Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-09-06

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

CONTENTS

[01] Tsipras tells Tusk Europe needs to promote growth, employment

[02] Finance ministry sources deny press reports about new privatisation fund

[03] Latest search will likely reveal more parts of Antikythera Mechanism, scientist tells ANA

[04] Lesvos mayor pleads with minister to transfer large number of refugees to mainland

[01] Tsipras tells Tusk Europe needs to promote growth, employment

Tusk called Tsipras as part of his contacts with EU leaders ahead of the unofficial European Council meeting in Bratislava on September 16.

According to the prime minister's office, Tsipras told Tusk it is necessary to increase the funds available through the "Juncker package" and allow for greater fiscal flexibility, by making some exceptions from the Stability and Growth Pact that will improve social cohesion and promote employment.

Tsipras also told Tusk the need to promote a comprehensive policy on migration and asylum to better manage the increased refugee and migration flows of the past two years, as well as strengthen the EU's international role in dealing with security challenges in the region with diplomatic initiatives and closer cooperation between relevant authorities.

[02] Finance ministry sources deny press reports about new privatisation fund

The discussion on the membership of the supervisory board and the assessment of the proposals of the two sides is still continuing, while announcement of the final decision is pending, the same sources said.

According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, however, a French finance ministry official had confirmed the report first published by the Greek newspaper "Kathimerini", according to which the job is to go to senior French government official Jacques Le Pape. The "Kathimerini" report was later confirmed by a spokeswoman for French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, according to Reuters.

During bailout talks held in the summer of 2015, Greece agreed to set up a new privatisation fund to speed up sales of state assets and to appoint a five-member supervisory board to oversee the new fund. Greece's creditors will nominate two members of the board and Athens the remaining three, while both sides have veto rights.

[03] Latest search will likely reveal more parts of Antikythera Mechanism, scientist tells ANA

"I believe that the archaeologists that are back there at this moment will find more sections of the Mechanism, as they did a short while ago. The fact that they recently found a spear nearly on the surface of the seabed means the shipwreck has not been looted and this is very important," Prof. Mousas said.

Mousas, who helped set up and organise the exhibition of what has been described as the "world's oldest analog computer", said the exhibition in Moscow will include two replicas of the Mechanism, one life size and a second that is four times larger, showing details of the clockwork interior. The exhibition will also show copies of ancient astronomical instruments and a room with seven computers with interactive models, one of which was also availabe as an app on Android.

Mousas said the parts of the mechanism relating to the movement of the sun and moon had been almost fully recreated but there was currently only one gear for the movement of the planets.

"I consider that it is that for Jupiter. In reality it is two gears, one 'female' and an ordinary one, the 'gearbox' for Jupiter in other words, which showed its positions. We present this very well in Moscow," he said.

In addition to finding more gears, Mousas said that more than 70 pct of the instrument's copper manual might also be found on the seabed. He noted that this was written on pages of copper in small and very finely wrought letters that had helped archaeologists date the artifact to between 150 and 100 B.C. The ship that carried it had probably sunk between 80 and 62 B.C. he added.

He speculated that the remaining gears would track the movements of the rest of the planets known at that time - including Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus and Mars - based on the sections of the manual already found.

The latest discoveries relating to the inner workings of the mechanism pointed to the ancient Greeks having a quite sophisticated understanding of the laws of physics and scientific theory, as well as quite accurate theories concerning the periodicity of the planets, he said.

The exhibition in Moscow will be inaugurated by Culture and Sports Minister Aristidis Baltas and is held as part of Greece-Russia Year 2016, under the auspices of President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos. It will run until November 6.

[04] Lesvos mayor pleads with minister to transfer large number of refugees to mainland

"We were witnesses to extensive fights inside the first reception center in Moria, with dozens of injured [migrants] and images that were broadcasted by many media, which are unfair considering the burden we've been called to carry all this time," Spyros Galinos said.

He also said that the local community is worried about the continuous increase in the number of refugees and migrants who are living on Lesvos, adding that the infrastructure available has been operating beyond its capacity for days.

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