Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-11-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] Latest poll: ND, Simitis ahead in voters' preferences

[02] Authorities intercept total of 82 migrants throughout Aegean

[01] Latest poll: ND, Simitis ahead in voters' preferences

The latest gallop poll published in an Athens daily has main opposition New Democracy retaining its lead over ruling PASOK to the tune of six percentage points, whereas Prime Minister Costas Simitis remained ahead of his ND rival Costas Karamanlis in the category of ?best fit for the premiership?.

In the poll, published in the Sunday edition of the ?Eleftherotypia newspaper, ND is preferred by 35.3 percent of respondents, whereas PASOK garnered 29.3 percent. A similar poll (by the Metron firm) last May gave ND as much as a 10-point lead.

Conversely, Simitis was preferred by 26.3 of respondents, while Karamanlis followed closely with 25.2 percent.

The poll was conducted by the firm Opinion at the papers behest between Oct. 26 Nov. 6, a period in which Simitis proceeded with a government reshuffle.

[02] Authorities intercept total of 82 migrants throughout Aegean

Authorities rounded up a total of 60 illegal migrants on the Cyclades holiday island of Milos over the weekend before locating and intercepting a Turkish-flagged yacht suspected of landing them on Greek territory.

According to the coast guard, five Turkish nationals were arrested on board the vessel ?Orka? and charged with migrant smuggling

The 60 would-be immigrants, identified as Kurdish men from Iraq, were spotted on a remote part of the island by police patrols the first 29 on Saturday and another group of 31 the following day.

In another part of the Aegean further to the east, 16 migrants eight Iraqis and eight Afghans, all men were arrested early Sunday morning near a beach on the eastern island of Samos.

A subsequent search for a Turkish fishing trawler suspected of ferrying them across a narrow strait separating the Greek isle from the Turkish mainland proved fruitless.

Finally, six Afghans were spotted by a patrol boats crew aboard two inflatable dinghies attempting to row towards the Dodecanese island of Kos, in southeastern Aegean, amid rough seas.

The six men were also taken into custody, reports state.

Greek-Turkish protocol

Since the beginning of the year Greek coast guard authorities have detained nearly 5,500 illegal immigrants most from the Middle East and Asian countries -- and more than a hundred people charged with migrant smuggling.

At presstime, all of the aforementioned illegal immigrants (82) were suspected of disembarking from neighbouring Turkey during the last 48 hours, just days after Athens and Ankara officially signed a long-anticipated protocol allowing for the re-admittance of illegal immigrants sneaking into one country from the other.

The protocol specifically mentions the return of third country nationals, the Greek and Turkish foreign ministers said in Athens this past week during a signing ceremony.

Both countries have called for urgent EU assistance to deal with the ever-increasing tide of illegal migration flowing across SE Europe and headed for European Union territory, especially after the military campaign intensified in Afghanistan.

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