Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday held talks with senior officials of the Federation of Greek Industries (SEV), the Exporters’ Association of Northern Greece (SEVE) and Greece’s largest umbrella union (GSEE) exactly one week ahead of his scheduled opening speech at the annual Thessaloniki International Fair.

Gov't upbeat, despite hurdles

Athens prefectural officials yesterday indicted managers from 15 different firms to appear before a prosecutor following the confiscation of hundreds of kilos of rotting food. State inspectors seized around 2 tons of rotten meat from an enterprise in Moschato and slammed a suspension order on another pitta bread manufacturer in Tavros after discovering 350 kilos of flea-infested flour on its premises.

The home furnishings store IKEA yesterday said it was recalling its Rabalder three-plug adaptors from the market due to a risk of electrocution to users. Consumers who have purchased such an adaptor should return it to IKEA for a refund. The store stressed that no accidents had been reported.

European Union regulators conducting an investigation into whether Greece illegally granted millions of euros to ailing state carrier Olympic Airlines are to publish their report on September 14, EC officials said yesterday. If it is established that state aid was given illegally, the Commission will ask the Greek government to recover the money from the airliner, officials said. The probe was launched in March 2004.

Four Pakistani men have been arrested in connection with the abduction and blackmail of two of their countrymen, police said yesterday. Earlier this week, the group kidnapped a 40-year-old storeowner in Mesolongi and demanded 10,000 euros in ransom money from his relatives. The suspects were arrested in Athens on Thursday while trying to collect 3,000 euros of the demanded sum from a bank branch. Early last month, the ring abducted a 26-year-old in Aspropyrgos and demanded 12,000 euros for his release, police said. The man managed to escape and report his ordeal.

The arrest in Ano Liosia on Thursday of a 25-year-old man driving a Mercedes has led to the breakup of a ring that had been stealing luxury cars and selling them on with fake number plates and ownership papers, police in Athens said yesterday. The ring is believed to have sold at least 14 such cars for which it had forged number plates and documents, according to police who seized 10 of the illegal vehicles.

The US Embassy in Athens, including the Consular Section, the US Consulate General in Thessaloniki, and all US government offices in Greece will be closed on Monday in observance of Labor Day, an official US national holiday.

A 45-year-old woman was forced to have her right foot amputated yesterday after being struck by a car in the car deck of a ferry sailing into Souda Bay, police in Crete said. It was unclear whether the car hit her foot or crushed it but it accelerated very quickly, according to witnesses, who said the car was an automatic. The woman was taken to a hospital in Hania where doctors decided to amputate.

A 39-year-old woman believed to have burgled 20 houses in the districts of Peristeri and Petroupolis, with the help of a 14-year-old girl, has been arrested, police in Athens said yesterday. Officers caught the pair red-handed just after they had broken into a house in Kamatero and tried to steal 1,500 euros’ worth of jewelry.

Border guards yesterday confiscated more than 60 kilos of hashish after arresting two Albanians in a forest in Ieropigi, Kastoria. The guards gave chase after spotting three men near the border area but the third managed to get away.