Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-07-10

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

CONTENTS

[01] Economy needs structural reform to boost employment, gov't says

[02] Gov't to bring proposal for reforming electoral system, spokesman says

[03] President Stephanopoulos gives awards to expatriate media

[04] State hospital doctors in Athens, Piraeus to strike Friday

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

[06] Weather Forecast: Sunny start on Friday

[07] Greek stocks fall for second consecutive session

[01] Economy needs structural reform to boost employment, gov't says

The Greek economy needs, more than ever, to implement structural reforms to boost employment in the country, Economy and Finance Minister Nikos Christodoulakis said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, after a five-hour meeting with Prime Minister Costas Simitis and other government ministers to discuss economic conditions, Mr Christodoulakis said that ''we are in the final run in the 10 months until the general elections and we must strengthen our efforts to boost economic performance and most of all to show results in competitiveness and employment.''

The Greek minister stressed that a new Olympic Airways would be created soon, a company that would fulfill all preconditions of viability and competitiveness. The meeting also discussed measures to support investments in the country's energy market.

[02] Gov't to bring proposal for reforming electoral system, spokesman says

The government wanted to take steps to address the ''unfairness'' of the present electoral system and intended to make a proposal for dialogue on this issue, which will be discussed at next week's cabinet meeting, government spokesman Christos Protopapassaid on Thursday.

''Society wants us to move forward, it wants progress and demands changes to the electoral system,'' the spokesman said, adding that the present system was choking progress, meritocracy and transparency.

''We are open to talks on the issue so that the election law will stop blocking the development of our political system and we believe conditions are ripe for this change,'' he added.

Protopapas then expressed hope that main opposition New Democracy will participate in this dialogue and not ''watch from afar''.

[03] President Stephanopoulos gives awards to expatriate media

President Kostis Stephanopoulos gave the awards during an event on Thursday night honouring the expatriate mass media for the year 2002, underlining the importance of the existence and action of expatriate Hellenism and of the expatriate mass media.

Referring to the world's state of affairs, President Stephanopoulos said it is now influenced by the only superpower and by other strong European Union countries, but noted that every effort aimed at promoting national issues is commendable.

Press and Media Minister Christos Protopapas stressed in his address the need for a national communication strategy, as well as the need for caution, seriousness, responsibility and self-restraint regarding national issues.

The annual awards were given by the press and media ministry to expatriate media for the fifth consecutive year and were divided into four categories.

The award for the expatriate media of the year 2002 was given jointly to the radio station Hellenic Radio Service of W.A. from Australia, the radio station London Greek Radio from Britain and the newspaper Chronos from Ukraine.

The award carries a cash prize of 24,000 euros.

The award for the best report of the year 2002 in the expatriate radio and television media was divided between the journalist George Diamantoulis from Australia and the journalist Vassilis Avramis from Canada.

The award carries a cash prize of 9,000 euros.

The award for the best article or report of the year 2002 in the expatriate press was divided between the journalist Dimitris Theodorikakos from Australia and Nikos Sidiropoulos from Russia.

The award carries a cash prize of 5,000 euros.

The award for the best website of the year 2002 was given to the Youth Union from Germany.

The award carries a cash prize of 6,000 euros.

[04] State hospital doctors in Athens, Piraeus to strike Friday

State hospital doctors in Athens and Piraeus are to stage a 24-hour strike on Friday, in a call for the government to recruit doctors for more than 1,000 vacant posts around the country.

The Union of Athens and Piraeus Hospital Doctors said in a statement on Thursday that hospitals would have skeleton staff to handle emergencies, as required by law.

The union is also seeking classification of their profession as employment hazardous to health and to have duty shifts included in pension calculations.

In addition, doctors want an improved payscale and working hours, the statement said.

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.143

Pound sterling 0.703

Danish kroner 7.494

Swedish kroner 9.198

Japanese yen 134.5

Swiss franc 1.561

Norwegian kroner 8.386

Cyprus pound 0.592

Canadian dollar 1.585

Australian dollar 1.749

[06] Weather Forecast: Sunny start on Friday

Sunny weather is forecast in all parts of the country until afternoon, when scattered cloud will build up on the mainland and showers or storms are expected mainly in Macedonia and Thrace. Winds north-northwesterly, moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 17C to 29C; on the rest of the mainland from 19C to 34C; and in the islands from 22C to 31C. Temperatures in Athens will range between 22C and 34C; and in Thessaloniki from 20C to 29C.

[07] Greek stocks fall for second consecutive session

Greek stocks remained under pressure for the second consecutive session to end lower, although not far away from the critical 2,000-point level, in the Athens Stock Exchange on Thursday.

Traders said that a negative climate in other European bourses affected sentiment in the Greek market.

The general index fell 0.30 percent to end at 1,990,98 points, with turnover a moderate 161.3 million euros.

The IT Solutions, Retail and Investment sectors scored the biggest percentage gains of the day (5.98 percent, 0.99 percent and 0.88 percent, respectively), while the Publication (3.11 percent), Industrial (1.02 percent) and Construction (0.85 percent) sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks fell 0.08 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index ended 0.98 percent lower and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index rose 0.12 percent.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 167 to 154 with another 43 issues unchanged.

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