Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-06-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] Moderate earthquake in Evia, no damage but situation being monitored

[02] Weather Forecast: Unsettled on Wednesday

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

[04] Greek PM discusses EU summit with Italian counterpart, ends European

[01] Moderate earthquake in Evia, no damage but situation being monitored

A moderate earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale jolted Evia on Wednesday, and seismologists were reassuring but reserved on the seismic activity as two tremblers of up to 4.6 Richter were recorded in the same region last Friday. No damage was immediately reported.

The Athens Observatory's Geodynamic Institute and the Thessaloniki Aristotelion University's Geophysics Laboratory said that the earthquake was recorded at 8:25 a.m. at a distance of 70 kilometres north of Athens, with its epicentre in the Psachna area of Evia.

''The region is active, and we are monitoring the phenomenon,'' Athens University seismology professor Constantine Makropoulos told ANA, but added that, historically and statistically, the specific area has not produced larger quakes.

The same epicentre had produced two earthquakes of approximately 4.6 and 4.4 Richter on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the environment, town planning and public works ministry and OASP seismic protection organisation were sending engineers to Psachna to inspect local buildings, while OASP said it would install a mobile seismograph to monitor the post-quake activity.

[02] Weather Forecast: Unsettled on Wednesday

Unsettled weather is forecast in many parts of the country, with cloud, showers and storms on the mainland, especially in the afternoon. The Ionian may also see showers. The rest of the country can expect scattered cloud. Winds northerly, light to moderate, turning strong in parts of the Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 19C to 31C; on the rest of the mainland from 21C to 34C; and in the islands from 23C to 30C. Temperatures in Athens between 24C and 34C; and in Thessaloniki from 23C to 31C.

[03] Foreign Exchange Rates - Wednesday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.189

Pound sterling 0.707

Danish kroner 7.483

Swedish kroner 9.144

Japanese yen 140.4

Swiss franc 1.553

Norwegian kroner 8.277

Cyprus pound 0.591

Canadian dollar 1.599

Australian dollar 1.778

[04] Greek PM discusses EU summit with Italian counterpart, ends European tour

ROME (ANA - L. Hatzikyriakos) - Prime Minister Costas Simitis discussed this week's European Union summit with his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi here on Tuesday, ending his tour of European capitals in light of the summit.

Speaking at a press conference, Berlusconi congratulated Simitis, saying ''I must congratulate President Simitis because in all the previous meetings I had with the European partners nobody presented all the issues of the presidency with such precision and transparency.''

Simitis in turn thanked the Italian prime minister for the cooperation he had with him during the presidency.

''At the Halkidiki summit we shall be deciding the procedure the Intergovernmental Conference will be following. Our proposal on which we agreed is that the Intergovernmental Conference should begin in October and end before May 1 and the new treaty be signed before the Euro-elections,'' Simitis said.

He further said the combatting of illegal immigration was discussed and agreed on since, according to the Commission's proposal, there will be enough money for a common policy to be implemented for the first time and on a big scale.

''I believe that the summit will reach positive conclusions allowing for the progress of the European constitution and the implementation of the policy on illegal immigration,'' he added.

The prime minister went on to say he believes the constitution to be agreed on is a solution for a certain period of time and that Europe will take more steps later, while the Assembly's proposal on the constitution is a good compromise.

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