Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-13

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

CONTENTS

[01] Mitsotakis: Greece needs cuts in taxes, public spending, restoration of bank liquidity

[02] Archaeologists: Vlochos remains not new, have been known for 200 years

[01] Mitsotakis: Greece needs cuts in taxes, public spending, restoration of bank liquidity

He said the first is a new fiscal policy mix that will emphasize the gradual reduction of tax rates in combination with a targeted reduction of public spending. The second is restoring the liquidity of the Greek banking system and the third is a comprehensive reform plan which will aim at facilitating entrepreneurship and attracting investments.

"We will have to invest in Greece's comparative advantages," he told the Chamber, adding that it is also necessary to "release public education from the bondages of statism" while placing an emphasis on research and innovation.

On foreign affairs issues, Mitsotakis said Greece seeks friendly relations and a close cooperation with Turkey. "But Turkey should have the same objective. It must want stable and friendly relations of mutual benefit with Greece. The fundamental basis for such a relationship is respect for international law, international treaties and good neighborly relations. The repeated statements recently unfortunately do no move in this direction. This is of particular concern," he said.

He also reiterated his party's firm support for Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and his efforts to resolve the Cyprus issue.

[02] Archaeologists: Vlochos remains not new, have been known for 200 years

While they welcomed the media attention, the archaeologists said they were "somewhat overwhelmed" and noted that some misleading information seemed to have crept into the reports.

"It is only the status of a city that can be confirmed by the new project. There has been several different theories about what the remains represent, all based on more or less unsystematic observations. The preliminary results of VLAP shows that the remains at Vlochós do indeed belong to a sizeable urban settlement. We would like to stress that the archaeological remains at site were well-known to the local archaeological service, and that our collaboration is focussed on discovering the unknown aspects of the site," the press release said.

They also noted that VLAP was a Greek-Swedish-British collaborative project and, contrary to what some reports seemed to suggest, was the result of collaboration between the Ephorate of Antiquities of Karditsa and the Swedish Institute at Athens.

"Archaeologists from the said Ephorate, the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and the University of Bournemouth (UK) are working side by side, with equal responsibilities at site," they added. They also made clear that VLAP is not collecting pottery and that no finds have left or will ever leave Greece.

"We are sorry if some of the press headlines are a bit exaggerated, and we hope this little blog post will bring some more clarity in the matter," the announcement concluded.

The project's website is at the site http://vlap.se/blog .

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