In Brief
DEATH – German ambassador’s wife found dead, suicide suspected The wife of German ambassador to Greece Karl Heinz Kuhna was found dead in the ambassador’s residence in Halandri, northern Athens, yesterday. Ambassador Kuhna found his wife Marie, 60, in the bathroom with her wrists slit, after he returned home from work. The Kuhnas have been in Greece since 1999. In May of that year, the November 17 terrorist group fired two anti-tank rockets at their home, causing damage but no injuries. The Athens News Agency reported that police suspected Mrs. Kuhna had committed suicide. ROTEST Anti-war march held in Thessaloniki About 700 members of leftist and peace groups staged a protest march through central Thessaloniki yesterday, chanting slogans against the US campaign against international terrorism in Afghanistan. They marched to the US Consulate as well as the consulates of France, Germany, Russia and other members of the international coalition, where they pasted petitions on the doors and painted graffiti on walls. FYROM OTE bids for cell phone permit The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) took a step forward yesterday in its bid to win the second license to operate a mobile telephone company in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Transport Minister Christos Verelis said. A letter of guarantee has already been submitted and the negotiations for the purchase are entering a substantive phase. This constitutes an important step in OTE’s expansion through southeastern Europe, he said, according to the Athens News Agency. Karamanlis-Miller. Main opposition New Democracy party leader Costas Karamanlis yesterday met with the new US ambassador to Greece, Thomas Miller, at ND headquarters. Karamanlis emphasized his party’s solidarity with the US and the free world in the struggle to wipe out terrorism. Other people’s money. A man posing as a stock trader was arrested in Athens yesterday for fraud, forgery and embezzlement after allegedly stealing the identity card of a stock trader at the Athens Stock Depositary and using it to obtain consumer loans and credit cards, with which he bought consumer goods at department stores. In May 1999, Panayiotis Dafmiotis, 28, who works at the Depositary, allegedly stole the ID card and obtained loans from the National Bank and ABN Amro Banks and bought items on credit from the Radio Athinai electrical goods store, totaling about 2 million drachmas. He was found in possession of nearly 1 million drachmas which he had just obtained from ABN Amro as a loan. Suspect arrested. Police yesterday arrested Evangelos Panagopoulos in Pangrati, central Athens on suspicion of robbing a number of banks and stealing motorcycles together with Dimitris Roussos, who has been in prison since August, and two Albanians. All the motorcycles stolen and used in the bank robberies have been recovered and returned to their owners. The gang is accused of stealing some 51 million drachmas in six bank robberies. Caught in the act. Thessaloniki police have arrested two youths in connection with the theft of a motorcycle and a woman’s bag, leading to the arrest of the woman herself on drugs charges, it was reported yesterday. David Hatsikidis, who stole the motorcycle from a store in Halkidiki, then went to Thessaloniki and together with Georgian national Iuri Chakalov, stole the handbag of Marianthi Kirkizioti. A passing police patrol arrested the two in the parking lot of the Thessaloniki Yacht Club in possession of the stolen bag and a syringe containing heroin solution they said they had obtained from Kirkizioti before stealing her bag, which had 840,000 drachmas in it. Kirkizioti was found to be wanted on another charge and was also arrested. Bank robbery. Two armed men held up a branch of the National Bank in Kypseli yesterday and got away with 2.5 million drachmas, escaping on a scooter. Che’s daughter. The daughter of Che Guevara, Aleida, is to visit Thessaloniki this weekend to attend a European conference of friendship and cooperation with Cuba, to be held at Macedonia University. On Monday, Aleida Guevara is to be the keynote speaker at an event entitled The health sector in Cuba, at Thessaloniki University.
