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Date:         Sat, 21 Nov 1992 13:15:00 -0800
Reply-To:     Russ Linos <cvadsbfa@CSUPOMONA.EDU>
From:         Russ Linos <cvadsbfa@CSUPOMONA.EDU>
Subject:      NEA 11/21/92

PERIEXOMENA:

1.  FRIDAY'S EUROPEAN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES
2.  STRONG EARTHQUAKE ROCKS GREECE, NO IMMEDIATE ...
3.  TRIAL BACKLOG IN GREECE REACHES 300,000 CASES AS ...
4.  EC REPORTS SHOWS SLIGHT RISE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY ...
5.  TURKEY INVITES BALKAN COUNTRIES TO CONFERENCE ...
6.  GREECE TO SEEK EXTRADITION OF PALESTINIAN ...

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11/20 1703  FRIDAY'S EUROPEAN FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES
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NEW YORK (NOV. 20) UPI -
                       U.S.Dollar       currency
                       Equivalent    per U.S.Dollar
                       Fri     Thu     Fri     Thu
  Austria schill      .0892   .0899 11.2100 11.1200
  Belgium franc-c     .0305   .0309   32.77   32.39
  Britain pound      1.5107  1.5365   .6619   .6508
  Britain 1-mo       1.5057  1.5315   .6641   .6530
  Denmark krne        .1575   .1587  6.3500  6.3000
  Finlnd mrkka        .1852   .1887  5.4000  5.3000
  France franc        .1840   .1875  5.4345  5.3320
  France 1-mo         .1828   .1865  5.4695  5.3608
  Greece drach      .004813 .004866  207.75  205.50
  Hollnd guildr       .5525   .5655  1.8100  1.7685
  Ireland punt       1.6641  1.6760  0.6009  0.5967
  Italy lira        .000719 .000730 1390.25 1369.25
  Norway krne         .1493   .1504  6.7000  6.6500
  Portugl escud     .006920 .007080  144.50  141.25
  Spain peseta      .008734 .008838  114.50  113.15
  Sweden krona        .1460   .1514  6.8500  6.6045
  Switzrl franc       .6899   .7045  1.4495  1.4195
  Switzrl 1-mo        .6882   .7025  1.4531  1.4235
  Turkey lira       .000123 .000124 8100.01 8092.00
  Germany mark        .6219   .6355  1.6080  1.5735
  Germany 1-mo        .6185   .6324  1.6168  1.5812
  Yugosl dinar      .005000 .005000  200.00  200.00
  c-Commercial; f-Financial; z-Floating; x-N. Y. Money Market.
  Interbank Buyers Rates

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11/21 1012  STRONG EARTHQUAKE ROCKS GREECE, NO IMMEDIATE ...
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ATHENS (NOV. 21) UPI - A strong earthquake measuring 6.5 on the open-ended
Richter scale and centered in the Mediterranean rocked Greece early Saturday,
but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
   The quake, which rattled windows and caused panic in the Cretan town of
Hania, was recorded at 7.07 a.m. local time, a spokesman for the Athens
Observatory said. The epicenter was placed some 65 miles west of Crete in the
Mediterranean.
   There was also some panic in Athens, where people felt the quake as they were
waking up, but there were no reports of damage or casualties either in Crete or
in the capital.
   The quake was the second to be felt in Greece in three days.
   Wednesday's tremor, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, was centered in the
Gulf of Corinth, 75 miles west of Athens.
   Some shop windows were reportedly damaged in Galaxidi, a port located close
to the epicenter of Wednesday's quake, and people rushed out into the streets
when the quake struck, but no casualties were reported.
   Greece lies on a major earthquake belt stretching across Turkey and Iran to
Pakistan and Afghanistan.


