Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-06-27

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

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece - OECD- Finance Minister

[02] Overseas Greeks - media seminar

[03] Government says question of IDs and religion has closed

[04] Weather Forecast-Wednesday

[05] Stock Market-Close

[06] Golf course - Tribute - Constantine Karamanlis

[07] President - IDs - Russian Patriarch

[01] Greece - OECD- Finance Minister

Greece is targetting growth rates which will largely narrow the gap in living standards from the rest of the European Union in the next ten years, National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said on Tuesday.

"Greece is targetting growth rates of at least 5 percent in the next ten years, which will mean real convergence, that is, a parity in living standards with the rest of Europe," he told reporters after the end of the first day's session of the annual ministerial conference of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)in Paris.

Papantoniou expressed confidence that Greece would succeed in implementing a large-scale program of structural changes until the end of 2001 which would significantly boost the competitiveness of the economy.

[02] Overseas Greeks - media seminar

The changes undergone by Greek society in the last decade, following the influx of hundreds of thousands of repatriated ethnic Greeks and economic refugees, the problems arising from these changes and the role of the media were the subject of a seminar on Tuesday, organised by the General Secretariat of Overseas Greeks.

The seminar, which was attended by more than 100 mass media executives, was inaugurated by Deputy Press and Media Minister Tilemachos Hytiris. In his address, Hytiris referred to the crisis triggered on an international level by the changes at the start of the 1990s and the reasons that led tens of thousands of ethnic Greeks living in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc to come to Greece.

[03] Government says question of IDs and religion has closed

The government reiterated on Tuesday that the issue of identity cards, and of religion affiliation not being registered in them, has closed for good adding that it was not to blame if contacts with the Church hierarchy stopped.

"This issue, which is exclusively the responsibility of the state, has been handled and has closed for good. On the question of this much-talked-of dialogue, and contacts, I remind you that it was not the government that discontinued contacts with its own responsibility," government spokesman Dimitris Reppas told reporters after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Costas Simitis focusing on issues concerning the state and the Church and attended by Education Minister Petros Efthymiou, Press Minister Reppas and Deputy Press Minister Telemahos Hytiris.

The Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church, which expresses strong objections to a government decision to drop the religious affiliation entry on new state-issued IDs, had convened on Monday, only days after mass rallies were held in Athens and Thessaloniki, and had clarified that it was only prepared to hold a dialogue with the government on the identity card issue.

[04] Weather Forecast-Wednesday

Sunny weather is forecast in most parts of the country on Wednesday, with scattered cloud in the east and south. Winds will be northerly, moderate to very strong, with gale force winds in parts of the Aegean.

[05] Stock Market-Close

The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) rose sharply in moderate trade on Tuesday after remaining under pressure for six consecutive sessions.

The ASE's general share index ended at 4,173.35 points, up 3.27 percent. Turnover was 142 billion drachmas.

[06] Golf course - Tribute - Constantine Karamanlis

The municipal council of Glyfada, an upscale seaside suburb southeast of Athens, will officially rename the golf course in the township after the late Greek statesman Constantine Karamanlis, during a ceremony on Wednesday evening.

A bust of Karamanlis will also be unveiled before the inauguration of a photo exhibition on the Greek political leader's life and career.

Karamanlis, who died in April 1998 at the age of 91, was an avid golfer during the last three and a half decades of his life and often played at the Glyfada golf course.

[07] President - IDs - Russian Patriarch

MOSCOW (ANA) Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos expressed his certainty here on Tuesday over a quick resolution to the ongoing ?identification card" furor that has pitted the government in Athens against most of the Greek Orthodox Churchs hierarchy.

Stephanopoulos, on a wide-ranging official visit to Russia that included talks with newly elected President Vladimir Putin on Monday, was queried over the divisive issue following his meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II.

Asked about Church-state relations in his vast country, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia responded that unlike Greece, the Russian Orthodox Church was completed separated from the states apparatus and institutions. He also added that both sides have developed a ?partnership based on mutual respect?, while stressing that differences must be definitely solved through dialogue.

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