Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-11-06

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

CONTENTS

[01] Inner cabinet discusses serious Zoniana incident

[01] Inner cabinet discusses serious Zoniana incident

The Zoniana incident on Crete, in which three police officers were shot and injured during a failed drug raid, dominated Tuesday morning's meeting of the Inner Cabinet, again chaired by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos briefed the cabinet on the current situation in Zoniana, a moutainous village in Rethymno prefecture where one of the officers shot was taken to hospital in critical condition, underlining that there had to be a political decision to finally take long overdue measures to impose law and order in the area, while stressing that these should not put human lives at risk.

Pavlopoulos underlined that the lack of state intervention in the region over several years had essentially acted to cover up criminal activity.

"Everyone can understand who is responsible when justice and the police do not intervene to impose the law for so many years," he added.

The rest of the cabinet meeting dealt with livestock farming issues, with Agricultural Development Minister Alexandros Kontos briefing the government.

Kontos underlined that the Greek livestock farming sector was growing as a consequence of the measures taken by the government in previous years but was facing problems during the current year because of a sharp increase in prices of animal feed worldwide.

He stressed that the government was supportive of Greek livestock farmers, pointing out that payment of 155 million euros in compensation had begun on Monday even though under normal procedures the money would have paid in August 2008. He also announced a decision to give a five-year interest-free loan to livestock breeders of up to 300 million euros.

Another announcement made by the minister was that 2008 would be a year for promoting Greek feta after the European Union firmly established the name of the cheese as a 'protected designation of origin' exclusive to Greece. Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of the Maximos Mansion, where the Greek prime minister's office is located.

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