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11/20 1040  TRIAL BACKLOG IN GREECE REACHES 300,000 CASES AS ...
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ATHENS (NOV. 20) IPS - Greek lawyers are creating a massive trial backlog as
their nationwide strike over new tax and social security legislation passes the
six month mark with no sign of ending.
   Justice, always slow moving in Greece, has ground to a near halt. The Supreme
Court has ceased to operate, while the lower courts are estimated to be shelving
between 10,000 and 12,000 cases a day. Justice Ministry sources estimate the
current backlog of adjourned hearings has reached up to 300,000.
   Lawyers are now only appearing at the trials of those held on remand, who
would have to be freed under habeas corpus rules if their trials were delayed
any longer. Contracts, bills of sale and deeds of transfer can be signed, but
are all subject to long delays.
   The strike began when the government brought in new legislation that set out
minimum assumed incomes for all self employed professionals - including lawyers.
   The assumed incomes are scaled according to where they work and how long they
have been in their profession. Now, those declaring incomes below these levels
will no longer have their tax returns accepted by the tax office.
   Once that bill became law, the government struck again, introducing a
long-delayed package of social security reforms, forcing employees, employers
Press <CR> for more !
and the self employed to pay higher contributions to health and pension funds in
a bid to forestall problems in the future because of the aging population.
   Of all the self-employed groups affected, only the lawyers have gone on
strike. Doctors, architects, civil engineers, electricians and plumbers
protested through their professional organizations but accepted the new rules.
   But the lawyers were further angered by a VAT tax hike on legal services to
18 percent, and new contempt of court rules which could lead an offending
lawyer, in an extreme case, to loose his or her licence to practice.
   Until this year the lawyers had been sheltered by their numbers, - 24,000
nationwide, of which 14,500 are in Athens - and their political clout.
   Voting in elections apart, close on half the membership of any Greek
parliament - and any cabinet - has traditionally consisted of lawyers, prepared
to forget the party line if their interests were endangered.
   The government, committed to a policy of equal sacrifice, and having overcome
far more powerful trade unions in the public sector over its privatization
policies, sought to demonstrate that the legal profession was no longer
untouchable.
   According to sources at the Athens Bar Association, most older and
established lawyers had already accepted the fact that the new tax and social
security measures would become law but were heavily outvoted by younger lawyers,
still trying to set up in the profession.
   Of the Athens' total, 4,500 have been practicing for less than five years and
only a few hundred for more than 20 years. It is widely accepted that the
newcomers were hard hit by the assumption of income formula and the minimum $150
per month that they must pay towards pensions as much as 40 years in the future.
   There are reports of young lawyers now taking second jobs to make ends meet.
They are said to have forced the strike as a last-ditch alternative to leaving
the profession in droves.
   The challenge to the state is in terms of lost income. No estimate is
available on the losses in court fees and fines, but the 1992 budget assumed
close on two billion dollars in revenue from these two sources alone.
   The Finance Ministry says this money is not lost, but only postponed, as the
trials will be held and the fines imposed at some point.
   For the lawyers the crunch will come next March when they attempt to declare
1992 income genuinely reduced because of the strike and are faced with tax
demands based on assumed incomes.
   And, unless they are back at work by then, there is no way they will be able
to appeal against such demands in the tax courts.
   Meanwhile, Greece's prison population is growing restless and demanding their
day in court.
   George Koskotas, accused in the $200 million bank embezzlement scandal that
helped topple Andreas Papandreou's socialist government in 1989, has seen his
day in court postponed four times.
Last page !

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11/19 1456  EC REPORTS SHOWS SLIGHT RISE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY ...
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BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NOV. 19) UPI - Inflation in the European Community rose 0.  4
percent in October from September, an EC statistical report said Thursday.
   The rate showed the same increase as September from August, the statement
said.
   On an annual basis, the inflation rate for the EC remained unchanged between
September and October at 4 percent.
   The report said the constant rate showed "the near stability of inflation for
the Community as a whole during four consecutive months: July 4.1 percent,
August 4.1 percent, September 4 percent, October 4 percent."
   For the individual member states, the monthly increases were as follows:
Spain 0.1 percent; Belgium, Denmark and The Netherlands 0.2 percent; Germany and
France 0.3 percent; the U.K. and Portugal 0.4 percent; Luxembourg 0.5 percent
and Italy 0.6 percent.
   Greece again recorded a sharp rise at 2.4 percent in October, following a 4.1
percent rise in September, the report said.
   It said 10 of the 12 EC countries had annual inflation rates within 2
percentage points of the EC average, which stands at 4 percent.
   The annual inflation rate from October 1991 to October 1992 for the different
member states are the following: Denmark 2 percent, Belgium 2. 2 percent, France
2.4 percent, Luxembourg 3.2 percent, The Netherlands 3.3 percent, the U.K. 3.6
percent, former Western Germany 3.7 percent, Italy 4.7 percent, Spain 5.2
percent, Portugal 9 percent and Greece 15.9 percent.
   The annual figure for the United States was 3.2 percent and for Japan 1
percent, the report said.
   October figures were not available for Ireland. The inflation rate covering
the period from August 1991 to August 1992 showed an annual inflation rate of
2.8 percent for Ireland.
Last page !

