Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-07-26

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Cloud, rain on Friday

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

[03] Greece will not accept a renationalisation of CAP, Simitis says

[04] Latest ''N17'' suspect formally charged

[01] Weather Forecast: Cloud, rain on Friday

Cloud is forecast in all parts of the country on Friday with intermittent rain and storms in the Ionian, mainland Greece and the northern and eastern islands. The Cyclades islands may see showers. Winds westerly, light to moderate, turning strong in parts of the southern Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 18C to 30C; in the west from 20C to 32C; and in the rest of the country from 22C to 34C. Showers and storms are expected in Athens from evening with temperatures between 24C and 33C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 21 to 30C.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.009

Pound sterling 0.641

Danish kroner 7.493

Swedish kroner 9.493

Japanese yen 117.7

Swiss franc 1.461

Norwegian kroner 7.607

Cyprus pound 0.579

Canadian dollar 1.583

Australian dollar 1.864

[03] Greece will not accept a renationalisation of CAP, Simitis says

The Greek government's policy is to have a competitive and viable farm sector that will raise farmers' incomes, Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, after a cabinet meeting to discuss farm policy in the wake of European Commission's proposals to drastically review EU's Common Agriculture Policy, Mr Simitis said that funds earmarked for the Greek farm sector in 2002 accounted for 20 percent of a Third Community Support Framework total programme.

''We see a strengthening of financing towards farmers, while from October 16 we will begin payment of subsidies with no further delays,'' Simitis told reporters.

The Greek premier said a number of integrated development programmes was rapidly implemented and that the government has improved efficiency of mechanisms designed to support farm subsidies.

Commenting on a recent decision by the EU's executive to reduce subsidies to cotton growers in Greece, Mr Simitis said that the country's agriculture minister has asked his EU counterparts to accept national subsidies.

[04] Latest ''N17'' suspect formally charged

Latest ''November 17'' suspect Pavlos Serifis was formally charged on Thursday by an Athens prosecutor.

Serifis, who is believed to have taken part in the 1975 assassination of CIA station chief Richard Welch, was charged by prosecutor Elias Kolioussis with participation in a criminal organisation and the manufacture, procurement and possession of explosives and arms.

Two more suspected members of the November 17 terrorist group, Iraklis Kostaris and Kostas Karatsolis, were remanded in custody with the consent of the competent prosecutor. Earlier on Thursday, the pair had refused to testify before the 4th Examining Magistrate Theoni Bouri on grounds that the case had been assigned to a special magistrate by the appellate judges council and that Bouri was therefore no longer competent to hear their testimony.

In a related development, sources said that the preliminary examination of alleged terrorist Savvas Xiros is expected to be completed by Wednesday.

Xiros, 40, is being treated at a hospital under heavy guard after he was severely injured in an explosion during a botched terrorist attack last June that cost him his arm and one of his eyes. Police believe the explosion occurred when a bomb he had intended to set in Piraeus went off prematurely.

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