Subject: News I, 2/08/93 Athens News Agency Bulletin, August 2, 1993 ------------------------------------------- Istanbul, 2/8/1993 (ANA - A. Kourkoulas): The Greater Synod on Saturday decided to temporarily suspend relations with the Jerusalem Patriarch and dismiss two bishops who acted as his deputies and defrock five priests for challenging the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch. The decision to suspend relations with Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem until Christmas as a warning was reached after two days of deliberations by the leaders of the Greek Orthodox churches led by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos. Patriarch Diodoros was accused of interfering in the affairs of other Patriarchates in Australia, America, Western Europe and Greece. A statement issued at the conclusion of the Greater Synod said that while the body had unanimously found Patriarch Diodoros deserving of dismissal, it had decided to temporarily suspend relations with him in order to avoid a major rift in the church and give him an opportunity to withdraw from all the countries he had infiltrated. The statement also emphasised the danger to Hellenism's unity posed by the Jerusalem Patriarch's actions. "Only Greek-born church leaders were called to the Synod since it dealt with a problem that undermined the unity of Hellenism at home and abroad, and this is why all Patriarchs of Greek communities abroad were called", it said. Athens, 2/8/1993 (ANA): Internationally renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich said Saturday that he felt "reborn" following a visit to the monastic community of Mount Athos. "As a Russian Orthodox, I feel that I was reborn here", he told the Macedonian Press Agency after a visit to Mount Athos. "My soul filled with light ... I feel more complete, stronger and with more hope for humankind and life. The Orthodox Church, this international force of love and solidarity headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch, should feel proud of what is known as the Holy Mountain", he added. Mr. Rostropovich is visiting the Greek province of Macedonia as a guest of the New Democracy party's General Director, Constantine Pylarinos. He spent Friday night at the monastery of Agios Panteleimonas before visiting the Megisti Lavra monastery Saturday, accompanied by Mr. Pylarinos and Macedonia-Thrace General Secretary Ioannis Tsalouhidis. Mr. Rostropovich completed his pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain yesterday and returned to Thessaloniki. Athens, 2/8/1993 (ANA): An earthquake measuring 4.1 on the open-ended Richter scale was recorded in the Ioannina prefecture at 8:14 am, police said yesterday. The Athens Geodynamic Institute and the Thessaloniki University geophysics department said the quake's epicentre was near the village of Zitsa, 224 kilometres south-west of Thessaloniki. Athens, 2/8/1993 (ANA): President Constantine Karamanlis yesterday expressed his condolences over the death of King Baudouin in a message to the Belgian government. "Please accept my most sincere condolences for the untimely death of King Baudouin, whose virtues as both a monarch and a human being I had the opportunity to appreciate during our meetings in the past", Mr. Karamanlis said in the message. King Baudouin died Saturday night following a heart attack while on holiday in southern Spain. Athens, 2/8/1993 (ANA): Twelve people were killed on Saturday in fires that swept the island of Ikaria, destroying more than 100,000 acres of forest and farm land and razing 30 homes, police said yesterday. They also said an emergency had been declared yesterday on the island of Samos, a few miles west of Ikaria, after a fire gutted three homes and over 12,000 acres of forest and farm land. The emergency was declared when the fire, fanned by strong winds, reached the outskirts of Spatharaion. Officials at the Samos prefecture said the village had been evacuated and that no human lives were in danger. "Early indications and preliminary investigations point to arson on both Ikaria and Samos, particularly if one considers that the fires broke out near army camps and explosives warehouses", government spokesman Vassilis Manginas said Saturday. "These criminal acts ... are condemned in the conscience of the Greek people as actions attempting to create a climate of unrest, especially during the peak tourist season", he added. Late yesterday police said the fire on Ikaria, which broke out near the village of Kounouma of Friday, had been brought under control. Fire fighting efforts on Samos were continuing, they added. Athens, 2/8/1993 (ANA): A 35-year-old German driver has been arrested at the Evros border post for attempting to smuggle 31 kilos of heroin through Greece, police said yesterday. They said Rudolf Muhnbauer, a professional driver from Bonn, was arrested at the border en route from Istanbul to Hamburg after police found the heroin concealed in 36 air-tight bags in his Mercedes. Police said Muhnbauer denied any knowledge of the drugs, saying only that a Turk named Husein had paid him 5,000 German marks to drive the car from Bonn to a client in Istanbul. The German said that after a five-day stay in Turkey, the same man had told him that the customer was no longer interested in buying the car and had asked him to drive it back to Germany, police added.