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jordanian official: jordan presses ahead with reform amman, october 1 (xinhua) a jordanian senior official said here today that jordan has survived the challenges and pressures of 1990s and is pressing ahead with social and economic reform. deputy prime_minister and minister of information khaled karaki told a media seminar on the upcoming amman economic summit that the kingdom is trying to consolidate its openness to the world, radio jordan reported. he told media representatives that jordan is a moderate and tolerant society where resources have been pooled to build a modern social-economic system. jordan is now hosting a gathering of public and private sectors representatives to explore development and investment prospects in the region, he said. the meeting, he noted, is aimed at rehabilitating the middle_east economy in an atmosphere of open dialogue and integration between regional and international efforts. 
iraqi president meets turkish parliamentarian baghdad, october 1 (xinhua) iraqi president saddam_hussein met here today with chairman of the foreign relations committee of the turkish parliament mumtaz soysal. during the meeting, saddam praised the turkish parliamentarian for defending right and justice, and for upholding the historic friendly relations between iraq and turkey, radio baghdad reported this_evening. the meeting was attended by iraqi deputy premier tariq aziz. the visit by soysal, turkey's former foreign_minister, came in the wake of certain estrangement in iraqi-turkish relations, mainly caused by the repeated incursions of the turkish army into northern iraq to crack_down on separatist rebels of turkey's kurdish workers party (pkk). the estrangement is also due to the fact that turkey allows the u.s.-led western coalition to carry_out the aerial embargo imposed against iraqi civilian and military aircraft over northern iraq. 
strong earthquake shakes southwestern turkey ankara, october 1 (xinhua) a strong earthquake measuring 6 degrees on the richter_scale destroyed many buildings and houses this_evening in afyon province, southwestern turkey, turkish reliable sources told xinhua. the sources said that the earthquake occurred at about 16:00 gmt in dinar town of afyon province, about 450 kilometers southwest of ankara, and there must be casualties due to the strong magnitude, but no exact death_toll has been so_far obtained. the injured said that the electricity in the town is cut_off and the town is in the dark following the quake. the turkish tv crew and reporters can not reach the scene, they said. 
(urgent) strong quake shakes central turkey ankara, october 1 (xinhua) a strong earthquake measuring 6.0 on the richter_scale shook central turkey today and dozens of people were feared buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings. anatolian news_agency, quoting officials of the seismological institute of the bosphorus university, said the tremor struck at 5:57 p.m. local_time (1557 gmt), with the epicenter located between the provinces of konya and afyon. nearly two-thirds of the buildings collapsed in the town of dinar, a city of 100,000 people near the quake's epicenter, local tv reported. the police_station and local_government building were among those damaged, anatolia said. damages in the neighboring towns of evciler and kiziloren were also reported. a moderate quake hit dinar last wednesday, damaging dozens of homes. 
international day for elders marked in ethiopia addis_ababa, october 1 (xinhua) the ethiopian government was urged today to amend the social_security regulation to provide pensions for private employees. the call was made by abera gebreselassie, elders affairs department_head of ethiopia's rehabilitation agency, at a meeting here to mark the international day for elders. abera said mechanisms must be sought to ensure pension entitlements for private employees, whose number is increasing along with the expansion of market principles in the country. he said though it is difficult to incorporate all the people into the social_security system, it is essential to lay the foundations so as to ultimately reduce the number of the elders dependent_on their families by entitling them to pensions. in his speech at the meeting, minister of labor and social affairs hassen abdela called on_the_whole society to support the elders, saying that supporting the elders is not the responsibility of the government alone but of the public at_large. he added that the ethiopian government has issued policies with a view to promoting the social_security sector which in_turn contributes to enhance the life of the people and the elderly in_particular. enditem =10011823 =10011821 01/10/95 18:30 gmt nnnn 
18 killed in bus attack in algeria cairo, october 1 (xinhua) about 18 people were killed and 15 others wounded today when unidentified gunmen attacked a bus in a district 400 kilometers south of algiers, the algerian_capital. according to egypt's middle_east news_agency (mena), most of the victims were children and women. mena quoted a statement issued by the algerian security forces as saying that police rushed to the scene and killed four of the gunmen. they are continuing their operation to seize the rest of the attackers. violence has been on the rise as the country's november 16 first round of presidential elections approaches. 
