NEWS

In Brief

Lost Marbles?

Ministry denies reviewing position on Parthenon artifacts The Culture Ministry yesterday rebuffed a report in the Times newspaper suggesting that Minister Pavlos Geroulanos had offered to forgo its claims to the Parthenon Marbles, which are on display at the British Museum, in return for a long-term loan of the artifacts. Sources at the ministry told Skai that the government has not changed its position regarding its demand for the return of the Marbles. The museum said it had not been informed of any official proposal by the Greek government. NOT SO TENDER Hospital purchases investigated The government referred two public tenders of hospital equipment to the courts yesterday after it emerged that hospitals acting on their own were able to procure the goods at a much lower price than the state. It is estimated that in the two cases, the hospitals were able to save 1.1 million euros. The details of the procurements have been sent to the Supreme Court. Aristotle squatters Eleven people arrested when police raided a basement in a student housing complex at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University on Saturday are to face magistrates tomorrow and on Thursday. The suspects, aged 19 to 27, were charged by a prosecutor late on Sunday. The eight men and three women were arrested after a raid on a residence that had been under occupation by anti-establishment groups since 2005. ‘Robber in black.’ The appeal hearing of Yiannis Dimitrakis, a 31-year-old student linked to the so-called «Robbers in Black,» began yesterday in an Athens court following several months of delays. The trial began with the testimonies of witnesses of an armed robbery at an Athens bank in January 2006, for which Dimitrakis received a 25-year jail sentence. During his testimony in court in 2007, Dimitrakis had claimed to belong to an anarchist group. Cretan raid Police in the Cretan prefecture of Rethymno said that they were seeking the assailants who pulled up in a car outside the offices of an insurance company in the small town of Perama early yesterday morning and fired shots at the building, causing damage but no injuries. Border arrest A 43-year-old German woman was being questioned by Albanian police yesterday after trying to cross into Greece late on Sunday with four revolvers strapped to different parts of her body. The woman was stopped near the town of Saranda (Aghioi Saranta in Greek). She did not have a license for any of the weapons. Christmas lights With less than three weeks left until Christmas, the Consumers’ Protection Center (KEPKA) has warned shoppers that almost one in three sets of Christmas lights sold are dangerous as they could start fires. KEPKA advised consumers not to leave Christmas lights on when they are not at home. Crossing closed The road connecting the border town of Promachonas in Serres with the town of Blagoevgrad, in southwestern Bulgaria, was closed yesterday due to widespread flooding provoked by several days of heavy rainfall.

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