Main opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou cut short his address at a rally in the northern city of Serres on Friday night and after speaking for only five minutes he said he was discontinuing his election campaign and would leave to visit the wildfire-stricken regions. Papandreou also called for a minute's silence in memory of the people who lost their lives in the Taygetus region and in the prefecture of Ilia, as well as of those who have died in other parts of the country.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Friday toured a one-time army camp in the west Athens municipality of Haidari that will be turned into a 17-hectare park for the industry-laden district, continuing his busy itinerary of visits and appearances ahead of the Sept. 16 election.
"We are proceeding together with action, and reforms that will improve the present and guarantee the future for all," Karamanlis said.
While there, the prime minister said the former military base will serve as the biggest park in west Athens, which hosts several of the greater Athens area's most congested districts.
"With the transfer of military bases and the decentralization of other state services in tandem with the exploitation of Olympic facilities, Attica prefecture is changing, acquiring infrastructure and improving residents' quality of living," the premier said.

A multi-front spate of wildfires, extending from the central Peloponnese down to Laconia prefecture in the extreme south, claimed the lives of no less than 16 people on Friday, a shocking development amid an already fire-marred 2007 summer season in the heat-struck east Mediterranean country.

In the latest report, ten deaths were reported near the village of Makistos, east of the coastal town of Zaharo, in Ilia prefecture of western Peloponnese, in the late afternoon. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis himself arrived in Zaharo late Friday night, while the relevant public order minister was already on the scene.

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos (Bartholomew) will reportedly broach a handful of crucial issues affecting the Ecumenical Patriarchate -- particularly the question of the reopening of the Halki School of Theology -- during any future meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"I am thinking of visiting the prime minister of Turkey in the autumn, on the occasion of his re-election ... as well as the education minister. And I will request from them to tell us sincerely whether they will finally permit the reopening of Halki," the Patriarch said, addressing the congregation at a cathedral on the northeastern Aegean island of Imvros (Imbros), where the Patriarch was born.

Coalition of the Left (Synaspismos) leader Alekos Alavanos on Thursday continued his pre-election tour of the country, with the Ionian island of Lefkada and the mountainous Epirus province of northwest Greece on his itinerary.

Speaking in the town of Arta, NW Greece, on Thursday afternoon, Alavanos - who heads up the "radical left coalition (Syriza) formation for the coming Sept. 16 election - called for the government to immediately disclose a report on the country's social security system.
He also referred to billions of euros, as he said, that pension funds lose every year due to evasion and debts by the state and private employers to the funds.

Communist Party of Greece (KKE) general secretary Aleka Papariga continued her campaign appearances ahead of the Sept. 16 election on Thursday, this time with a visit to the General Secretariat of Sports (GGA) in Athens.

"Don't let them scare you. They (the two main parties) want the highest degree of two-party rule as possible; comfortable government majorities in order to have the freedom and ease to squash, literally, the working class' rights, or what is left of them," Papariga said.

Main opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou on Thursday night addressed an open pre-election rally of party supporters in Karditsa, central Greece. "Karditsa has spoken today! Here speak the people! The (general) elections have been judged!" Papandreou said.

"In 25 days from today, Greece is turning a page, the Right is returning to its position: to the main opposition and the new change is coming. The river of victory does not turn back. I am not and will never become like (Prime Minister Costas) Karamanlis. I shall honor what I’m saying and will not hide at the Maximos Mansion (the prime minister’s office)," the PASOK leader said.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Thursday outlined a series of proposals aimed at reform of the country's ailing social security system, one of the most crucial issues facing Greece over the next decades, speaking during an address to his ruling party's central committee nearly a week after officially requesting early elections.

In prefacing his proposals, Karamanlis ruled out three of the more painful measures feared by pensioners and unions, namely, an increase in retirement ages and contributions, or a decrease in pension levels.