Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-09-10

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

CONTENTS

[01] Papandreou addresses PASOK Political Council

[02] Papariga visits TIF

[03] WADA praises anti-doping bill

[01] Papandreou addresses PASOK Political Council

Papandreou added that as it has appeared from the presence of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis in Thessaloniki over the weekend, "the citizens have lost their trust in the government due to its insistence on serving specific interests at the citizens' expense with untransparency and arbitrariness."

The PASOK leader further said that the government "is compressing the low and middle classes for the sake of the few and a feeling of insecurity is being created which is making the citizens feel poorer in comparison with the past and in relation to the rest of the European citizens."

Papandreou stressed that when he will be visiting Thessaloniki this week he will be providing "reliable answers as to how PASOK's pledge for a humane society will be turned into practice," adding that the focus shall be the citizen's income and his purchasing power, social issues and "untransparency and arbitrariness that one can see around him."

Papandreou will be leaving for Thessaloniki on Wednesday morning and, as he said, he will do this because he wishes to highlight three main issues before speaking at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF).

"The first is the government's failure to protect the citizens' income, the second is the government's failure to secure quality of life and the third to highlight its failure to approach longterm strategic investments," he said.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of main opposition PASOK party leader George Papandreou

[02] Papariga visits TIF

She met with the presidents of Helexpo S.A., Aristotelis Thomopoulos, and of TIF S.A., Dimitris Bakatselos, who briefed her on the characteristics of this year's organization, the presence of the exhibitors and of the government's decision, which was announced by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, for the transfer of the Exhibition outside the centre of the city and the conversion of the present locality into a metropolitan park. Papariga was later given a tour of the Exhibition's pavilions.

In statements to reporters, Papariga stressed that "for the past 20 years, despite popular indignation and the people's resistance in important struggles which were made by the working people, the youth, the farmers the self-employed, finally the government's anti-popular measures are being implemented. Consequently, the time has come for the popular majority, the workers and employees who suffer, to rid themselves of the syndrome that they have before them a Goliath and to convert the present victors into definitely defeated. This is our firm message from now on. We are working in this direction."

Caption: Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary General Aleka Papariga visits ANA-MPA pavillion at the 73rd Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF)on Tuesday 9 Sept. 2008. ANA-MPA/NIKOS ARVANITIDIS

[03] WADA praises anti-doping bill

"With this bill, the institutional framework for fighting doping becomes stronger and more effective worldwide," Andersen stated in Athens.

The draft bill was the central focus of a meeting between Andersen and Deputy Sports Minister Yiannis Ioannidis, which was also attended by the head of Hellenic National Council for Combatting Doping (ESKAN) Hara Spiliopoulou.

Caption: A laboratory assistant takes some urine to test for analgesics and narcotics, at the Swiss Doping analysing laboratory in Lausanne, on 10 June 2008.ANA-MPA/ EPA/DOMINIC FAVRE

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