Jewish group to ask for Nazi criminal's extradition
NEWS IN DETAIL
Turkey damns itself at Socialist International, PM Simitis says
Prime Minister Costas Simitis said today that former Turkish foreign
minister Deniz Baykal's speech to the Socialist International council
meeting in Rome had been characterized by aggressiveness which painted an
adverse picture of Turkish aspirations, according to an ANA despatch from
the Italian capital.
Speaking at a press conference in Rome at the end of the two-day meeting,
Simitis added that the address by the leader of the Turkish Republican
People's Party had been ''highly illuminating'' for those present.
Simitis said Baykal had not taken into consideration the sensitivity of
Socialist International members on matters relating to peace.
Baykal claimed at the meeting yesterday that Cyprus' accession to the
European Union was tantamount to a union with Greece, while Nicosia's plans
to deploy Russian anti-aircraft missiles was an effort by the Greek
Cypriots to dominate the Turkish Cypriots.
Simitis praised Cypriot socialist EDEK party leader Vassos Lyssarides who
replied to Baykal saying his positions were an affront to the Socialist
International.
Lyssarides said Baykal could not give lessons to the EU on the accession of
its members and Turkey could not have a different position concerning its
own defence system and the corresponding systems of other countries.
Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas later told reporters in Athens that
''statements by Turkish officials do not daunt us and do not change Cyprus'
armaments programme''.
Reppas made the statement when asked to comment on threats yesterday by
Turkish Premier Necmettin Erbakan and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf
Denktash.
Erbakan said that Turkish warships would soon be sent to the occupied part
of Cyprus as an expression of support for the illegal entity.
''With their statements, the Turkish officials create additional difficulties
for efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, but also for Turkey
itself,'' Reppas said.
Commenting on Nicosia's missile deployment plans, Reppas said it was not
possible for a country not to prepare its defence ''particularly when
history has shown this to be absolutely imperative''.
Meanwhile, the spokesman rejected Athens newspaper reports today claiming
that Cyprus and Greece had planned a joint military exercise for the end of
the March.
''There has been no such planning,'' Reppas said.
National Defence Ministry sources said that the visit by Turkish warships
to the occupied part of Cyprus created no cause for concern, nor was there
any need for Greek navy vessels to go to ports on the island republic.
The sources were commenting on reports that a Turkish frigate, escorted by
2-3 auxiliary vessels, would head to the occupied northern part of Cyprus
on Friday.
The visit posed no threat to Hellenism on Cyprus, the sources added.
24-hour general strike called for tomorrow
The nationwide 24-hour strike called for Thursday by the General Confederation
of Greek Workers (GSEE) to protest the government's tax bill will affect
the country's private and broader public sectors, with widespread
disruption expected to transport services.
City buses will not be running from the beginning of the normal shift
tomorrow until 9 am, nor from 10 pm until the end of the day's shift.
Trolleys and electric trains (HSAP) will remain in depots and stations from
the beginning of the shift until 9 am, while a work stoppage will be held
at the national carrier Olympic Airways from 12 noon until 3 pm.
Hellenic Railways (OSE) services will be suspended during the entire 24
hours.
GSEE and the Athens Labour Centre have organised a protest rally at 10 am
in central Athens.
The main demands put by GSEE are the index-linking of tax brackets to
inflation and the increase -- to 2 million drachmas -- of tax-free
income.
Drachma slide eases against foreign currencies in '96
The drachma depreciated in 1996 against all foreign currencies by 0.04 per
cent and against European currencies by 0.36 per cent, according to the
monthly bulletin of weighted parity indices compiled by the Exports
Research and Studies Centre (KEEM).
The corresponding depreciation figures for 1994 were 5 per cent and 5.6 per
cent respectively, while in 1995, 3.36 per cent and 4.35 per cent.
According to KEEM, the drachma depreciated against all EU member-state
currencies in December 1996 compared to the previous month.
The extent of the drachma's loss in value ranged between 0.02 (Swedish
Krona) and 3.5 per cent (Pound Sterling).
