Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 98-06-02

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 02/06/1998 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Athens lashes out at Commissioner
• Undersea tunnel ready by 2000
• Serb soccer coach in Athens for AEK talks
• Gypsy group calls for wide-ranging vaccination
• Policeman arrested for armed robbery
• Officer found dead in apparent court suicide
• Rhodes ready to sink under wave of tourist arrivals
• Government urges Ionian Bank employees to come to talks
• Commercial Bank of Greece owns 58 percent of Ionian Bank
• New Athens bourse chairman calls for swift restructuring
• National Bank of Greece says new share allocation to hold steady
• ND deputy's car crashes, one woman dead
• Crete increases share of GNP
• Increased profits for investment firms in '97
• Quarterly OTE profits, turnover rise
• Greek participation at Verona exhibition
• Athens Hospital doctors to strike tomorrow
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

The government said today that Greece's European Commissioner Christos Papoutsis had "overstepped the bounds within which he should act", commenting on a public row which has broken out between the commissioner and Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos. The row began when Papoutsis in an interview published by the Athens daily "Ta Nea" on Monday said that "modernisation cannot be achieved by using the riot police". He was referring to recent scuffles between striking employees of the Ionian Bank and police.In an interview with the MEGA private television channel last night, Pangalos said Papoutsis was adopting "the most irresponsible and yellow pages of the press to strike against his own party.

Undersea tunnel ready by 2000

A 28-billion drachma undersea tunnel in western Greece, which is designed to aid transport to Albania and the Dalmatian coast, will be open to traffic in October 1999, Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis said today. "This major project will help to promote both the region and the country. It is part of a transport link in the west connecting Albania and the Dalmatian coast with Kalamata (in the Peloponnese)," Laliotis told a ceremony to launch the project's second phase. Around 75 percent of the Aktio-Preveza link has been built and the project is keeping within its timescale, he said.

Serb soccer coach in Athens for AEK talks

Serb soccer coach Dragoslav Stepanovic is due to arrive in Athens this evening for talks with AEK which are expected to lead to his signing a contract with the Athens first division club. Sources said Stepanovic was chosen by AEK's management shortly after midnight last night to replace Romanian coach Dumitru Dumitriu.

Gypsy group calls for wide-ranging vaccination

The incidence of hepatitis B is as high as 65 percent in some parts of Greece and the government must introduce an extensive vaccination campaign to include high risk groups such as transient gypsies, illegal immigrants and prison inmates, a Greek gypsy support group said today. According to representatives of D-ROM, a programme aimed at fighting marginalisation and exclusion suffered by the Greek gypsy population, the incidence of hepatitis B has been recorded at 65 percent in some regions frequented by camp gypsies (including Thessaloniki, Crete and Attica) while the percentage for other regions is about 2.0 percent with 5.0 percent being considered an emergency level.

Policeman arrested for armed robbery

Police today said they had arrested a member of the Greek police force's anti-riot squad on suspicion of armed robbery. Athanasios Angelakis, 27 and a five-year veteran of the riot police squad MAT, was arrested as he tried to hail a taxi after two gunmen robbed a branch of the National Bank in suburban Goudi this morning. Police said they found money and arms on Angelakis, who has denied all charges.

Officer found dead in apparent court suicide

Police in the northern Greek town of Ioannina are investigating "all avenues" following the apparent suicide of a policeman in the Ioannina courthouse earlier today. Court officials found police officer Evangelos Georgoulis lying in a pool of blood in the courthouse toilets after hearing a shot at approximately 12.20 p.m. local time. Georgoulis's service revolver was lying next to him.

Rhodes ready to sink under wave of tourist arrivals

Rhodes is expecting to break all previous records for tourist arrivals this week, with 250 charter flights from different countries and 50 Olympic Airways domestic flights scheduled to land on the island between today and next Sunday. It is estimated that 35,000 foreign visitors will arrive on Rhodes this week, mostly from Germany, Britain and the Scandinavian countries. Most of the charter flights are due on Thursday and Sunday, when the arrival of 130 flights will set a new record for the island.

Government urges Ionian Bank employees to come to talks

National Economy and Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou yesterday urged striking Ionian Bank employees and union federation leaders to hold talks on safeguarding jobs after the bank's sale. Mr. Papantoniou made the statement after an informal meeting of the inner cabinet held with the ruling PASOK party's political secretariat to discuss the government's restructuring programme and the sale of Ionian Bank.

