KATHIMERINI (Sunday)

Greek police to use drones for monitoring operations

For border operations as well as patrols over urban areas to fight crime and terrorism

The Greek police force is to be equipped with drones. The purpose? The monitoring of the borders for illegal immigration as well as improved monitoring of urban areas, strengthening the authorities in the face of organized crime and terrorist groups.

According to Kathimerini sources, the Ministry of Public Order is already in contact with Israeli companies which specialize in the construction of the aircraft in question, while the question of the number and type of UAVs to be selected remains an open question. The ‘noiseless’ unmanned aerial vehicles can transmit video, sound and other data, (eg they can pick up cell phone signals) to the operation control center of the Greek police, assisting the coordination of the authorities as well as the prevention of criminal acts.

For their purchase the use of European Funds is being examined together with other sources. At the same time the Greek police is returning to the old system for internal communications, abandoning the expensive TETRA system which had been purchased for the Olympic Games in 2004 for 90 million euros,  as the yearly maintenance cost of 4.5 million is considered prohibitive. The return to operation of inactive security cameras in the center of Athens is also being examined.

 

 
 

REAL NEWS (Sunday)

Accusations of a cover up!

Explosive testimony in the ELSTAT case

The two former members of the board of directors of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), Zoe Georganta and Nikos Logothetis in a report to the Athens Court of Appeal allege manipulations on the part of judicial authorities in order to ‘protect’ from criminal liability the former Prime Minister George Papandreou and former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou who are accused of artificially inflating the deficit in 2009 in order to lead the country into the Memorandum Agreements.

 

 

 

 

TA NEA (Monday)

Plots with a view in the Ionian and Libyan gulf

Thanks to an initiative by Venizelos the tender is beginning for oil and gas research and exploitation rights in 21 plots.

 
 

AVGI (Sunday)

SYRIZA’s Central Committee:  A proposal for power with the people center stage

An invitation for a coalition to govern

A proposal for the governance of the country with the people center stage and a call was issued by SYRIZA to the forces of the Left, to ecology movements, leftist socialists, proletarian forces independent from the governing parties and towards everyone who is at odds with the Memorandum. The target is the establishment of a new governing coalition with a government of the Left. In the report from the Political Secretariat towards the Central Committee it is stated that it is necessary to form a broad democratic, progressive and radical alliance, capable of seeking a governing majority in the next elections.

Alexis Tsipras issued scathing criticism of the government over the economic and social destruction as well as the decision to shut down parliament in order to avoid inquiries and cover up scandals. We must stop them, the SYRIZA leader said in order to overturn the Memorandum policies and prevent the artificial majority in parliament for the election of a new President. In the report there is a specific reference to the party’s operation and the problem of inaction that was seen during the pre election period, while the need for collective and cohesion action was stressed.

 

 

NAFTEMPORIKI

A discussion over the debt with a haircut of expectations

Of loans of 223 billion euros there will be a potential lightening for only 53 billion

The debts towards the HFSF and IMF will be excluded from a restructuring plan

The exclusion of debts of the HFSF (Hellenic Financial Stability Fund) from negotiations over a potential lightening of public debt together with the de facto exclusion of loans from the IMF drastically reduces the hopes which had been cultivated regarding the sustainable path of public debt. From the total loans that Greece has received to date from the Eurozone, EFSF and the IMF worth 223.1 billion euros, the effective interventions are restricted to 52.9 billion euros worth of debt. The leading scenario which is expected to be chosen following talks is that which sees a reduction in interest rates and extension of the loan which will reduce the interest payments in the coming years with amortization after a decade, but the debt will remain at high levels: from today’s 175% of GDP it will be reduced by 2020 to 128% of GDP, the same level as it was  in 2009 before Greece entered the Memorandum.