Files belonging to the former East German secret service (Stasi) do not contain any incriminating evidence on Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA) terrorist group suspects, the former deputy chief of the Greek police told an Athens courtroom yesterday. Greek police officers who probed Stasi files in August 1993 found references to various pseudonyms but there is no indication that they refer to ELA members, Michalis Nistikakis told a court hearing the trial of six people allegedly involved in ELA bombings.

Two successive earthquakes, measuring 4.3 and 4.4. on the Richter scale, shook Samos just after 7 a.m. yesterday but no damage or injuries were reported. The quakes, which occurred two minutes apart, both had their epicenter in the island’s southern region.

The government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) “remains trapped by intransigent stances and rhetoric... which hinder its progress on a bilateral and regional level and its European prospects,” government spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos said yesterday. Koumoutsakos, responding to a reporter’s question regarding the progress of talks to find an official name for FYROM, also criticized Skopje for “failing to listen to messages... from Brussels, other European capitals and elsewhere.”

The Public Power Corporation (PPC) yesterday denied that it was in the process of negotiating a joint venture with French power supplier Electricite de France (EDF), refuting a report in Wednesday’s edition of Kathimerini. However, Kathimerini understands that high-level talks between the two power suppliers were launched last August with the participation of Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas.

EDF and PPC consider partnership despite the latter's official denials

President Karolos Papoulias is this afternoon due to receive political, religious and military leaders at the Presidential Palace for the traditional acceptance of their congratulations. Well-wishers are to include Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou and Archbishop Christodoulos.

A 57-year-old night guard, whose corpse was found yesterday morning at his work site in the Athenian district of Rendi, had received eight blows to the head, a coroner said. The body of Spyridon Tsipas was discovered by colleagues arriving for work. Police ruled out robbery as a motive.

Senior prefectural and military officials yesterday attended the Church blessing ceremony for a new Super Puma search and rescue helicopter on the northern Aegean island of Lemnos. The helicopter is to be permanently based at the island’s air force base.

An Athens taxi driver was in hospital yesterday after being shot in the arm by a passenger whose accomplice swiped his takings, police said. The two men had hailed the taxi in central Athens and asked to be taken to the western district of Nea Liosia where they carried out the attack. The driver was not seriously injured, doctors said.

Albanian police yesterday confiscated 2 tons of cannabis after searching a truck close to Greece’s Kakavia border crossing and arrested a 42-year-old Albanian man on smuggling charges.