Constantopoulos to visit Cyprus
Coalition of the Left and Progress leader Nikos Constantopoulos will visit
Cyprus from 3-5 February for talks with President Glafcos Clerides and
political party leaders.
During his stay, Constantopoulos will also meet with members of the island
republic's academic community and society figures, Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots.
The main focus of his talks will be the latest developments in the Cyprus
problem.
Good news for smokers
Three Greek professors today unveiled a revolutionary cigarette filter that
will make smoking less harmful for billions of smokers around the
world.
The three university professors revealed their discovery to Greek and
foreign newsmen at a press conference organised by the Greek Cooperative
Tobacco Industry S.A.-SEKAP, the first cigarette producer in the world to
introduce the "Bio-filter" in its products.
The inventors of the new filter announced details of their discovery at an
international scientific Symposium last week. They said the "Bio-filter"
resembles conventional cigarette filters in appearance, but its innovative
design screens out short-lived carcinogens that the ordinary filters do
not.
Athens University Professor of Physiology, Ioannis Stavridis, said the
basic component of the Bio-filter is haemoglobin (the body's oxygen-
carrier), which is found in the active carbon channels in pre-determined
conditions of moisture and PH. Its components provide effective protection
from the solid phase of smoke (tar) as well as from the gas phase (oxygen
free radicals, nitric oxide and its derivatives), without altering the
taste of the cigarette and its aromatic elements.
The philosophy of the filter is simple -- Professor Stavridis says
and is based on the princple that free radicals react only with iron in
the form in which it is found in the long cells. Thus, before reaching the
lung the filter -- which contains iron bound to the heme of haemoglobin --
acts as an artificial lung where all the reactions take place. In this way,
the carcinogenic substances are trapped by the filter or neutralised, while
those not trapped never make it to the lung due to their extremely short
life-span (millionths of a second).
Professor George Delikonstantinos, explaining the action mechanism of the
filter, said the carcinogenic nitrozocompounds are blockd out, while the
benzopyrene -- one of the most powerful carcinogens -- is metabolised and
retained in the filter. Professor Delikonstantos particularly stressed the
biological filter's contribution to protecting passive smokers. Tests run
among volunteers, he said, showed that the smoke exhaled from a cigarette
with a biological filter is 40 times less toxic with respect to quantity of
oxygen free radicals and noxious nitrogen oxides.
Professor Stephanos Geroulanos pointed out that at least 4,000 hazardous
substances are freed with each puff on a cigarette, and despite the fact
that tar and nicotine are considered as the main "culprits", there are many
more substances that are equally hazardous. Such as nitrogen monoxide,
which when it tners the lungs activates the olveolar microphases, which in
turn produce thousands to hundreds of thousands of free radicals. The more
this figure rises, the easier the lung is destroyed, as emphysema is
created.
The biological filter reduces all these substances by more than 70%.
Ilias Seitanidis, chairman of SEKAP, called on tobacco industries around
the world to use the bio-filter in order to protect their consumers.
''Take our invention and use it,'' he said, adding that ''we are not
encouraging non-smokers to start smoking, but we are saying that those who
do smoke could protect their health''.
Charges laid in pyramid investment scams
The Public Prosecutor's Office in Thessaloniki said today that the get-rich-
quick ''pyramid'' schemes being run by private companies in the northern
Greek port city constituted fraud in the criminal sense.
Proceedings have already been instituted against Thessaloniki resident
Ioannis Gourmetsou, 35, alleged organiser of two versions of the pyramid
scheme with the names ''Golden'' and ''Silver''.
Thousands of residents of northern Greece are believed to be participating
in the bogus investment schemes with an estimated turnover of tens of
millions of drachmas.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the criminal offence of fraud
is constituted by the fact that after some time, players reaching the top
of a ''pyramid'' are unable to secure a return on their ''investment'',
unlike other players which reached the top before them.
The coupons and computers used by another eight pyramid schemes have been
confiscated and legal proceedings are being prepared.