pentagon denies unusual troop movements in iraq washington, october 1 (xinhua) a pentagon official sunday denied reported unusual troop movements in iraq close_to the border with kuwait, press reports here said. the sunday times in london reported that iraq was secretly massing tanks and troops and quoted u.s. officials in washington as saying that they could not dismiss "the possibility that iraqi leader saddam_hussein was planning another invasion of kuwait." however, according to a upi report, u.s. air_force major tom larock said that "we are not aware of unusual movements in the area." "we do keep_an_eye_on the area", but the pentagon has not seen "anything that caused us any great concern," he added. earlier in the day, a u.s._government official was quoted as saying that washington was constantly monitoring the situation in iraq and was "prepared to take the necessary steps to protect our interests" there. local media speculated that the reported iraqi troop movements were causing an intense debate within the pentagon. some officials were said to prefer striking immediately against the iraqi troops to teach saddam a lesson while others argue the intelligence is unclear and that saddam may simply be rotating his forces. one pentagon official was quoted as saying that "our problem is that saddam remains unpredictable." 
life_expectancy in greece increases athens, october 1 (xinhua) greek men live the longest in europe while greek women are fifth on the longevity list, a survey carried out by the country's health ministry said. the survey, carried by today's greek weekly "to vima" (the tribune), concluded that between 1928 and 1991, the life_expectancy in the country increased from 44.95 to 74.6 years for men and from 47.46 to 79.8 years for women. the reason for this was the healthy nutrition and "balanced" life_style. the considerable drop_in infant_mortality since the 60s has also helped. moreover, greece has one of the lowest suicide rates in europe, for both men and women. the newspaper quoted professor kyriopoulos filalithis as saying that the people's health depends on a number of factors, including biological factors (25 percent), the environment (20 percent), health services (10 percent) and living conditions (45 percent). "the greek diet, containing olive_oil, fruit and vegetables, is much healthier than that of the rest of europe," said filalithis. according to the professor, family plays an important role as far as the social environment is concerned. the greek family has preserved strong ties between its members. "studies abroad have shown that people who have never married or who are living alone after a divorce have a shorter life_expectancy than married people," he said. "another factor to consider is the level of social and financial development of the country", says filalithis, adding that greece is more developed and richer than central and east european countries. 
zambia's prison officers, society urged to reform convicts lusaka, october 1 (xinhua) zambian acting commissioner of prisons charles katepa today urged prison officers and the society to make joint efforts to reform ex-convicts. katepa said in the southern town of livingstone that prison officers and warders should stop illtreating inmates because this will bear serious consequences. he advised the cummunity to stop calling ex-convicts names as this will make them feel alienated and develop hatred for members of the public. "assist inmates, give them the understanding. if you brutalize them, when they come_out they will work against us and the community. let us help improve their well being and treat them well," he said. turning to the zambian society, he said the responsibility to reform prisoners lies in the whole community and not prison staff alone. the community should do its best so that the punishment meted_out on a prisoner is not aggravated, he said, adding that stigmatisation is a terrible blow to the reform of ex-convicts. meanwhile, he disclosed the prisons department will recruit university graduates to beef_up its administration. enditem =10011753 =10011751 01/10/95 18:00 gmt nnnn 
georgian leader urges moscow to help detain ex-security chief moscow, october 1 (xinhua) georgian leader eduard shevardnadze said today that he had asked russian leaders to help detain former security_service chief lieutenant-general igor georgadze and bring him back to tbilisi, capital_of_georgia, according to reports reaching here. georgadze, 45, is charged with organizing the august 29 car_bomb attempt to assassinate shevardnadze and involvement in a number of other terrorist acts. georgia's prosecutor-general dzhamlet babilashvili said earlier today that georgadze was outside georgia and, "according to available information, is hiding away in moscow." georgian interior minister shota kviraya said that the former security boss "is connected with those forces in russia which are against the present russian leadership headed by boris yeltsin." speaking at a meeting with georgian law_enforcement officers in tbilisi on the same day, shevardnadze said that his government was "taking all possible measures" to bring georgadze from moscow to tbilisi. the georgian leader said that he "has requested the leaders of respective russian structures to provide assistance on this issue." "if respective russian structures do not provide assistance, this will cause certain suspicions in the georgian population," he added. geordadze has been with the security_service for more_than 25 years. he was appointed head of the georgian security_service in october 1993, but was sacked two days after the car_bomb blast outside the parliament building on august 29 in which shevardnadze was slightly injured. the former security_service chief is a son of panteleimon georgadze, leader of the united communist_party of georgia, who is one of shevardnadze's rivals in the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for november 5. in his televised address on august 30, georgadze said that his service had been receiving "signals about the preparation of a terrorist_act against shevardnadze for the last two months." "this information was systematically relayed to the head of the georgian state and his guards," he added. the former security_service boss told reporters that his sacking, made under the guise of the reorganization of the secret services, is of "exclusively political nature".