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Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-05-19
CONTENTS
[01] SYN leader tours landfill
[02] Mauthausen memorial service
[03] Sioufas pans libel suit practice
[01] SYN leader tours landfill
The need for a new, serious and "national but not class-based" waste
management planning was underlined Monday by Coalition of the Left
(Synaspismos) leader Alexis Tsipras during a visit to the greater
Athens area's only official landfil in the northwest Ano Liosia
district. He pointed out that the creation of landfills in the region
of western Attica prefecture has a clear class-based character, and a
new strategy will have to be prepared to include, among others,
recycling at the source, reduction of waste volume, and new processing
and garbage disposal planning. "We are lagging far behind in Europe in
the sector of waste recycling, considering that in 2006 when recycling
in the EU countries was 41 percent, in Greece it was 13 percent,"
Tsipras added, concluding that a policy change is imperative both for
public health reasons and for the future of major urban centers.
Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Alexis Tsipras.
[02] Mauthausen memorial service
A memorial service and a wreath-laying ceremony for the 3,700 Greeks
who perished in the Mauthausen concentration camp during WWII was held
here on Sunday in the presence of representatives of the Greek state,
Church and members of the Greek-Austrian community. A multi-national
ceremony with the participation of dozens of foreign delegations was
also held at the Mauthausen Monument in the presence of Austrian
President Heinz Fischer, Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and Parliament
President Barbara Prammer. The Mauthausen concentration camp, 170km
west of Vienna, was established by the Nazis in 1938 when a number of
Dachau prisoners were transferred there. Until the camp was liberated
by Allied forces on May 5, 1945, more than 206,000 prisoners from all
over Europe experienced the most inhuman treatment conceivable. A total
of 122,797 people were led to their deaths in Mauthausen.
Caption: Survivors of the former Nazi concentration camp of Mauthausen
arrive to attend a ceremony to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the
liberation of the camp in Austria, 18 May 2008. The concentration camp
was liberated by US troops on May 5, 1945. ANA-MPA/ EPA/RUBRA
[03] Sioufas pans libel suit practice
Parliament President Dimitris Sioufasm responding to a relevant press
question on Monday, expressed his opposition to the practice of filing
libel suits against political leaders.
He comment comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by Marfin Investment
Group (MIG) executive vice-president Andreas Vgenopoulos against main
opposition PASOK party leader George Papandreou.
"Viewpoints and political positions presented in Parliament cannot and
should not be brought to the court room," Sioufas stated.
The libel suit against Papandreou comes after a similar lawsuit was
filed against Coalition of the Left (Synaspismos) leader Alexis
Tsipras.
Both men, Papandreou and Tsipras, had sharply criticised MIG's decision
to sell some 20 percent of Hellenic Telecommunication Organization's
(OTE) equity shares to Deutsche Telekom (DT) -- an apparent prelude to
DT's assumption of OTE's management following an agreement with the
government last week.
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