Police in Thessaloniki have already seized files containing the financial
data concerning each scheme, including details of players, which will be
handed over to the relevant state tax offices.
Presenting details today of just one scheme, Thessaloniki Police Chief
Costas Economou said 10,215 people had registered between 2-11 November
1996, with a total turnover of 66 million drachmas.
Although the Public Prosecutor's Office has said that players are
accomplices to the fraud, Economou expressed the view that it would not be
possible to press charges against thousands of individuals because it would
create a social problem.
Similar schemes have recently ruined thousands of people in neighbouring
Albania who have staged demonstrations in Tirana and other major cities in
an effort to retrieve their savings.
Ancient Lyceum in urgent need of protection
The Central Archaeological Council yesterday decided to shelter the
recently discovered remains of what is believed to be the palaestra
(wrestling arena) of Athens' famed ancient Lyceum, located in central
Athens and only a five-minutes' walk from Parliament.
The palaestra was discovered during works for the planned Goulandris museum
of modern art, with the 15-member Council agreeing in principle on the
display of findings from the site in the basement of the future museum as
the best solution.
However, they expressed the view that further construction for the museum
will have to be suspended, as they would also damage the findings.
There are fears that a sudden heavy rain may cover the entire site in mud,
especially given that it is next to downsloped Rigillis Street.
Top US military officer on official visit
Chief of National Defence General Staff Gen. Athanasios Tzoganis received a
courtesy call yesterday from the US military representative to NATO Lt.-
Gen. Thomas Montgomery. On the occasion, Gen. Tzoganis briefed his
interlocutor on Greek positions on all n ational issues.
Lt.-Gen. Montgomery will visit Souda Bay today, while tomorrow he will
visit the 1st Army and 3rd Army Corps before leaving for Brussels. During
his stay in Greece, Lt.-Gen. Montgomery will also visit archaeological
sites.
Jewish group to ask for Nazi criminal`s extradition
The Jewish community of Greece will ask Athens to press for the extradition
from Syria of 85-year-old Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner, the president of
the Central Jewish Committee in Greece told Agence France Presse (AFP)
yesterday.
Committee president Nissim Mais said the group had requested the intervention
of the Greek government on the issue in 1985 and 1986, although Athens
replied at the time that it had ceded its rights to West Germany in 1959
concerning the pursuit of Nazi war criminals.
Syria has repeatedly denied that Brunner lives in the Middle Eastern
country.
The Austrian-born Brunner, an aide to notorious Nazi Adolf Eichmann, was
located by nazi hunter Simon Weisenthal in Syria in the 1950s, and later by
French lawyer Serge Klarsfeld in 1982.
He is considered responsible for the deportation of 52,000 Jews from
Thessaloniki during the war.
Meanwhile, the head of Thessaloniki's Jewish community, Andreas Sefiha,
told AFP that he hoped this time efforts will bear fruit, as he said Greece
is the only member of the European Union on good terms with Syria.
His extradition was requested by Austria in 1961, (West) Germany in 1984
and France in 1989.
WEATHER
Strong northerly winds and a gradual drop in temperatures are forecast for
most parts of Greece. Thrace, the north Aegean sea, the Cyclades, eastern
Peloponnese and northern Crete will be cloudy with possible rain. Sunny
spells in the rest of the country. Athens will be overcast with temperatures
between 6-15C. Same for Thessaloniki with temperatures between 3-7C.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
(closing rates - buying) US dlr. 250.768
Pound sterling 416.938 Cyprus pd 517.130
French franc 45.805 Swiss franc 177.340
German mark 154.554 Italian lira (100) 15.905
Yen (100) 212.655 Canadian dlr. 187.290
Australian dlr. 195.087 Irish Punt 407.117
Belgian franc 7.500 Finnish mark 52.556
Dutch guilder 137.580 Danish kr. 40.527
Swedish kr. 35.381 Norwegian kr. 38.748
Austrian sh. 21.983 Spanish peseta 1.849
Portuguese escudo 1.551
(M.P.)
