Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 98-03-03

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 03/03/1998 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Athens calls for dialogue on Kosovo
• EU needs to exert pressure on Turkey
• Albanian president to visit next week
• Archbishop Serapheim responding to treatment
• Athens air pollution down
• Defence minister to attend Brussels Socialists meeting
• Local residents protest Thessaloniki airport radar
• Travelling salesmen rob unsuspecting homeowners
• One in four Greeks obese
• Tuberculosis, meningitis on the increase
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Greece today called for a solution to the Kosovo crisis through dialogue which respected the rights of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians and secured the unity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia.

Spokesman Dimitris Reppas, expressing the government's concern at the recent violence in Kosovo, said that apart from Prime Minister Costas Simitis' telephone conversations with Albanian counterpart Fatos Nano on the issue, Foreign Undersecretary Yiannos Kranidiotis had a meeting today with the Yugoslav embassy's charge d'affaires.

Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos' visit to Belgrade at the end of this week would also be a good opportunity for a discussion of the problem, said Reppas, adding that Greece was ready to offer its good services.

The spokesman was non-committal on reports that a meeting on Kosovo was being planned for the end of March, to take place in Athens. Reppas simply said in response to questions that many initiatives were under way but that it was premature to speak of scheduled meetings between the regions leaders.

Pangalos is also to visit Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, Reppas added.

EU needs to exert pressure on Turkey

Greece requires the more forceful intervention of the European Union in pressuring Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash towards developments ahead of the beginning of accession procedures for Cyprus' entry to the EU.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas was commenting on recent statements by Denktash and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit calling for recognition of the occupied northern third of Cyprus.

Reppas condemned both politicians for "reiterating their desires and subverting the framework set for the resolution of the Cypriot problem by the international community."

Turkey's behaviour towards these bodies is a provocation both to the bodies themselves and to international public opinion as a whole, he said.

Albanian president to visit next week

Albanian President Rexhep Mejdani arrives in Athens next Monday for a three- day visit, at the invitation of Greek counterpart Costis Stephanopoulos.

In preparation for his visit, Mejdani on Sunday visited villages with sizeable Greek ethnic minorities in southern Albania, accompanied by deputy premier Bashkim Fino, interior minister Neritan Ceka and transport and public works minister Gaqo Apostoli.

In Gjirokastr, Mejdani was briefed by the town mayor on the new conditions in the area a year after the collapse of pyramid investment schemes plunged the country into turmoil and clashes and toppled the government of then premier Sali Berisha.

Mejdani said after the meeting that "in a situation such as that faced by Albania today, we need to raise the stature of a society of the citizens, (which would be) the result of cooperation among the intellectuals, religious communities and non-governmental organisations".

Turning to Greece's role in the Albanian south, the President called on the Greek government, "through the General Consulate in Gjirokastr, to contribute to the economic upgrading of the region".

He also called for foreign investments in Albania, adding that "political guarantees" existed for foreign investors active in the country.

Turning to the renewed tension in Serbia's overwhelmingly Albanian-speaking Kosovo province and clashes on Monday in which 16 Albanians and 4 Serb policemen were killed, Mejdani said that "the old mentality of clash, intolerence and hatred" continued to prevail in the Balkans, adding that the "Albanian population" was paying the price.

He reiterated an appeal to the UN Secretary General for the despatch of a permanent force to the region, and for implementation of the Rugova- Milosevic agreement, as the first step towards the commencement of dialogue.

Archbishop Serapheim responding to treatment

Archbishop Serapheim of Athens and All Greece, hospitalised last week with a viral infection and respiratory problems, was marking a "slow but steady improvement" and was "responding to treatment", a medical bulletin said today.

The bulletin issued by the Laiko Hospital in Athens, where Serapheim has been hospitalised since last Tuesday, said that although the Archbishop's condition had "improved remarkably" since Saturday, the "damage caused by the infection have not been fully restored" and the possibility of "some complication arising cannot be ruled out".

It said the Archbishop, a long-time kidney sufferer, would undergo "scheduled dialysis treatment" tomorrow, adding that it was not possible at present to anticipate when the Archbishop could be released from hospital.

Athens air pollution down

Air pollution in Athens has significantly decreased over the last three years as a result of the programme "Anti-pollution Attica SOS" which is aimed at reducing the city's air pollution by 30% before 2004 when Greece is to stage the Olympic Games, Environment Minister Costas Laliotis said today.

