Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-10-28

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

CONTENTS

[01] Ruling PASOK party structures should change, foreign minister says

[02] Mcgill U. professor publishes eyewitness' account of Ismir's

[03] Culture minister defends omission of an Olympic Games ministry

[04] Religious freedoms protection improved in Greece, U.S. State Dept. says

[05] Weather Forecast: Cloudy on Monday

[01] Ruling PASOK party structures should change, foreign minister says

Ruling PASOK party structures can not operate with the logic of an era gone by said Foreign Minister George Papandreou in an interview to the Sunday edition of Ethnos daily.

He stressed that the institutions of the party "have reached their limits", adding that PASOK has a new dynamism that it gained from the last congress, through which "it is rediscovering its vitality, so as not to remain simply in the management ... but to have a vision and a prospect and the ability to mobilize Greek society".

He believes that there was a "general renewal" in the party and reaffirms his support for Central Committee Secretary Costas Laliotis in his "effort to renew the structures".

Speaking on foreign affairs the minister said that Greece can play the role of the bridge between West and Islam, adding that "it has played an important role in the dialogue of civilizations".

[02] Mcgill U. professor publishes eyewitness' account of Ismir's destruction in 1922

MONTREAL (ANA - I. Frangouli) - Mcgill University prof. Dora Sakayian published in Greek a collection of an eyewitness' account of the destruction of Ismir in 1922, by the Neo Turk movement.

Entitled "Between the Fire, Sword and Sea - In Ismir in 1922" the professor published in Greek the account of those difficult days her grandfather left behind, Dr. Karabiet Hatcheryan's accounts have already been published in English, Armenian, French, German and Spanish.

[03] Culture minister defends omission of an Olympic Games ministry

"The new government, that resulted from Tuesday's reshuffle has the understanding that this is a new beginning, for this reason we invested very much in the need to make clear our aim for the next period, which is development with social justice and security," Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said in an interview published on the Sunday edition of the Ethnos daily newspaper.

The ministers stressed, in his interview, that Prime Minister Costas Simitis gave clear directives for substantial responsibilities to the deputy ministers, stressing the importance of collective bodies and saying "I believe that we should be honest on such issues, to admit possible problems and to have ready the mechanism to resolve them".

Venizelos stressed that the establishment of a minister for the Olympic Games would have upset the operations of the administration of all other ministries and would have made those administrative mechanisms opponents to such a ministry.

"This would have been a nightmarish bureaucratic obstacle? I believe that this selection that was made (not to have an Olympic Games' portfolio) will yield positive results," Venizelos said.

[04] Religious freedoms protection improved in Greece, U.S. State Dept. says

WASHINGTON (ANA - T. Ellis) - Greece has made progress in the protection of religious freedoms, the relevant U.S. State Department report on the issue which was released on Saturday noted.

Calling on the opinions of leaders of minority religions in Greece, the report observes an improvement in the way they are confronted by the official Greek state, while the report also notes that arrests on the basis of proselytizing have decreased.

Meanwhile, the report notes that the religious minorities themselves feel satisfied by the effective operation of the citizen's services provision office.

The report also noted the issue of the listing of religious affiliation in police ID cards, saying that the decision of the Simitis government to remove the religious affiliation from ID cards, in the summer of 2000, has caused a national debate on the issue, which is still underway.

[05] Weather Forecast: Cloudy on Monday

Light cloud is forecast for most parts of the country on Monday. Winds northerly, moderate to strong, turning gale force in the southeastern Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 1C to 18C; in the west from 8C to 22C; and in the rest of the country from 10C to 20C. Light cloud in Athens, with temperatures between 11C and 20C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 4C to 16C.

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