Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 98-06-26

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, 26/06/1998 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Nicosia 'wall' will fall, says Greek President
• Turkish warplanes try to identify US plane in Athens FIR
• SE countries discuss Balkan peacekeeping force
• Conference of Israelis, Palestinians in Rhodes
• Venizelos cites British handover of antiquities to Ankara
• Joint Greek-Bulgarian archaeological excavation
• G. Papandreou on occasion of World Day Against Narcotics
• VP of Jewish attorneys' union speaks in Thessaloniki on Holocaust
• Greek stocks end lower on profit-taking
• Gov't adopts plan to set up financial centre in Thessaloniki
• Cronus Airlines unveils plans to expand services
• Hochtief rejects plan to build underground garage at Spata
• One-year T-bill auction
• Mechanics call for car repairs, instead of replacement
• AEK faces UEFA Cup shut-out
• Fayum portraits exhibition in Athens
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

President Costis Stephanopoulos expressed hope that Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, will soon be reunited, as well as the island as a whole. He described as a "shame" for the world civilisation the wall which divides Nicosia, the world's last divived capital.

The Greek president, was presented with the capital's golden key by Nicosia Mayor Lellos Demetriades during a welcoming ceremony at the entrance of Nicosia as he began a four-day state visit, the first ever by a Greek head of state to the island republic.

The Greek president said "it is unacceptable to have walls based on violence, still separating people, shielding in this way unfair positions and illegal situations."

Mr. Stephanopoulos expressed the conviction that just like any other wall in the world came down one after the other, the same will happen soon in Nicosia.

He pointed out that this wall also "separates Turkey from Europe" noting that the Turkish side should realise that it is to its benefit to change its policy. Receiving the golden key of the capital, Mr. Stephanopoulos said he looks forward to the day when "a real key will open the door and let people freely move from one side to the other".

Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides, whop greeted Stephanopoulos on arrival said that the Greek president's presence sends the message that Greece, which is a guarantor power of the Cyprus Republic, is in the same trench with Cyprus.

Turkish warplanes try to identify US plane in Athens FIR

Two Turkish F-16 warplanes yesterday attempted to identify a US Air Force KC-135 aircraft, despite the fact that the American military plane had followed all necessary procedures by submitting flight plans to both the Greek and Cypriot authorities.

In addition, the US aircraft had received special permission to fly in the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) at an altitude of 35,000 feet. The incident took place southeast of Siteia, Crete and west of Rhodes.

According to initial reports, the Turkish aircraft proceeded to identify the US aircraft from behind at a great distance.

The Turkish F-16s later exited the Athens FIR, making it unnecessary for Hellenic Air Force jets to take off, identify and intercept them, reports state. The US aircraft was flying from Larnaca to Aviano, Italy.

SE countries discuss Balkan peacekeeping force

Military experts from seven SE European countries meeting in Athens to discuss procedural matters related a proposed multinational force to prevent conflict in the Balkans are reported to have agreed on a committee to decide the force's peacekeeping missions, sources said yesterday.

The committee is to be made up of diplomats and military experts. The decision to set up the force was taken at a meeting of the defence undersecretaries of eight countries of southeast Europe and the United States in Tirana last month.

The Athens meeting is being attended by delegations from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Italy, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Romania. Representatives from the US and Slovenia are attending as observers.

According to the sources, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have each offered a mechanised battalion for inclusion in the 4,000-men force, with Albania volunteering an infantry company, FYROM a mechanised company and Italy a battalion, with Rome promising more support for difficult missions.

Greece has offered to house the force near Thessaloniki, and has a comprehensive proposal on the offer. Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have said they are ready to undertake the expense of setting up the infrastructure and installations necessary for the force.

Conference of Israelis, Palestinians on Rhodes

Participants from Israel and Palestine will meet in Rhodes between July 1-5 in an effort to consolidate a climate of confidence between the two peoples and to advance peace procedures in the Middle East.

The Greek government undertook the initiative for the meeting.

According to a foreign ministry announcement, the gathering will enable participants - politicians, government officials, academics and other personalities - to exchange views on all aspects of the peace initiative and, in general, relations between Israelis and Palestinians.