Laliotis added that at no time during 1997 had there been a need to impose a ban on cars within the city centre, usual when pollution levels are high.

The reductions ranged from 8.1 percent for emissions of carbon monoxide to 40.5 percent for emisions of sulphur dioxide.

A seven-billion drachma programme will be under way over the next two years to increase the number of mobile units monitoring pollution levels around the city and to form a special unit to enforce environmental regulations in industries.

According to figures presented by Laliotis, in 1997 nearly half the 2,401, 410 vehicles circulating in Greece had catalytic converters, only 10 percent of these were outside areas of high pollution. Forty-eight percent of all vehicles circulate in Athens.

The ministry has included various projects aimed at reducing air pollution in the second Community Support Framework with a budget of 15 billion drachmas, scheduled for completion within 1999.

Defence minister to attend Brussels Socialists meeting

Greece's socialists will be represented at the European Socialist Party summit in Brussels tomorrow by National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, the party's vice-president, and Foreign Undersecretary Yiannos Kranidiotis in his capacity as deputy secretary of PASOK's international relations department.

The agenda for tomorrow's meeting includes preparations for the party's conference in early 1999, the drafting of its platform for the European Parliament elections in June 1999 as well as its positions regarding the enlargement of the European Union.

Local residents protest Thessaloniki airport radar

Residents of Perea and four other communities surrounding Thessaloniki's Macedonia airport today blocked bulldozers that had moved in to begin work on the construction of a new radar system for the airport.

The residents are citing concerns over the possible effects of radiation emitted by the radar equipment.

The leaders of the five communities have been called to appear before the Thessaloniki prosecutor tomorrow along with representatives of the civil aviation service in order to find a solution to the problem.

Perea has already appealed to the Council of State, proposing an alternative radi-link between the airport control tower and the Hortiati military radar station, adding that the municipality would meet the costs.

The Civil Aviation Service, however, has refused to discuss any alternative. Its deputy director George Souladakis told the ANA the installation of the radar must go ahead at all costs.

Travelling salesmen rob unsuspecting homeowners

Four foreign nationals have been arrested near Omonia Square in possession of goods stolen from homes they had previously visited in the guise of travelling salespeople.

Peter Arkon, 22, of Albania, Novak Milandin, 27, from Croatia, Mitsa Kremenicic, 21, from Slovenia and Miriana Bozanovic, 25, from Yugoslavia, were arrested after tools used for breaking and entering, as well as stolen gold objects, were found in their rented car.

One in four Greeks obese

One in four Greeks are considered to be overweight and up to 40 percent Greeks want to lose weight, according to a news conference today on the occasion of the Greek Medical Society on Obesity's conference in Thessaloniki next Wednesday.

Experts said obesity was an illness which increased morbidity and decreased life span and was rarely treated as a whole, leading sufferers open to exploitation.

Fad diets and short-term miracle weight-loss programmes without the appropriate psychological support, they said, exacerbated problems and side- effects such as heart disease, respiratory difficulties and psychological problems.

The Thessaloniki conference will be open to the public for the first time to allow society to participate and be briefed on the latest developments in the area.

Tuberculosis, meningitis on the increase

Tuberculosis and meningitis - both diseases long thought to be under control - are making a reappearance in Greece, experts said today.

Thirty-five cases of a new form of meningitis have been recorded since the beginning of the year, three of them fatal.The increase is attributed in part to a new, contagious strain of meningitis - the inflammation of the meninges, particularly as a result of infection from bacteria or viruses - dubbed 'C'.

Recent studies on 2,000 migrants to Greece have also shown an increased incidence of tuberculosis compared to the general population. Some 1,000 cases of tuberculosis were officially recorded last year but experts say that the real figure is more likely closer to 3,000.

The figures were announced at a news conference on the establishment of a central epidemiological centre which will monitor and study the incidence of communicable diseases.

The center hopes to act as a central body for the documentation of diseases such as meningitis, tuberculosis and Hepatitis A.

The center - with an official title of Center for Epidemiological Supervision and Intervention - aims to detect new strains of disease in their infancy and take timely action to prevent their spreading.

Experts said that they were already predicting a new outbreak of measles but said they were not making the announcement to cause panic but to inform physicians of the need to take preventative action.

The center will have a nationwide brief and have at its disposal a mobile laboratory which will be able to set up and conduct on-the-spot pathology tests. Its brief will extend to testing of foodstuffs considered to be a public health hazard.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(M.P.)

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article