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FRONT PAGE NEWS |
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 New road links ready for Games |
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| The newly widened Vari-Koropi Avenue linking Athens's Saronic coast with the city's international airport and the Attiki Odos opens to traffic today, one of a series of improved arteries opening this month just in time for the Olympic Games.
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| Rehhagel to stay with Greece |
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| Greek soccer team coach Otto Rehhagel rejected on Saturday a lucrative offer to coach the German national team through the 2006 World Cup and will remain at Greece's helm, instead.
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| Support for 2004 Olympics |
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| Despite the anxiety over the delayed preparations and their high cost, Greeks are overwhelmingly in favor of hosting the Olympic Games, a nationwide poll published yesterday reveals. Indeed, more are in favor of the Games now than before.
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| MEP Matsakis in new storm |
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| Marios Matsakis, a newly elected Cypriot member of the European Parliament, was at the center of a second controversy yesterday. In addition to the bribery allegations he faces, police are also investigating charges that the politician and pathologist bought a large number of valuable, hand-carved chests belonging to Greek-Cypriot refugees but which were looted by Turkish Cypriots.
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| Three Afghan nationals... |
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Three Afghan nationals are pictured on the Aegean island of Lesvos on Saturday following their arrest...
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| Former MP’s son dead in coastal road clash |
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| The son of a former conservative member of Parliament was killed in a shootout shortly after midnight yesterday on coastal Poseidonos Avenue, one of the busiest points of the capital...
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PM Costas Karamanlis...
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EDITORIAL |
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Market liberalization
The great upheaval in the market caused by the rise in petrol prices has subsided.
After the Olympic Games, when gratuitous price hikes and widespread profiteering will have eased off, the time will be right for introducing measures to liberalize the market and to abolish anachronistic restrictions which are hampering economic activity.
Sources say that Deputy Development Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou is examining the whole spectrum of restrictions stifling the Greek market - ranging from major issues such as store opening hours and the determination of prices, to more specific matters affecting individual sectors, where certain embargoes thrive despite being absurd and outdated. |
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COMMENTARY |
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Reforms or ‘management?’
The government appears focused on preparations for the Olympic Games but is, in fact, deeply concerned about the post-Olympic period, given the great expectations as to what is to happen after September, which will largely determine events over the next four years.
The Economy Ministry realizes that drafting the new budget will be difficult, as is made evident by the hastily announced tax reforms and over-borrowing by the State, which no government would attempt if it did not have serious cash-flow problems to begin with.
At the same time, there is a general impression that after the Olympic Games there will be problems in the private sector as well; |
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