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Saturday, 20 April 2024
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Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-07-11Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] PASOK discusses transparency, 'day-to-day' issuesIssues linked to the day to day life of citizens and transparency, particularly in connection with the Siemens slush funds scandal, dominated a meeting of main opposition PASOK's political council on Friday. According to the party's spokesman, George Papaconstantinou, PASOK had formulated a framework of initiatives for transparency, culminating in the letter sent to Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis by the party's president George Papandreou on Thursday."PASOK will persist with these issues right to the end," Papaconstantinou stressed, adding that the party would provide no "alibis" and would express its views whenever called on to do so. He criticised Minister of State Theodoros Roussopoulos for his response to the letter, noting that a reply taking up one and a half pages had "essentially said 'see you in October' because the battle against corruption is going on holiday." The spokesman added that PASOK was looking into all possible legal and political action it could take in order to promote transparency and declared that the party would be present at the cross-party committee for political money in October. At the same time, he noted that PASOK's proposal for a permanent Institutions and Transparency committee would have been more correct and would save time. Regarding issues related to Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), he said that PASOK was considering its response and had already decided to ask for a preliminary fact-finding commission in Parliament. In reply to a question concerning the TOR M1 missile contract affecting a previous PASOK government, meanwhile, he repeated assertions that "a part of the justice system is, unfortunately, influenced and controlled by the government". Other sections of the party meeting had focused on issues like high prices, civil protection and management of water resources. According to Papaconstantinou there were huge problems with fire prevention policies, which would have been much more cost-effective than fighting fires. Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of the exterior of main opposition PASOK's headquarters in Athens. [02] KKE leader visits snack factoryCommunist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Aleka Papariga on Friday paid a visit to a hi-tech snack factory in Athens owned by Tasty Foods, where she opined that at a time when science and technology have made it possible for physical labour to be greatly reduced, working people were nevertheless living worse off."They are up against the problems of the new technologies, because these also cause physical and other problems since they intensify the human body itself. And the conclusion is precisely this: a clash, an overthrow of the present system will give the people the power to take wealth into their own hands and live much better. Otherwise, science and technology will be used at their expense," she added. [03] Industry import index up in MayGreece's import price index in the industrial sector jumped 10.5 percent in May, compared with the same month last year, the National Statistics Service said on Friday. The index was up 2.5 pct in May from April 2008, while the average index in the 12-month period from June 2007 to May 2008 was up 6.6 percent. The statistics service, in a report, said the 10.5-pct jump in the import price index reflected a 2.3-pct rise in the price index from Eurozone member states and a 22.1-pct increase in prices from other countries.Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of the commercial port of Piraeus, Greece's largest. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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