Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-11-18

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] Sources report airspace violations above Aegean by Turkish planes

[02] Greek inflation rises to 3.9 pct in October, Eurostat

[03] Anomeritis inaugurates exhibition on shipping magazines and newspapers

[04] State hospital doctors to stage work stoppages

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

[06] Weather Forecast: Scattered cloud on Tuesday

[07] Greek stocks end 0.70 percent lower on Monday

[08] PM and Turkey's Erdogan discuss Cyprus issue, bilateral relations

[01] Sources report airspace violations above Aegean by Turkish planes

Turkish airforce planes infringed on air traffic regulations within the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) on 20 different occasions and in some 15 cases they violated Greek airspace, press sources said on Monday.

The same sources said that 10 formations of Turkish warplanes committed infringements and violations in skies above the central Aegean and east of Rhodes.

In all cases, the Turkish aircraft were intercepted by Greek fighter jets.

[02] Greek inflation rises to 3.9 pct in October, Eurostat

Greek annual inflation rose to 3.9 percent in October from 3.8 percent in September, Eurostat said on Monday.

In its monthly report the EU's statistics agency said that Ireland (4.4 percent), Portugal (4.1 percent) and Spain (4.0 percent) recorded the highest inflation rates in the EU-15 in October, while Belgium and Germany (1.3 percent respectively) and the UK (1.4 percent) recorded the lowest rates.

Inflation in the eurozone rose to 2.3 percent in October from 2.1 percent in September, unchanged from last year's October rate. Inflation also rose in the EU-15 to 2.1 percent from 1.9 percent, over the same period.

The inflation rate fell in Ireland (4.4 percent from 4.5 percent), the Netherlands (3.6 percent from 3.7 percent) and was unchanged in Italy (2.8 percent) in October and September, 2002, respectively.

[03] Anomeritis inaugurates exhibition on shipping magazines and newspapers

Merchant Marine Minister George Anomeritis inaugurated an exhibition of shipping magazines and newspapers at the Piraeus Maritime Chamber on Monday.

The exhibition is organised by the ''Ath. B. Botsis Foundation for the Promotion of Journalism'' and the ''Vovolini Archive''.

The exhibition includes books, pamphlets on shipping, newspapers and magazines which refer to shipping in the 20th Century.

[04] State hospital doctors to stage work stoppages

State hospital doctors are to stage three-hour work stoppages until November 22 to press for financial demands. A 48-hour strike is scheduled for November 28-29.

The doctors want to see more state spending on health in the 2003 budget to allow more recruitment, mainly in regional hospitals; 13.4 percent more funding for off-hours duty rotas; and absorption of monies from the European Union's Third Community Support Framework.

Also being sought from the government are an immediate start to talks on a new payscale for doctors and swift payment of a 176 euro bonus that other state workers have received since January 1, 2002.

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates - Tuesday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.014

Pound sterling 0.642

Danish kroner 7.485

Swedish kroner 9.145

Japanese yen 122.9

Swiss franc 1.479

Norwegian kroner 7.372

Cyprus pound 0.576

Canadian dollar 1.606

Australian dollar 1.803

[06] Weather Forecast: Scattered cloud on Tuesday

Scattered cloud is forecast in all parts of the country, with isolated showers and storms expected in the Ionian, Epirus, western central mainland and Macedonia. Early morning mist is expected on the mainland. Winds southerly, light to moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 7C to 18C; in the west from 12C to 20C; and in the rest of the country from 10C to 22C. Temperatures in Athens between 14C and 21C; and in Thessaloniki from 10C to 18C.

[07] Greek stocks end 0.70 percent lower on Monday

Greek stocks ended the first trading session of the week lower hit by a wave of selling in the second half of Monday's session in the Athens Stock Exchange.

The general index fell 0.70 percent to end at 1,817.67 points, with turnover a low 90.44 million euros.

The Wholesale, Publication and IT Solution sectors scored the biggest percentage gains of the day (1.52 percent, 1.31 percent and 0.99 percent, respectively), while the Food-Beverage, Retail and Telecommunications sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses (1.98 percent, 1.56 percent and 1.40 percent).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks fell 1.39 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index rose 0.36 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index ended 0.53 percent higher.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 164 to 139 with another 58 issues unchanged.

[08] PM and Turkey's Erdogan discuss Cyprus issue, bilateral relations

There was not enough time before the EU summit in Copenhagen to decide about the plan proposed by the United Nations for the Cyprus problem, the head of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday after talks with Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis in Athens.

Erdogan said the December 12 date proposed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was not feasible because the Turkish Parliament's vote of confidence in Turkey's new government - formed after his party won recent general elections - would not be held until December 4.

The AKP party leader said he saw the prospects for a solution on Cyprus as ''a glass half full'' but noted that this was not a good time for pushing the processes along rapidly, due to the illness of Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and the fact that the handover of power in Turkey was still in transition.

He said that negotiations for the Cyprus issue under the AKP government would be conducted under the aegis of Abdullah Gul, appointed the AKP government's prime minister. Despite being the AKP's leader, Erdogan is barred from heading his party's government because of a prior conviction for reading ''seditious'' poetry in public.

Responding, Simitis noted that ''a solution to the Cyprus problem before Copenhagen would improve the climate for resolving all the problems and our EU partners will be very pleased,'' while he urged the Turkish side to take this into consideration.

The prime minister also reiterated that Greece would insist that Cyprus be part of the first wave of EU candidate-countries to join the Community in Copenhagen and pointed out that 2004 had been ordained as the final date for a resolution on bilateral problems between Greece and Turkey by the Helsinki Summit.

Erdogan said his party would work steadfastly to bring about the democratic reforms necessary for Turkey to join the EU and stressed the desire for good bilateral relations with Greece and ''the days when the problems will be solved''.

He concurred with the Greek side that Annan's plan for Cyprus was the ''starting point for negotiations'', while saying that there were no serious outstanding problems with respect to a planned European military force.

Simitis, on his part, said his talks with Erdogan on Monday had touched on both successful efforts at cooperation and areas where Greek and Turkish views did not coincide, such as the Cyprus issue.

He stressed that the set of proposals put forward by Annan were a starting point for negotiations that had to be carried out constructively in order to overcome its effects on bilateral relations between the two countries.

With respect to the Aegean continental shelf, Simitis told Erdogan that adhering to the rules of International Law would help resolve this issue.

On Turkey's EU accession, meanwhile, the Greek premier noted that Greece was in favour of setting a date for the start of accession negotiations in principle.

''But Turkey must first make clear when it intends to implement the Copenhagen criteria and also make clear its stance on other issues - such as the Cyprus problem - and on issues decided on in Helsinki,'' he added.

Erdogan stressed that ''Greece should not be treated as an adversary'' and also that his government would like to know the date for the start of EU accession negotiations for Turkey after the Copenhagen summit so that Turkey ''could better play its part as a point of contact between Europe and the countries of central Asia''.

He said his party had ''open cooperation'' with Turkish parties that had not been elected to Parliament and that his party's government would seek to make up the democratic deficits.

He also declared support for a joint Greek-Turkish bid to host the 2008 European soccer championship.

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article