[03] Supreme Court upholds slander conviction of Roussel

The high-profile father of Onassis shipping heiress Athina Roussel, French national Thierry Roussel's petition to cancel a decision by an Athens appellate court, by which he was found guilty of slander, was rejected by the criminal law section of Arios Pagos, Greece's supreme court, on Wednesday.

Roussel was convicted in March 2001 by the appellate court, which decreased his prison sentence to three years and six months, from the initial five years imposed by a lower court.

The prosecutor of the supreme court had proposed that the petition be turned down, as the decision of the appellate court was well reasoned.

Roussel, a permanent resident of Switzerland, had been found guilty by an Athens misdemeanour court of slander, perjury and of filing a frivolous lawsuit against the board members of the influential Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, whom he had charged with mismanaging the foundations financial assets.

The fine was calculated based on the days he was to serve, for a total amount of 7.5 million drachmas (1 euro=344.75 drachmas).

Roussel was married with the late Christina Onassis, the daughter of shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

[04] Foreign Exchange Rates - Thursday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.014

Pound sterling 0.639

Danish kroner 7.485

Swedish kroner 9.145

Japanese yen 121.7

Swiss franc 1.474

Norwegian kroner 7.379

Cyprus pound 0.576

Canadian dollar 1.602

Australian dollar 1.812

[05] Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny on Thursday

Sunshine is forecast in most parts of the country, with scattered cloud in the Ionian and on the mainland. Light rain is expected mainly in the northwest. Early morning mist is expected. Winds southerly, moderate to strong. In the north, temperatures will range from 5C to 19C; on the rest of the mainland from 9C to 22C; and in the islands from 12C to 21C. Temperatures in Athens between 11C and 21C; and in Thessaloniki from 7C to 18C.

[06] ASE drops back to 1,800 level

Greek stocks suffered heavy losses on Wednesday pushing the general index closer to the 1,800 support level in the Athens Stock Exchange, reflecting increased selling of blue chip stocks, like Commercial Bank, National Bank and Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation.

The index ended at 1,800.98 points, losing 1.49 percent of its value, off the day's lows of 1,796.41 points.

Turnover was a low 68.9 million euros.

The Construction sector was the only one to score gains (+0.05 percent), while the Publication, Banks and Base Metal sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses of the day (2.87 percent, 2.70 percent and 2.42 percent, respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks fell 2.07 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index ended 1.91 percent lower and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index fell 0.95 percent.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 262 to 62 with another 33 issues unchanged.

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