Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-06-04

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 04/06/1999 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Athens helping make Kosovo plan work
• Latest developments vindicate govt stance
• End to bombing campaign in sight
• Greece bans all Belgian meat produce
• Thessaloniki butchers reassure customers
• Greek-French professor dies in fall
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Athens has undertaken a new mediation effort aimed at further clarification of certain aspects of the Kosovo peace deal, diplomatic sources said today. They said Greek foreign minister, in Cologne for the two-day EU summit that opened yesterday, spoke consecutively on the phone last night with NATO secretary general Javier Solana and his Yugoslav counterpart Zivadin Jovanovic. The sources said Papandreou's mediation would focus on ways of realising the withdrawal of the Serb forces from Kosovo in tandem with the suspension of NATO bombings.

Latest developments vindicate govt stance

A leading ruling party member on Friday said the latest developments in Yugoslavia were positive and gave rise to hopes and optimism of eventual peace in the region. Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis also said that the stance of the Greek government during the crisis had been vindicated by developments. "The government defended the country's major interests at the same time as extending support to the peoples of the Balkans. Greece showed that it had a voice, authority, action and credibility," he said.

End to bombing campaign in sight

Alternate Foreign Minister Yiannos Kranidiotis on Friday reiterated Greece's satisfaction about recent developments in the Kosovo crisis and expressed hope that peace efforts would proceed rapidly given that there were still a number of problems to be resolved. Hopes for a peaceful settlement of the Kosovo crisis rose yesterday after Belgrade accepted a proposed agreement worked out by Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin and US Assistant Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Speaking to reporters in Cologne, where he is attending the European Union summit, Kranidiotis said once Serb troops had begun withdrawing from Kosovo, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana would most probably order an end to the Alliance's bombing campaign.

Greece bans all Belgian meat produce

Greece's Agriculture Ministry late on Thursday said it was extending a ban on the importation and sale of Belgian poultry to pork and beef products. A statement from the ministry said that a ministry crisis management committee had decided the move as a preventive measure. The measure takes effect as of Friday and is effective for all imports, distribution and sale of pork or beef from Belgium produced after January 15 1999. Any such foodstuffs already on the market will be impounded.

Thessaloniki butchers reassure customers

The Thessaloniki Association of Butchers meanwhile said that Greek consumers need not fear buying contaminated produce from their local butchers, as they sold only domestically produced poultry and meat. Produce at local butchers is stringently checked and of the highest quality, the association said in a statement. Thessaloniki butchers are provided with chickens from local poultry and free-range cooperatives which use animal feed comprised of corn (35%), soya (20%), soya oil (5%), vitamins, salt, marble, phosphates and soda (5%), it said.

Greek-French professor dies in fall

A Greek-French university professor was fatally injured when he fell off the balcony of his 7th-floor apartment in a partially completed apartment building in Thessaloniki, police said today. They said Constantine Krstitch, a French citizen of Greek descent and professor of French Literature at Thessaloniki's Aristotelion University, was living in the apartment with his wife, Eleftheria. Police were investigating the causes, and believe the fall was accidental.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Friday's rates (buying)
U.S. dollar          309.742
Pound sterling       497.131
Japanese yen (100)   255.549
French franc          48.992
German mark          164.313
Italian lira (100)    16.597
Irish Punt           408.053
Belgian franc          7.967
Luxembourg franc       7.967
Finnish mark          54.050
Dutch guilder        145.831
Danish kr.            43.233
Austrian sch.         23.355
Spanish peseta         1.931
Swedish kr.           35.962
Norwegian kr.         39.005
Swiss franc          201.763
Port. Escudo           1.603
Can. dollar          209.431
Aus. dollar          200.483
Cyprus pound         556.869
Euro                 321.368

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