 drachmas a litre.

The minister said he would order tighter spot checks in garages after reports of major divergences in retail prices from the government's indicative rates.

He also said he would hold consultations with fuel industry officials if oil prices rebounded.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

Buying rates for Tuesday

U.S. dollar 386.119

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 555.048

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 45.306

Swedish kroner 37.641

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 313.592

Swiss franc 220.693

Norwegian kroner 42.620

Cyprus pound 585.491

Canadian dollar 251.661

Australian dollar 203.932

[04] Weather Forecast-Tuesday

Scattered cloud is forecast around the country on Tuesday, likely to turn to showers in Epirus and Macedonia. Winds southeasterly, moderate to strong. In the north, temperatures will range from 17C to 28C; on the rest of the mainland and in the Ionian from 19C to 32C; and in the Aegean islands from 20C to 31C. Light cloud in Athens, with temperatures between 19C and 30C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 18C to 28C.

[05] ASE-close

Equity prices ended Monday's volatile session off their day's lows as a wave of early profit-taking halted an initial strong advance on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Traders said foreign institutional investors limited their presence in the Greek market keeping turnover at lower levels and noted that a rise in the general index reflected gains in blue chip stocks, like National Bank, Alpha Bank, Hellenic Telecoms and Panafon. The wider market and smaller capitalisation stocks in particular, ended lower.

The index ended 0.40 percent higher at 3,178.97 points, off the day's highs of 3,241.16 points. Analysts said the market has found resistance at the 3,240 level in the short-term. Turnover was a low 199.27 million euros, or 67.9 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.91 percent higher at 1,872.87 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index eased 0.55 percent to 360.89 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 308.84 points, off 0.82 percent.

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