Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-03-28

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

CONTENTS

[01] Soccer-World Cup-Greece-Defeat

[02] Greece-Britain-Parthenon Marbles-Return

[03] Turkey-Greece-Tsohatzopoulos-Cakmakoglu

[04] Hellenic Petroleum-Plans

[05] Athens 2004 - Sponsorship

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Thursday

[07] Ermou Street-Initiative-Opening Hours

[08] Greece - Armenia - defence ministers meet

[09] Weather Forecast-Thursday

[10] ASE-close

[01] Soccer-World Cup-Greece-Defeat

Germany beat Greece 4-2 in a World Cup European group nine qualifier played at the Athens Olympic stadium on Wednesday night. Angelos Haristeas and Giorgos Georgiadis scored for Greece in the 20th and 44th minutes, while MarkoRehmer, Michael Ballack, with a penalty, Miroslav Klose and Marco Bode scored in the 6th, 25th, 81st and 89th minutes for Germany.Striker Sebastian Deisler of Germany was sent off in the 60th minute for a second bookable offence.

[02] Greece-Britain-Parthenon Marbles-Return

British Labour Party deputy Eddy OHara on Wednesday said that he supported the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, during his visit to the Greek Parliament.

OHara noted that from his post as president of the Greek-British Friendship Committee he worked with Theodoros Pangalos, who was Greek culture minister at the time, to conclude an agreement for the return of the marbles without changing their ownership status, in light of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

He stressed that the placement of the Marbles in the Acropolis Museum would be under the auspices of the British government.

OHara visited Greece ahead of the May general elections in Britain, as the labour party is biding for re-election.

[03] Turkey-Greece-Tsohatzopoulos-Cakmakoglu

ISTANBUL (ANA - A. Kourkoulas) - Turkish Defence Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu will meet his Greek counterpart Akis Tsohatzopoulos on the sidelines of a meeting of defence ministers from Balkan countries to be held in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on April 5.

According to an announcement by the Turkish defence ministry, the meeting was agreed after the two ministers communicated with each other.

[04] Hellenic Petroleum-Plans

State-owned Hellenic Petroleum, which is a heavily traded stock on the Athens bourse, is planning to become a vertically integrated energy group, its chairman and managing director, Eleftherios Tzellas, said on Wednesday.

Tzellas told a presentation to the Union of Institutional Investors that the group aimed to become a major player in the energy markets of Greece and southern, central and eastern Europe.

The company's leading position in the Greek market and its robust finances meant that it would be able to implement a wide-ranging investment plan over the next five years worth 600 billion drachmas, he said.

Beyond taking the Hellenic Petroleum Group deeper into Europe, the investments would also improve the efficiency of plants and operations, Tzellas added.

[05] Athens 2004 - Sponsorship

Greece's two largest dairies FAGE and Delta joined forces on Wednesday in an unprecedented move to sponsor and provide their products for the Athens 2004 Games.

?We achieved another Olympic record in the category of dairy products sponsorship. Two of the largest firms in the sector, Delta and FAGE, have formed a consortium ? with the sponsorship reaching the 6.3-billion-drachma mark,? Athens 2004 organising committee (ATHOC) president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said.

Both companies are also active in foreign markets as well.

The ATHOC head also noted that some 84 percent of the projected figure from national sponsorships has already been met from just four sponsors the state telecoms company OTE, Athens-based Alpha Bank, Athens Brewery and Bottling, as well as the announced dairy partnership. (1? equals 340.75 drachmas)

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Thursday

Thursday's buying rates

U.S. dollar 381.536

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 545.723

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 45.293

Swedish kroner 36.991

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 313.535

Swiss franc 220.879

Norwegian kroner 41.829

Cyprus pound 584.136

Canadian dollar 242.578

Australian dollar 188.634

[07] Ermou Street-Initiative-Opening Hours

Retailers in Ermou Street, a busy shopping street in the heart of Athens used by tourists and locals, are to free their store opening hours from April 2, scrapping the split system currently in force for most Greek shops.

Shopowners will be free to open when they choose, but all stores are to close at 9 pm on Monday to Friday, and 6 pm on Saturdays.

"A street like Ermou, in a major city and capital like Athens, should not remain dead at any point in the week," the Association of Retail Sales Enterprises of Greece said in a statement on Wednesday.

The move will bring Greece into line with other European capitals and improve services to consumers, especially ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games to be hosted by Athens, the statement said.

Backed by Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos, the initiative is expected to extend to other central shopping streets in the capital.

[08] Greece - Armenia - defence ministers meet

Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos met Armenian Defence Minister Serge Sarkisyan in Athens on Wednesday for talks on regional security and bilateral defence cooperation.

Sarkisyan, who arrived on Tuesday night, is in Greece for a three-day official visit at Tsohatzopoulos' invitation and will be leaving on Friday.

[09] Weather Forecast-Thursday

Sunshine is forecast in most of the country on Thursday, with scattered cloud in the west and north. The west will be sunny. Winds northerly, light to moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 6C to 18C; on the rest of the mainland from 9C to 23C; and in the islands from 12C to 22C. Sunny in Athens, with temperatures between 12C and 22C. Light cloud in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 8C to 18C.

[10] ASE-close

Equity prices ended lower on the Athens Stock Exchange on Wednesday in subdued trading conditions with institutional investors remaining on the sidelines awaiting fresh news on the inflation front.

The general index ended 0.23 percent lower at 3,050.71 points, off the day's lows of 3,046.86 points. Turnover was a moderate 178.58 million euros, or 60.85 billion drachmas.

Traders expressed their satisfaction over the market's ability to hold above the 3,050 technical support level.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.43 percent lower at 1,755.58 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index rose 0.64 percent to 371.34 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 332.60 points, up 0.79 percent.

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