Capital market authorities yesterday imposed a record 15.2-million-euro fine on Athens-bourse listed wholesaler Tassoglou-Delonghi, investment company Active and several of their top officials for spreading false information and abusing confidential information.

Record fine for breakers of ASE rules

Social Security Foundation (IKA) clinics will be operating on emergency staff again tomorrow as protesting IKA doctors embark on a fresh series of 24-hour strikes. Strike action is also planned for August 5, 12 and 13. Doctors want permanency for 5,500 colleagues on short-term contracts.

Departing from his previously-stated policy, Defence Minister Yiannos Papantoniou yesterday heralded defence spending cuts next year, following a meeting with Prime Minister Costas Simitis. “There will be an effort to economize,” he told journalists. He added that, by the end of the year, the government will have pressed ahead with decisions on buying new attack helicopters, corvettes and transport helicopters.

An earthquake, measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, occurred around 65 kilometers north of Thessaloniki, between lakes Kerkini and Doirani in the northern prefecture of Kilkis, early yesterday morning. No injuries or damage were reported. The same area had been devastated by a powerful 6.7-Richter quake in 1931.

A total of 16 popular night spots across the country will be forced to close temporarily for violations detected in checks by the financial crime squad, Deputy Economy Minister Apostolos Fotiadis said yesterday. The clubs and bars will be obliged to close for between 10 and 30 days for transgressions including non-issuance of receipts, blocking inspections and the use of illegal cash registers. Caprice on Myconos, Mousses in Athens, Silo in Piraeus and Catarala in Glyfada are among those facing closure.

Paris-based Greek film director Constantin Costa-Gavras yesterday announced his participation in the “Cultural Olympiad” of performing arts events leading up to the 2004 Olympics following a meeting with Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens. Costa-Gavras has agreed to stage a large-scale production at the New York Opera House, in cooperation with the American Ballet Theater, in May 2003.

Temperatures in Cyprus yesterday exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104F) for the third day in a row, but the worst of a heat wave which peaked at 43 degrees Celsius (109F) on Monday and Tuesday appears to have passed. Nevertheless, the government issued a ban on outdoor work between 12 noon and 4 p.m. Yesterday’s weather forecast predicted temperatures dropping yet further from tomorrow and storms at the weekend.

The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that it would try to facilitate the entry into Greece of a Taiwanese cameraman whose request for a visa earlier this week was denied by the Greek Embassy in Skopje. Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis yesterday responded to a complaint by Taiwan News International, saying that a senior ministry official was being sent to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to “improve” the visa application procedure. The media company’s editor has launched a petition campaign over the incident.

Roadworks started yesterday on Kifissias Avenue, Athens, and will continue until August 9. The works affect the section of Kifissias Avenue from Aghia Varvara in Halandri to Ventiri Street in Filothei.

An Irish tourist was being treated for serious neck injuries in a Cyprus hospital yesterday after being stabbed by a biker he berated for speeding on a pedestrian walkway. The unknown assailant, believed to be another tourist, attacked Martin Thomas Donoghue, 23, after the latter chided him for breaking the speed limit in the island’s Aghia Napa clubbing resort.