Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-07-07

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 07/07/1999 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Rising fuel prices a worry for Greek inflation
• New Athens 2004 head to be named soon
• Estimated 190,000 illegal immigrants to get green card
• Yacht captains to be tested for alcohol consumption
• 200 die in road accidents in one month
• Parishes offer homeless large families land
• Australian tourist missing on Mykonos
• Equity prices remain under pressure
• Weather
• Foreign Exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

The government is concerned over the course of inflation, which is adversely affected by increases in international fuel prices, National Economy and Finance Minister Yannos Papantoniou said. He told reporters after consultations with prime minister Costas Simitis that it was still too early to decide on introducing additional measures, but the government was closely monitoring the course of inflation and any decisions would be taken in September. The national statistics service ESYE is due to announce the June consumer price index tomorrow, and the figure is anticipated at 2.1 percent.

New Athens 2004 head to be named soon

A successor to Stratis Stratigis, the president of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games organising committee, will be named in the next few days, government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said on Wednesday. Stratigis' resignation for personal reasons was announced by Reppas yesterday. Referring to press speculation that Stratigis had resigned because he wanted to attend the wedding of a member of the former Greek royal family later this week, Reppas said that Stratigis "had not requested permission to attend a social event".

Estimated 190,000 illegal immigrants to get green card

The majority of those illegal immigrants who have applied for a green card to work in Greece will get one but an estimated 500,000 extra illegal immigrants who have not applied or who entered Greece illegally since the deadline for submissions face deportation. Accordingto figures from the Manpower Employment Organisation (OAED), 373,196 people submitted applications under the government's programme to legalise illegal immigrants. Of those, 225,691 have applied for a green card. On the basis of those figures, some 180,000-190,000 illegal workers will receive a green card. According to trade union estimates there are an estimated 700,000 illegal workers in the country.

Yacht captains to be tested for alcohol consumption

Coast guard authorities around the country will begin alcohol testing captains and skippers of all types of yachts and speedboats over the next few days to try and curb the growing number of boating accidents. Coast guard patrol boats have been equipped with 30 special alcohol testing apparatus, supplied by the transport ministry, and similar to those used by police in testing alcohol consumption of drivers. Any skipper found to be operating his or her craft under the influence of alcohol will be taken into custody.

200 die in road accidents in one month

Two hundred people were killed and 373 seriously injured in more than 2000 road accidents in April this year, a survey of road fatalities released on Tuesday showed. The study, conducted by ELPA road assistance, recorded 2, 037 accidents to which police were called. Of these, 170 involved fatalities, 289 caused serious injury and 1,580 caused non-serious injury. More than 2000 people die on Greek roads annually in road accidents, leaving 30,000 injured, 4000 of them seriously. The Greek toll, which is increasing rather than falling, is one of the highest in Europe, more than double the average in Britain and the Netherlands, which have the lowest casualty rates.

Parishes offer homeless large families land

The Church of Greece is further bolstering its campaign to increase the birthrate of its flock, with metropolitan bishoprics in the prefecture of Evros offering a block of land to homeless large families. The metropolitans of Alexandroupolis, Didymoticho and Orestiada and Soufliou issued an announcement that those families with three or more children belonging to local parishes could apply to the church to receive the land if they could prove they had no home or land to build a home in an any urban area in the region.

Australian tourist missing on Mykonos

Police on the Aegean island of Mykonos on Wednesday were searching for an Australian tourist, reported missing after he went jogging. Police said John Anderson, 52, is an Australian businessman and a personal friend of the Australian Prime Minister John Howard. He was reported missing on Tuesday after he went for his regular jog, after the boat he was hiring with friends docked at the island's port. He was due to go bathing on his return from his run but failed to turn up.

Equity prices remain under pressure

Equity prices remained under profit taking pressure to end moderately lower for the second consecutive session on the Athens Stock Exchange. Dealers said buying activity shifted towards smaller capitalisation stocks in reaction to a correction in blue chip stocks. The general index ended 0.67 percent lower at 4,285.84 points. Turnover was 180.191 billion drachmas whith 28,304,728 shares changing hands.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Wednesday's rates (buying)
U.S. dollar          316.220
Pound sterling       496.258
Japanese yen (100)   258.803
French franc          49.224
German mark          165.089
Italian lira (100)    16.676
Irish Punt           409.981
Belgian franc          8.004
Finnish mark          54.305
Dutch guilder        146.519
Danish kr.            43.430
Austrian sch.         23.465
Spanish peseta         1.940
Swedish kr.           37.119
Norwegian kr.         40.037
Swiss franc          201.242
Port. Escudo           1.611
Can. dollar          215.919
Aus. dollar          212.189
Cyprus pound         559.607
Euro                 322.886

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