Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-09-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] Gov't to promote Greek cuisine as tourism resource

[02] Greece's Muslim leaders condemn terrorist attack in the U.S.

[03] Bus drivers to stage work stoppages on Thursday

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates - Thursday

[05] Athens Bourse Close: Stocks rise in bid to consolidate

[06] New research presented on pre-revolutionary visionary Feraios

[07] Archbishop of Albania awarded 'Pro Humanitate' award

[08] OTE, Teledome to link networks for voice services

[09] FYROM premier to meet with Greek FM on Thursday

[10] Health minister announces new clinic for Olympic Village

[11] Another 2 Turks arrested for migrant smuggling

[12] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Thursday

[01] Gov't to promote Greek cuisine as tourism resource

Development Minister Nikos Christodoulakis on Wednesday announced that the government would promote Greek cuisine as a tourism resource.

The plan will be carried out by the ministry, the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), the state's Unified Foodstuffs Control Authority, and other organisations, Christodoulakis told a news conference.

"Beyond contact with monuments of all eras and with nature, modern tourists want to get to know the contemporary way of life of countries they are visiting. A major part of this is food and wine," he said.

The method of promoting the national cuisine will be through a quality assurance symbol that hospitality and entertainment businesses will have the opportunity to seek.

The quality symbol will be issued by the GNTO to companies that meet specifications, Christodoulakis said.

[02] Greece's Muslim leaders condemn terrorist attack in the U.S.

The Muslim religious leaders of Thrace, northeastern Greece, on Thursday expressed their condolences to the U.S. embassy in Athens over the horrific events that took place in New York and Washington D.C. on Sept. 11.

The three muftis, religious leaders to Greece's Islamic community of Thrace, expressed their sorrow to U.S. President George Bush and the American people over the terrorist attacks in the US.

In their telegrams to the embassy, Xanthi prefecture Mufti Emin Memet Sinikoglou, Rodopi prefecture Mufti Metso Cemali, and Evros prefecture Mufti Serif Memet Damatoglou noted that terrorism is outside the logic of religion and it is flatly condemned by all of humanity.

They stated that they were "shaken by the events in New York, before which all the world regardless of religion, ideology or world-view remains speechless".

They added that they pray along "with all the religious leaders and the common people, for the souls of those that unduly perished by an act of irrationality and extremism".

[03] Bus drivers to stage work stoppages on Thursday

Athens bus drivers will stage two work stoppages on Thursday from 0500 to 0700 and from 2200 until the end of the day.

The drivers of the capital's blue buses are protesting against a lack of hygiene at bus depots and a lack of protection on the job.

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates - Thursday

Indicative tourist buying rates

U.S. dollar 365.102

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 534.593

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 45.419

Swedish kroner 34.770

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 310.563

Swiss franc 227.850

Norwegian kroner 042.427

Cyprus pound 589.992

Canadian dollar 232.324

Australian dollar 179.446

[05] Athens Bourse Close: Stocks rise in bid to consolidate

The Athens bourse finished higher on Wednesday in an attempt to consolidate after panic selling last week sparked by a spate of terrorist attacks in the US.

The general share index gained 1.87 percent to end at 2,247.57 points. Turnover was 178.14 million euros.

For the second straight session, blue chips showed gains, helping to pull up the rest of the market.

The FTSE/ASE-20 index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks ended 1.58 percent higher; the FTSE/ASE-40 for medium capitalisation paper 1.09 percent up; and the FTSE/ASE-80 for small cap equities gained 1.52 percent.

Advancers led decliners at 274 to 56 with 35 issues remaining unchanged.

Sector indices ended as follows:

Banks: +0.62%

Telecoms: +4.35%

Insurance: +2.57%

Investment: +2.87%

Construction: +0.99%

Industrials: +1.68%

Holding: -0.64%

Base metals: +0.10%

Minerals: +2.88%

Publishing: +2.46%

Textiles: +0.61%

Retailing: +0.56%

IT: +2.17%

IT solutions: -0.16%

Wholesale: +0.78%

Food & Beverage: +1.33%

Parallel Market for smaller cap stocks: +1.08%

Selected shares from the Morgan Stanley index closed in euros as follows:

Aluminium de Grece: 27.30

Alpha Bank: 19.92

Hellenic Petroleum: 6.46

Commercial Bank of Greece: 29.72

National Bank of Greece: 24.52

EFG Eurobank Ergasias: 12.00

Interamerican: 13.96

Intracom: 11.90

Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation: 17.18

Panafon-Vodafone: 4.38

The most heavily traded shares were Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation, National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, Sex Form and Panafon-Vodafone.

