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Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-01-06
CONTENTS
[01] PM: Humanity is facing a common challenge
[01] PM: Humanity is facing a common challenge
Prime minister Costas Karamanlis said on Tuesday that humanity was
facing a common challenge to consolidate principles that guarantee a
better and safer future and safeguard democracy, in statements after
the Epiphany ceremony of the Blessing of the Waters in the coastal port
town of Rafina.
"Today the difficult, for the entire world, conjuncture that is putting
us all to the test. The international financial crisis is testing our
endurance. At a time when, very close to us, lives are being lost and
fellow human beings are sufferent, the challenge is a common one for
all of us," Karamanlis said.
The common challenge, he stressed, consisted of "consolidating
principles that guarantee a safer future, a better future, rebaptizing
ourselves in the humanitarian values and solidarity, and safeguarding
democracy and the just state from acts of violence from wherever they
originate".
"With maturity, mutual understanding, responsibility, belief in our
abilities, and a sense of social and national responsibility, we can
and will succeed in this," the prime minister said.
Earlier, Karamanlis and his wife attended the liturgy ad the Birth of
the Virgin church in Rafina, where the prime minister resides, followed
by the traditional Blessing of the Waters ceremony in the town's port.
The prime minister was originally scheduled to attend the Blessing of
the Waters on the island of Kythira, but the visit was cancelled after
the issue of a ban on sailings due to high winds.
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