This is the third meeting of its kind hosted in Greece within a year.

The meeting will be attended by, among others, Israel's labour and culture ministers, the head of the Palestinian negotiating team Faisal Husseini, European Union envoy to the Middle East Miguel Angel Moratinos, and representatives from the EU, the Unit ed States and the European Commission.

Foreign Undersecretary Yiannos Kranidiotis will open the meeting. In addition to the event, a conference of journalists and media representatives will be held on the island, organised by the International Centre for Peace in the Middle East. It will be attended by about 90 journalists from Israel and Palestine, as well as foreign press correspondents based in Tel Aviv.

Venizelos cites British handover of antiquities to Ankara

Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos yesterday said that the British government on May 26 handed over to Turkey five antiquities, citing a report by the "Turkish Daily News".

He said the antiquities were found by an amateur diver on a 1894 Dutch shipwreck under the Irish Sea, and were claimed by both Turkey and the Netherlands.

According to the Ankara-based newspaper, the artifacts hailed from Asia Minor and were allegedly exported from Turkey illegally by the Dutch ambassador to Istanbul at the end of the previous century.

Mr. Venizelos noted that he would be interested to know the reactions of the British government and the British public over this development.

Joint Greek-Bulgarian archaeological excavation

Greek and Bulgarian archaeologists are working together at a Promahonas, Serres archaeological site, officials in eastern Macedonia announced yesterday. The site is split in half by the Greek-Bulgarian border.

The settlement, dated as far back as 5,000 BC, consists of wooden residences and public structures as well as pottery fragments is expected to reveal a wealth of information on the relations of Aegean civilisation and the inhabitants of the inner Balkans, an announcement added.

G. Papandreou on occasion of World Day Against Narcotics

The fight against drugs obviously needs a change of course and dialogue at the international level for new solutions to be studied, Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou said yesterday on the occasion of today's World Day Against Narcotics.

"We must recognise, first of all, that the fight against drugs has led us to a catastrophic defeat, the victims of which are 190 million addicts worldwide, according to recent UN data," he said.

He stressed that emphasis was needed on prevention - in the form of appropriate information which should be devoid of 'myths and demonology'. He also said that addicts should be properly viewed as victims of the powerful illegal drugs industry, which a masses annual revenues of $400 billion worldwide.

VP of Jewish attorneys' union speaks in Thessaloniki on Holocaust

The vice-president of the International Union of Jewish Lawyers yesterday addressed at a conference entitled "Anti-Semitism and those who refute history," held in Thessaloniki.

"There are more than 200 books around the world which refute the Holocaust of the Jews and support that the Jews 'discovered' the gas chambers as a way to establish a state," Hantasa Ben-Itto added.

About 200 participants arrived in Greece from 16 countries to honour the work of their Greek Jewish colleagues who died during the occupation.

Greek stocks end lower on profit-taking

Greek equities succumbed to a wave of profit-taking which hit the Athens Stock Exchange in the last few minutes of a lively session yesterday.

The general index ended 0.59 percent lower at 2,420.25 points, reversing an earlier 1.60 percent advance.

Sector indices were mixed. Banks fell 2.12 percent, Insurance eased 0.69 percent, Investment rose 1.20 percent, Leasing dropped 2.97 percent, Industrials ended 0.56 percent higher, Construction fell 1.58 percent, Miscellaneous dropped 1.83 percent and Holding fell 0.72 percent.

The parallel market index for small cap companies ended 2.42 percent off, while the FTSE/ASE 20 index ended 1.51 percent down at 1.434.18.

Trading was extremely heavy with turnover at 91.4 billion drachmas reflecting trading of a large block of shares in Hellenic Telecoms and blue- chip banks.

National Bank of Greece ended at 37,720 drachmas, Ergobank at 25,675, Alpha Credit Bank at 26,505, Ionian Bank at 13,500, Delta Dairy at 3,720, Titan Cement at 19,480, Intracom at 10,900 and Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation at 7,550.

Gov't adopts plan to set up financial centre in Thessaloniki

The government has completed plans to set up an international financial services centre in Thessaloniki and to promote the country's second largest city as a financial centre in the Balkans, the Black Sea and southeast Europe.

