Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-09-17

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

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

CONTENTS

[01] Sports roundup-Soccer

[02] Drama-Short Film Festival- Awards

[03] Canada-Greek community congress

[04] Illegal Immigrant-Death

[05] Seamen-Strike

[06] Zolotas-Operation

[07] Greece-Turkey-Rapprochement

[08] Sydney Olympics-Greece-Weightlifting-Medal

[09] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

[10] Weather Forecast-Monday

[01] Sports roundup-Soccer

The Greek soccer National League championship begun this weekend with two first games of the season played on Saturday. Panathinaikos Athens beat PAS Yiannena 2-1 at home and Olympiakos Piraeus, also at home, demolished Ethnikos Asteras 6-0.

In other games played on Sunday: Ionikos defeated Athinaikos 1-0 at home, Paniliakos only attained a draw with Panionios 1-1 at home, Panachaiki vs. Xanthi 1-1 and Kalamata vs PAOK 0-0.

The National League was formerly called A National Category of Teams.

The games of OFI vs. Aris Thessaloniki and AEK vs. Iraklis Thessaloniki are scheduled for Monday.

[02] Drama-Short Film Festival- Awards

Swiss filmmaker Essen Isk won the first prize of the foreign film section of the Drama Short Film Festival, for his ?Stolen Father? on Sunday, while the first prize of the Greek section was given to Vassilis Loules for his ?A Bright Sun?.

Best Balkan production was judged to be that of Mitco Panov of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) for his ?Pasture?, while the award for the best new filmmaker was given to Konstantina Voulgari for her ?Yuppie? and the Drama Prefecture Award was given to Stratoula Theodoratou for her ?Muddy River?.

[03] Canada-Greek community congress

MONTREAL (ANA I. Frangouli) The Greek-Canadian Congress will meet on Oct. 14, in Halifax to discuss developments and decide on policies regarding Greek national issues, in relation to the Canadian politics.

The congress will take place at the museum and conference centre of the Halifax port Pier 21, being Canadas point of entry for millions of immigrants until after WWII, a common point of entry for many Greeks.

Greek community representatives and Greek-Canadian organisations representatives will attend the congress.

[04] Illegal Immigrant-Death

An illegal immigrant has died as a result of oxygen starvation after being found hiding in a truck with 27 other Indian and Pakistani immigrants that was bound for Italy, Corinth port authority officials said on Sunday.

The truck belonging to the Venieris removals company was searched on Saturday at the port of Corinth and three of the men concealed in the truck were taken to a local hospital with respiratory problems. One of the three died on Saturday.

The truck was due to board a ferry named the Nave Trailer that was bound for northern Italy.

The remaining 25 immigrants are being held at the Corinth port authority building.

A preliminary enquiry has been launched.

[05] Seamen-Strike

Striking seamen refused to ply selected routes to the Cyclades islands on Sunday, on the fourth day of a walkout over overtime pay.

Affected were vessels owned by Hellas Ferries, leaving hundreds of travellers stranded at the ports of Piraeus and Rafina, awaiting other vesssels.

The seamen have said they will strike until August overtime pay is received but the company claims it owes nothing.

The seamen are also boycotting vessels owned by GA Ferries.

[06] Zolotas-Operation

Xenofon Zolotas, a former prime minister, on Sunday was recovering at the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens from surgery performed earlier in the day.

The elderly Zolotas, who underwent surgery for a ruptured bowel, was being treated in intensive care and was out of danger, his surgeon, Sotiris Spilioyannis said.

Spilioyannis added that Zolotas was recovering "normally" after the operation, which was a success.

[07] Greece-Turkey-Rapprochement

NEW YORK (ANA/M.Georgiadou) - Greece and Turkey have agreed to seek closer ties through steps to include devising confidence building measures (CBMs) in the Aegean and considering a joint bid to host the 2008 European Soccer Championship.

The decisions were taken by Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart, Ismail Cem, at a meeting in New York late on Saturday (Greek time).

"I believe we had a constructive meeting and would stress that we have recently entered a phase of major attempts to promote between Greece and Turkey new ties of peace, cooperation and respect for our basic principles, and I believe we are making step-by-step progress," Papandreou told reporters.

"This also emerged in today's (Saturday's) meeting when we decided to advance a series of issues including .... a probable candidacy for the 2008 European soccer cup. Maybe among the main points is our agreement in the procedure, the promotion of CBMs," he said.

(more)

[08] Sydney Olympics-Greece-Weightlifting-Medal

SYDNEY (ANA/D.Efstathiou, G.Manteos) - Weightlifter Leonidas Sabanis on Sunday took the silver medal in the men's 62kg category in the Olympics, securing Greece's first medal in the Sydney Games.

Sabanis' score was as follows: snatch, 147.5; clean/jerk, 170.0; total, 317.5.

Taking the gold was Croatian Nicolay Pechalov. The bronze was awarded to Sevdalin Minchev of Bulgaria.

[09] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

Indicative rates released by the central bank for the next working day.

Mondays rates (buying)

Euro 335.941

U.S. dollar 388.755

German mark 171.764

French franc 051.214

Pound sterling 547.763

Irish punt 426.557

Belgian franc 008.328

Luxembourg franc 008.328

Dutch guilder 152.444

Italian lira (100) 017.350

Austrian schilling 024.414

Danish kroner 044.987

Swedish kroner 039.972

Finnish mark 056.501

Spanish peseta 002.019

Portuguese escudo 001.675

Japanese yen (100) 361.366

Swiss franc 219.530

Norwegian kroner 041.785

Cyprus pound 587.264

Canadian dollar 260.856

Australian dollar 214.227

[10] Weather Forecast-Monday

Scattered cloud is forecast throughout the country on Monday, possibly turning to rain in the northwest from late afternoon. Early morning mist is expected in the Ionian and on the mainland. Winds westerly, light to moderate. Temperatures on the mainland and in the Ionian will range from 15C to 35C; and in the Aegean islands from 21C to 32C. Light cloud in Athens, with temperatures between 20C and 34C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures ranging from 18C to 33C.

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