Commercial Bank of Greece owns 58 percent of Ionian Bank

Commercial Bank of Greece sold around one million shares of its stake in Ionian Bank through the Athens bourse between March 26 and the date the government announced its plan to sell the subsidiary, Commercial's chairman Costas Georgoutsakos said yesterday. The bank made a substantial profit from the sale, which brought its shareholding down to 58 percent, Mr. Georgoutsakos told the Imerisia financial daily. Both Commercial Bank and the government have repeatedly denied allegations that they had dumped blocks of shares through the bourse in order to ease Ionian's sale by driving down its share price.

New Athens bourse chairman calls for swift restructuring

The new chairman of the Athens Stock Exchange, Spyros Kouniakis, yesterday urged the government to speed up its economic restructuring programme, in which the bourse could play a major role. Mr. Kouniakis also said he backed mergers and acquisitions by listed companies. He was speaking at a ceremony at which he formally took over chairmanship of the Athens bourse from his predecessor, Manolis Xanthakis. He said that the Athens bourse had invested more than 10 billion drachmas, increased turnover by 30 times and boosted its capitalisation sixfold.

National Bank of Greece says new share allocation to hold steady

The ownership of National Bank of Greece has shifted to the private sector following the sale of 2.5 million shares in the country's largest commercial bank, the Sunday Kathimerini newspaper said at the weekend. The shares, which were sold recently to domestic and foreign institutional investors, came from the first phase of conversion of a bond forged with the Greek state. "Changes in shareholding percentages in the bank's share capital do not upset existing balances and the current situation, and neither are they expected to do so," National Bank of Greece said in a statement yesterday.

ND deputy's car crashes, one woman dead

A young woman died early yesterday when a vehicle in which she was riding in, driven by main opposition New Democracy deputy Costas Karaminas, slammed into three parked cars and finally crashed into an electricity pole. Mr. Karaminas and a friend who was also in the car, Artemis Panousos, 32, a merchant, ND cadre and chairman of the municipal council of Karlovasi on the island of Samos, were not seriously injured. Police later said that both men were wearing seat belts , while their air-bags were also activated on impact. Citing his Parliamentary immunity, authorities said Mr. Karaminas refused to take a breathalyser test, while initial police reports state that the accident was due to excessive speed.

Crete increases share of GNP

Crete accounted for 5.3 per cent of Greece's GNP in the 1990-95 period - compared to 4.5 per cent in the previous decade - while its 10-year annual average unemployment rate stands at 4 per cent, half the national average, participants at a one-day confer ence in Hania were told yesterday. Crete's development rates are considerably influenced by tourism and the cultivation of olives, it was also reported. Finance Undersecretary Nikos Christodoulakis, who spoke at the conference, said Crete's regional development plan would greatly contribute to the formulation of a national development plan.

Increased profits for investment firms in '97

Profits of investment firms amounted to 40.9 billion drachmas in 1997, increasing by 133 per cent compared to 1996. Over the same period of time, revenues for the entire sector increased by 115 per cent. Results of investment firms in 1998, according to a publication by the Union of Institutional Investors (ETHE), are expected to follow the same positive course, since over the first quarter of the current year profits of certain companies in the sector have exceeded 50 per cent of total profits for 1996.

Quarterly OTE profits, turnover rise

The Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) increased profits and sales over the first quarter of the current year. Pre-tax unified profits amounted to 70.489 billion drachmas, while the turnover totalled 207.574 billion drachmas. Although corresponding figures do not exist for last year, it is assessed that there is an increase in the region of 12-15 per cent. Net profits with tax amounted to 45.185 billion drachmas. The utility's predictions for profits of 368 billion drachmas and a turnover of 979 billion drachmas are unattainable, since results in the first quarter showed a lag in profits.

Greek participation at Verona exhibition

Greece will participate in an international marble exhibition in Verona, Italy between Sept. 24-28. According to an announcement by the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board (HEPO), products to be displayed include marble and other stones, machinery for excavating, processing, transferring and packaging stones, as well as materials for the preservation and processing of stones. The Verona exhibition, considered a leading event in the marble sector, will feature about 1,500 exhibitors from 40 countries, while visitors are expected from 115 countries.

Athens Hospital doctors on strike tomorrow

Physicians at Athens-area and Piraeus public hospitals and clinics are scheduled to hold a 48-hour strike tomorrow and Thursday in demand of salary raises, including a 10 per cent pay hike and benefits granted other civil servants. They are also protesting against what representatives consider cutbacks in annual leave pay.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(M.P.)

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