Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-02-27

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather forecast - Monday

[02] Election campaign

[03] Sports - Athletics - Soccer

[01] Weather forecast - Monday

Rain or sleet and snow on high ground is expected over the Ionian Sea and many areas of central and northern Greece on Monday, spreading to the Cyclades, Crete and the Dodecanese later in the day. Winds will be northerly, northeasterly moderate in the west, and strong to very strong turning gale force over the Aegean. Temperatures will drop, reaching a maximum of 9C in the north and 14C in other regions. Athens cloudy, with rain likely. Possible snowfall in Thessaloniki.

[02] Election campaign

Prime Minister Costas Simitis and main opposition New Democracy party leader Costas Karamanlis over the weekend continued in northern Greece their parties' campaigns for the general election of April 9.

Speaking in Naousa on Saturday, Simitis announced a new package of measures for farmers including a 50 percent return of the special petrol tax, rises in pensions across the board, and a two percent reduction in lending rates.

Karamanlis launched a stinging attack against the the ruling party during an address to a party youth meeting in Thessaloniki on Saturday, accusing it of peddling ideology and turning Greece into a party state.

Communist Party secretary-general Aleka Papariga toured the Peloponnesian region of Messinia where she urged voters to shut their ears to the false dilemmas and the anti-Communist theories of the two major parties.

Coalition of the Left leader Nikos Constantopoulos, who met with farmers' representatives in the northeastern town of Komotini, called on the two major parties to reveal their plans on the reform of the social security system.

[03] Sports - Athletics - Soccer

Greece's Katerina Thanou on Sunday won the gold medal in the women's 60 metre sprint in the European Indoor Athletics Championship in Ghent, Belgium.

Thanou clocked 7.05 seconds, ahead of Bulgaria's Petia Pendareva and Ukraine's Iryna Pukha with 7.11, who won the silver and bronze respectively.

In the men's 60 metres, Giorgos Theodoridis with 6.51 and Angelos Pavlakakis with 6.54 won the silver and bronze respectively. The gold went to Britain's Jason Gardner who clocked 6.49.

In the Greek soccer first division, Olympiakos Piraeus maintained its lead with an easy 5-0 defeat of Kavala in the Athens Olympic Stadium. Other results: Ethnikos Astir - PAOK 1-1, Proodeftiki - OFI 0-0, Panileiakos - Trikala 1-3, Apollon - Ionikos 0-2.

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