[06] New research presented on pre-revolutionary visionary Feraios

VIENNA (ANA - D. Dimitrakoudis) - New research focusing on the life and works of Rigas Feraios, an 18th century pre-revolutionary visionary, features previously unknown details about Vienna's ethnic Greek community during the period as well as its efforts for Greece's liberation from dour Ottoman rule.

A study by Vienna University Prof. Polychronis Enepekidis brings to light information on Feraios' contacts with European philhellenes, as found in the archives and memoirs of noted Vienna physician Johann Peter Franc (1745-1821).

Franc, a sympathizer of the Greek cause, organised meetings at his home that eventually turned the residence into an informal "Greek society" and a meeting place for Feraios and other noted ethnic Greeks in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The study's publication is pending, while Enepekidis said Austrian archives of the period retain a wealth of information on ethnic Greek communities' pre-revolutionary activities in Europe.

[07] Archbishop of Albania awarded 'Pro Humanitate' award

Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania Anastasios has been awarded the European award ?Pro Humanitate? following a decision by the cultural institute Pro Europa, which operates under the auspices of the presidents of the Council of Europe, Europarliament and the European Commission.

Anastasios was bestowed the award at an international conference in Sarajevo, entitled ?Christians and Muslims in Europe?.

On his part, the Orthodox Archbishop of Albania spoke on the theme of ?Religions Contribution to the Development of Mutually Acceptable European Values?.

[08] OTE, Teledome to link networks for voice services

Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), a heavily traded stock on the Athens bourse, and Teledome, which has been awarded a voice phone licence by the state, on Wednesday signed a contract to link their networks.

Under the terms of the agreement, the connection will apply to the cities of Athens, Patras, Tripoli, Iraklio and Thessaloniki in the first phase. The rest of the country will be covered by September 2002.

OTE, which formerly held a monopoly in voice connections, has signed similar pacts with Europrom, Quest Wireless, Forthnet and Lannet Communicationss.

[09] FYROM premier to meet with Greek FM on Thursday

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou will meet with FYROM Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski in Thessaloniki on Thursday evening, it was announced on Wednesday.

[10] Health minister announces new clinic for Olympic Village

A clinic is to be built to serve the Olympic Village and the 16,000 athletes and attendants participating in the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, Health Minister Alekos Papadopoulos announced on Wednesday.

The same facilities, he continued, would also be used by 6,000 athletes and accompanying staff participating in the Paralympics the same year.

The minister said the clinic would be built on a 0.75-hectare site, with a total area of 5,000 square metres and include out-patient surgeries, ER, laboratories, scanning labs and an anti-doping control centre - all fitted out with the latest in medical equipment.

Construction costs are budgeted at 2.5 billion drachmas and the clinic is due for completion in the second half of 2003.

After the Olympics, the clinic will be converted to a suburban health centre for people assigned flats in the Olympic Village by the Labour Housing Organisation, while some of its state-of-the-art equipment might be transferred to larger hospitals that need them.

[11] Another 2 Turks arrested for migrant smuggling

The coast guard arrested two Turks aboard a speedboat following a brief chase early Wednesday morning off the eastern Aegean island of Kos the scene of nearly half a dozen instances involving migrant smuggling over the past month.

The two Turks later confessed to disembarking 11 illegal Iraqi immigrants on a remote Kos beach before their arrest, authorities said. Search efforts, however, have failed to turn up the illegal migrants at presstime.

According to reports, the speedboat first tried to elude a coast guard vessel by fleeing towards the nearby Turkish coast before attempting to ram the patrol boat. It was finally stopped after the coast guard fired warning shots over its bow.

The two Turks were identified as Husseyin Cubuk, 33, and Yalscin Erol, 30.

Thousands of would-be immigrants, mostly from Third World countries and the surrounding Balkans, have targeted Greece over the past few years as the nearest European Union entry point.

[12] Weather Forecast: Sunny on Thursday

The weather will be sunny in most parts of the country on Thursday, with scattered cloud in the west and north that may turn to showers mainly in the northwest. Visibility will be limited early in the morning. Winds northerly, light to strong, turning very strong from evening in parts of the southeastern Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 15C to 31C; on the rest of the mainland from 16C to 33C; and on the islands from 13C to 29C. Light cloud over Athens, with temperatures between 20C and 33C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 18C to 31C.

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