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11/19 1409  TURKEY INVITES BALKAN COUNTRIES TO CONFERENCE ...
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ANKARA, TURKEY (NOV. 19) UPI - Turkey has invited several countries in the
Balkans to a regional conference to discuss the situation in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, a Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.
   Ankara took the initiative after expressing dissatisfaction with the
resolution passed in the U.N. Security Council Monday authorizing an
international naval blockade to enforce economic sanctions on Serbia and
Montenegro, or "little Yugoslavia."
   Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Filiz Dincer said the resolution, prepared by
Belgium, the United States and Britain, "was far from satisfactory."
   She said Turkey has invited the Balkan states, including Bulgaria, Romania,
Albania and Greece, to attend a conference in Istanbul Nov. 25 to discuss the
situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
   "There are two dimensions to this problem," Dincer said. "One is to
immediately stop the bloodshed in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the other is the fear
that the conflict might spread to other regions."
   Earlier, the Foreign Ministry expressed fears the fighting in former
Yugoslavia may spread to Kosovo, where ethnic Albanian Muslims are seeking to
break away from Serbia.
   Dincer said Ankara would try "to keep up the momentum" of efforts to end the
fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and would use all the means at its disposal to
get the Security Council "to pass a more efficient resolution."
   Efforts would also be made to stop Serbia from making aggressive moves
against its neighbors, she said.
   Ankara has invited Hungary and Austria to attend the Balkans conference.
Though these two countries are not strictly Balkan states, "they would be most
affected in case the conflict spreads," Dincer said.
   Other states invited included the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia,
Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
   In Athens, government spokesman Vassilis Magginas said Greece would not
attend the Istanbul conference.
   "Initiatives have already been taken by the United Nations and the European
Community to confront the problems which have arisen due to the break-up of
Yugoslavia," he said.
   "The Geneva conference is continuing its sessions, and French Foreign
Minister Roland Dumas has additionally proposed to the European Community a
meeting of Community representatives on the same issue," Magginas said.
   For the past few months, Athens has blocked E.C. recognition of Macedonia if
it continued to use the name "Macedonia" internationally. Political analysts
said Greece could not attend a conference where the breakaway state attended
under that name.

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11/19 1245 GREECE TO SEEK EXTRADITION OF PALESTINIAN ...
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ATHENS, GREECE (NOV. 19) UPI - Greece will seek the extradition of a
Palestinian reportedly arrested in Germany on suspicion of participating in a
1988 terrorist attack on the Greek cruise vessel City of Poros, a government
spokesman said Thursday.
   Mehri Mehieddin, suspected of being a member of the Abu Nidal terrorist
group, was reportedly arrested last week in Germany, after a tip from Interpol,
the international police agency.
   Greek government spokesman Vassilis Magginas told reporters the Athens public
prosecutor has asked Interpol to confirm that Mehieddin has been arrested in
Germany.
   "If the arrest is confirmed, the (Greek) government will ask the German
authorities to extradite Mehieddin," he said.
   Nine people were killed and 30 injured in July 1988 when a group of
terrorists, believed to be Palestinians, attacked the City of Poros off the
Aegean island of Aegina, some 16 miles southwest of Athens.
   Greece is also seeking two other Palestinians, identified as Mohammed Hedjad
Jabala and Mohammed Adnan Sojod, for allegedly participating in the attack.
   Mehieddin, who reportedly moved to East Germany shortly after the City of
Poros attack, is also wanted in France on other charges.


=====================================
T. Livos
California

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reply gia va mhv spatalw tov xrovo mou adika.