A government committee chaired by Macedonia-Thrace Minister Philippos Petsalnikos yesterday discussed a special committee's feasibility study on the project which initially supports the plan.

National Economy Ministry secretary general, George Papaioannou, and representatives from Thessaloniki's business community also attended the meeting.

The government has already asked the committee to prepare an application dossier to be submitted to the European Union along with the regulatory framework for the financial centre's operation.

The centre will offer all financial, banking, insurance and brokerage services to neighbouring Balkan states, Black Sea countries and other east European states. According to the feasibility study, the Thessaloniki financial centre could possibly cooperate with a Black Sea Commerce and Development Bank and the Thessaloniki Stock Exchange Centre.

Cronus Airlines unveils plans to expand services

Cronus Airlines, a Greek-owned private airline, aims to expand its domestic and international flight network as of next autumn, Ioannis Metaxas, its chairman, said during a press conference yesterday.

Cronus Airlines was founded in 1994. Since 1995 the airline has carried out regular flights from Thessaloniki to Germany's largest cities.

In 1997 it started regular flights to Athens and London and flights from Athens to Germany.

Last April it launched flights to Paris. Cronus is increasing its daily Athens-Thessaloniki flights to three from October.

Cronus Airlines, a member of IATA, operates two Boeing 737-300 aircraft and one Boeing 737-400.

Hochtief rejects plan to build underground garage at Spata

German engineering group Hochtief has rejected a plan to build an underground garage at the new Athens airport in Spata sparking a dispute with the Greek government.

Hochtief's general manager, George Page, blamed the state for the dispute, saying that an initial contract for the construction of the Spata airport called for building a ground-level garage with parking for 8,000 vehicles.

However, a revised contract signed in 1995 called for the building of an underground garage for environmental reasons.

Mr. Page said that a solution should be given by the Greek state because his company was not informed of any changes in the contract.

Sources said that the construction of an underground garage could add another 30 billion drachmas to the cost.

One-year T-bill auction

One-year treasury bills in electronic form,valued at 160 billion drachmas, will be auctioned on Monday while settlement has been set for Wednesday.

The auctioning will be conducted with the participation of primary dealers on a competitive basis, while 20 per cent of the total amount may be sold through non-competitive bidding.

Mechanics call for car repairs, instead of replacement

About 400,000 old cars - half in the Athens area - are considered particularly dangerous for the environment, according to a study by the Association of Car and Machinery Mechanics.

These cars are described as 'over-polluters", due either to their old technology or worn-out catalytic converters.

Association representatives said in a press conference yesterday that 50 per cent of such cars could become environment-friendly at a relatively low- cost (100,000 - 400,000 drachmas), instead of being scrapped.

AEK faces UEFA Cup shut-out

AEK of Athens will not be allowed to participate in this coming season's UEFA Cup competition unless there is a change in the ownership status of the club by July 1, UEFA deputy secretary-general Marcus Studer told the Greek Soccer Federation (EPO) yester day.

In a letter to EPO, Mr. Studer said that if there was no change in the ownership status, the federation would have the right to nominate another team in AEK's place, namely Ionikos, which finished in fifth place in the Greek first division championship last season.

British Eurodeputy Glynn Ford on Wednesday revealed in statements to the ANA that ENIC, the British company which owns AEK, had information that UEFA had decided that Slavia Prague, which also belongs to ENIC, will play in the competition.

The problem arose after UEFA ruled that if a company owns more than one soccer club, only one team will be eligible for each of the three main European cup competitions.

Both AEK and Slavia Prague had qualified for this year's UEFA Cup competition.

Fayum portraits exhibition in Athens

An exhibition of Fayum portraits opened in Athens at the Benaki Museum last Wednesday and will remain on show for a month.

The exhibition concluded a successful showing in Irakleio, Crete.

The early Christian portraits, which are on loan for the British Musuem, Ukraine's Museum of Eastern and Western Art as well as a private collection, are painted on coffins and depict the dead of the later Ptolemaic period to the 7th century A.D.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(C.E.)

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