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Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English, 98-10-01Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.BRIEF GREEK NEWS BULLETIN BY THE MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCYThessaloniki, October 1, 1998TITLES
NEWS IN DETAIL[01] GREEK PREMIER SPEAKS WITH NEWLY-APPOINTED ALBANIAN PM MAJKOAthens, October 1 (MPA)Greece's Prime Minister Kostas Simitis had a telephone conversation with Albania's newly-appointed Premier Pandeli Majko yesterday, wherein he congratulated him on his appointment.According to government reports, Mr. Simitis invited his Albanian counterpart to visit Athens on November 12. Mr. Majko accepted the invitation although he expressed reservations over the date of the visit and stated that it will be fixed through diplomatic channels. [02] GREEK ALTERNATE FM EXPRESSES FULL SUPPORT OF ALBANIA'S NEW PREMIERAthens, October 1 (MPA)Greece's alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou has expressed the government's support of Albania's newly-appointed Prime Minister Padeli Majko, stating that Greece hopes the new leadership will prove to be a catalyst for positive developments in the neighboring country."We fully support the new prime minister in his efforts to tackle the most pressing and important issues that Albania faces today, i.e. the restoration of public order, the fight against corruption, the economy, and the institution-building process," Mr. Papandreou said. He also stated that "we call on President Meidani to take political initiatives to revive the spirit of dialogue and round tables with a constructive opposition. A constructive opposition is one that takes part actively in parliament and the constitutional process. It is also totally against those tactics which contribute to the recent violent events in Tirana. " [03] GREEK ALTERNATE FM CANCELS TRIP TO BELGRADE OVER VISA ISSUEAthens, October 1 (MPA)Greece's Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who currently serves as the chairman of the Council of Europe, has canceled today's scheduled visit to Belgrade after the refusal of Yugoslav authorities to grant entry visas to an adequate number of foreign participants for a conference in the Yugoslav capital.Mr. Papandreou was to travel to Belgrade today in order to attend the opening of the "International Conference on Broadcasting for a Democratic Europe: The case of the Association of Independent Electronic Media - ANEM", organized by the secretary general of the Council of Europe. Mr. Papandreou expressed his "full support to the organizers of the conference" and said that he "shared the efforts put forward for the strengthening of the role of the media in Yugoslavia." [04] PROBLEMS MOUNT AT GREECE'S HOSPITALS AS DOCTORS CONTINUE TO STRIKEThessaloniki, October 1 (MPA)Hospitals throughout the country remain closed and only accept dire emergency cases while their outpatient clinics have closed their doors on visiting patients.The state-employed doctors have been on a strike for almost two weeks, protesting the government's moves to cut the physicians' overtime expenses and to appoint professional managers. After a meeting with Prime Minister Kostas Simitis, Health Minister Kostas Gitonas said that ``we will take all measures so that work at the hospitals returns to normal. The labor action in some cases is unacceptable.'' [05] GREEK DEFENSE MINISTER TO BE RECEIVED TODAY BY CYPRIOT PRESIDENTNicosia, October 1 (MPA)Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos will be received by the President of the Republic of Cyprus today in Nicosia.Later in the day, Mgrs. Clerides and Tsochatzopoulos will attend the military parade honoring the island's independence day. Mr. Tsochatzopoulos, who met yesterday with the Speaker of the Cypriot Parliament Spyros Kyprianou, will meet today with Archbishop Chrysostomos and other political and military officials. [06] GREEK DEFENSE MINISTER IN CYPRUS: OUR RESPONSE TO THREATS IS ACTIONNicosia, October 1 (MPA)Greek Defense Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos, who arrived in Cyprus yesterday, stated that Greece will continue to strengthen its defense pact with the island and will respond to Turkish threats with actions not words.Mr. Tsochatzopoulos said that as long as Turkish "expansionist" policies persisted, so would the defense pact between Cyprus and Greece. "The Cypriot people and the Greek people are very experienced in the expansionist policy of Turkey and its threats," he stressed. Commenting on the planned deployment of Russian S-300 missiles in November and on Turkey's threats to strike, Tsochatzopoulos said such threats would be met with decisiveness and by boosting of the defense pact. "Threats are just words, and there is no need to reply with words. We must be ready to respond with action. That's what I want to say." Mr. Tsochatzopoulos was received at the Larnaca Airport by his Cypriot counterpart Yiannakis Omirou. with whom he held talks later in the day. "Our difference with Turkey is that it continues for 24 years now to insist on depriving northern Cyprus of its human rights, freedom and international law," Mr. Tsochatzopoulos said. "We are not ready to accept for long more the last dividing line, the Attila wall, in the ranks of the European Union..." However, he did add that the results of his recent meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem was that the two countries could work together for collective security in the Balkans and even on the Cyprus problem. Welcoming Tsochatzopoulos to the island, Mr. Omirou said the Greek Minister was visiting at a crucial time, "indicating once again Greece's firm support in our struggle for freedom and justice". [07] PRICES FALL ON 250 FOOD AND CONSUMER GOODS AS OF TODAYAthens, October 1 (MPA)Retail sales prices of about 250 foodstuffs and consumer goods will start decreasing as of today, ranging between 3-33 per cent and being applied gradually in the market until October 15.The price reductions are the result of an agreement reached between the Ministry of Development and representatives of household and foodstuffs industries. The duration of the retail sales price decreases is three months and six months for certain products. The categories of products whose prices will be decreased are cleaning products, flour, pasteurized milk, yogurt, hard cheeses, coffee, rice, legumes, pasta products, infants' foods, refreshments, corn flakes, chocolates and mayonnaise. [08] ACADEMY OF GREEK LANGUAGE AND CULTURE OPENS IN GERMANYBonn, October 1 (MPA)The Academy of Greek Language and Culture, headquartered in Wupertal, Germany, is to open 32 Greek language and culture departments aimed at all age groups.This effort to disseminate the teaching of the Greek language is especially targeting public servants, academics and students. The Academy's chairman Charalabos Stephanopoulos stated that this move "illustrates the liveliness of the Greek spirit, language and culture." The curriculum, currently in its first year of enforcement, has been applied on an experimental basis to foreigners who plan to visit Greece and 23 persons, Britons, French and Germans, who traveled to Greece returned with a richer vocabulary. "We thought is was necessary that the foreign tourists who visit our country can assimilate some Greek cultural facts," Mr. Stephanopoulos said. [09] FRANKFURT INT/L BOOK EXHIBITION FEATURES STRONG GREEK PRESENCEFrankfurt, October 1 (MPA)The 50th Frankfurt International Book Exhibition, to be inaugurated on October 6, is to feature a strong presence of Greek literature, with an upgraded Greek pavilion.Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that an international book exhibition will also be started in Thessaloniki within the framework of HELEXPO. "It is an issue which we are processing with the assistance of HELEXPO and the Thessaloniki International Fair, but we do not want to make an announcement before some discussions are completed," Mr. Venizelos has stated. "In light of 2001, the year in which Greece will be the honored country at the exhibition, our presence will be orientated towards this event," he added. The Greek pavilion is considering 1,500 books produced over the past 18 months which have been proposed by publishers. [10] SECURITY COUNCIL CONVENES AFTER REPORTS OF ATROCITIES IN KOSSOVONew York, October 1 (MPA)The United Nations Security Council is to convene today after the latest reports of atrocities in Kossovo, where members of the region's Albanian community have reportedly been killed.Meanwhile, NATO is apparently on the brink of taking military action, while Britain, France and the United States are warning Serb President Slobodan Milosevic that the Alliance is ready to attack Serb targets. [11] UN SECRETARY GENERAL "OUTRAGED" BY REPORTS OF ATROCITIES IN KOSSOVONew York, October 1 (MPA)United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that he was outraged by reports of atrocities perpetrated by security forces in Kossovo, under the authority of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.A statement issued by his spokesman yesterday said that these reports were particularly shocking to the Secretary-General in light of denials that such actions were taking place received from the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zivadin Jovanovic whom he met on Tuesday. The statement recalled that the Security Council had recently reaffirmed the commitment of all member-states to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. From this, the statement added, it followed that the authorities of Yugoslavia had the right and the duty to maintain public order and to defend the country from provocative actions such as those which had been committed by Kosovar Albanian separatist extremists. "But those actions can never justify the pattern of terror, including the burning of houses, looting, killing of livestock and wanton killing that have been reported these past few days," the Secretary-General said. Stressing that such actions were totally unacceptable to the international community, the Secretary-General reiterated that it was the duty of security forces to protect citizens, not to intimidate them. The Secretary-General "utterly" condemned these actions and renewed his strong representations to the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, made directly to the Foreign Minister, to desist from repeating them. "He once again calls upon all parties to cease violence and to concentrate on the search for a negotiated solution to the crisis in Kosovo according to law," the statement said. [12] UN ENVOY IN NICOSIA TO MEET WITH CLERIDES, DENKTASH SEPARATELYNicosia, October 1 (MPA)The United Nations envoy to Cyprus, Ann Hercus, is to hold talks with Cypriot President Glafkos Clerides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash in separate meetings that are aimed at promoting progress toward a resolution of the Cyprus issue.The UN has issued a statement wherein it states that there were no plans for a resumption of face-to-face talks between President Clerides and Mr. Rauf Denktash. The U.N. statement was issued after Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who held a meeting last Friday with President Clerides, conferred Wednesday with Mr. Denktash. ``In these meetings, the secretary-general proposed that his special representative for Cyprus, Ann Hercus, develop a process for on-island contacts with both parties, with the goal of reducing tensions and promoting progress toward a just and lasting settlement,'' a U.N. spokesman said. ``Both leaders expressed their support for such a process and have promised to cooperate with it in a constructive and flexible manner,'' he added. [13] "MACEDONIA" AIRPORT TO UNDERGO PROJECTS AMOUNTING TO GRD19.4 BILLIONThessaloniki, October 1 (MPA)Thessaloniki's "Macedonia" airport is to undergo an expensive "facelift", as the Greek government is allocating 19.4 billion drachmas for upgrading works that will fortify the target of establishing the airport's international status.Specifically, the Civil Aviation Authority is planing to execute six projects by the end of this year, which aim to update the building facilities and the airport's overall operational enhancement.. According to CAA's assistant commissioner George Souladakis, these projects fall within the airport's overall upgrading program. [14] RUSSIA WARNS: RAID ON YUGOSLAVIA COULD END RUSSIA-NATO AGREEMENTMoscow, October 1 (MPA)A NATO raid on Yugoslavia could provoke Russian deputies into "breaking the agreement between Russia and NATO", the president of the Russian Parliament (Duma) Gennady Seleznev stated yesterday evening in a televised interview.Mr. Seleznev also warned the Alliance to expect retaliation from the Yugoslav army following any air raid against Yugoslavia. Russia has to date opposed growing support in the West for air strikes to end a seven-month crackdown by Serb security forces against ethnic Albanian separatists. Russia and NATO are due to update the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, signed in November 1990 by the 16 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the 14 members of the former Warsaw Pact. Complete archives of the Macedonian Press Agency bulletins are available on the MPA Home Page at http://www.mpa.gr/ and on the U.S. mirror at http://www.hri.org/MPA/Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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