Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 01-08-02

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

CONTENTS

[01] CHIEF OF POLICE RESIGNS AFTER FIASCO

[02] DEADLINE FOR LEGALIZATION OF IMMIGRANTS

[03] REHAGEL CANDIDATE FOR GREEK NATIONAL TEAM

[04] DNA QUESTIONABLE AS EVIDENCE

[05] SAILING MARATHON FOR DISABLED ATHLETS

[06] ASE GOING EVEN HIGHER

[07] DRASTIC FUNDING CUTBACK IN 2002

[08] BLOODY ENGAGEMENT OUTSIDE KOS

[01] CHIEF OF POLICE RESIGNS AFTER FIASCO

At noon tomorrow the Governmental Cabinet for Foreign Affairs and Defense will convene under the Prime Minister, who pushed back his departure for holidays, and choose a replacement for Mr. Georgakopoulos, the Chief of Police, who resigned after yesterday's fiasco.

The ambush set by the police for the infamous Kostas Passaris ended in failure, since he managed to walk out of a building surrounded by police and special forces by covering the wound he had received from policemen inside the building, only a few seconds earlier.

Mr. Markogiannakis, who is responsible for the Sector of Public Peace of the main opposition party of New Democracy, "warmly congratulated" the chief of police on achieving to "connect his name with another fiasco". He continued to wonder if the Chief of Police had, at least, the decency to resign.

[02] DEADLINE FOR LEGALIZATION OF IMMIGRANTS

Today was the final deadline for the submittal of applications for residency legalization of economic immigrants living in Greece. The deadline for submitting all other justifying documents is the 7th of September 2001. The number of immigrants that have submitted such applications is estimated between 330.000-340.000.

[03] REHAGEL CANDIDATE FOR GREEK NATIONAL TEAM

Otto Rehagel was given by the Greek Football Federation an extension on the deadline to make his decision whether to take up the coaching of the Greek National football team. The German coach, after meeting with the administrators of GFF, asked for a week's extension to announce his decision.

"Such a significant decision cannot be made overnight. I have to discuss it with my family, since it is not something simple." Mr. Rehagel continued to say that that he looks forward to coming and improving a team that isn't going that well.

[04] DNA QUESTIONABLE AS EVIDENCE

DNA cannot prove a perpetrator's identity beyond "a shadow of a doubt". This came to light after the acquittal of a 37-year-old Lebanese Sambra Fatme who was accused of strangling her friend, the Philippine Relox Lalen, on July 9th 1999. Among the evidence used in the prosecution were five drops of blood found on a pillow of the victim's house.

However, according to the statements of the scientists of the DNA analysis lab of the Criminal Research Center Chemistry Department during the trial, the person to whom the five drops of blood belong to has the same genetic profile with that of the accused. The chances of the blood no belonging to her are 1 in 8.000.000 according to the statistic model for gene frequency in Greece. But, in the Lebanese statistic model the chances are 1 in 67.000.

Another vulnerable point of the prosecution was that the genetic material could have been altered due to time, since the body, and therefore the evidence, was found five days after the murder had been committed, and is thus unreliable.

[05] SAILING MARATHON FOR DISABLED ATHLETS

With lots of soul and will power the 5 crews of the 1st Sailing Marathon for the Disabled set off at 13:30. At this moment they are sailing across the Thermaic Gulf and tonight at 19:30 they will reach Platamonas, where they will spend the night. The Marathon will continue tomorrow at 10:00 am with Skiathos as their destination.

[06] ASE GOING EVEN HIGHER

The general index at the ASE is now steadily moving towards 2.800 points. The increase recorded today was at 1,84% closing at 2.791,11 units, with an earlier maximum of 2.793,59. The volume of transactions was at 186,94 Euros, with 301 stocks reinforced, only 27 recording losses and 45 remaining stable.

[07] DRASTIC FUNDING CUTBACK IN 2002

Drastic cutbacks in most Ministries and sponsored organizations will be made by the Economics Ministry in 2002, so as to achieve the surplus of 600 billion drs needed to complete the 1,5 trillion drs ambitious social package for the next three years. This decision was made yesterday in a conference the Minister of National Economy, Mr. Papantoniou, had with the two undersecretaries, Mr. Dris and Mr. Fotiadis of the same ministry, who informed him of the course of the running government budget.

As announced by the government's economic staff, public expenditures for 2002 will not be increased at all, while the functional costs for the ministries (mainly employee salaries) will only be raised at a rate of 2,5-3%.

[08] BLOODY ENGAGEMENT OUTSIDE KOS

A Turkish smuggler of illegal immigrants was caught by the Coast Guard outside Ko. During the fray, the 23-year-old slaver tried to ram the Coast Guard with a speedboat, but fell dead from their bullets.

The illegal immigrants, three Iranians and six Iraqis, are being held by the Kos Coast Guard. They stated that they had each paid $2.500 to be transferred to Greece.

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