In Brief
PARTY RATINGS
ND increases lead in Athens, Piraeus Opposition New Democracy has slightly increased its lead in Athens and Piraeus over PASOK (to 3.1 percent from 2.9 percent last December) according to the results of a poll made public on Saturday. Of the 1,800 people polled by DIMEL on behalf of the newspaper O Cosmos tou Ependyti between March 31 and April 10, 36.9 percent said they would vote for ND as compared to 33.8 percent for PASOK (with 7.8 percent for the Communist Party and 6 percent for Synaspismos Left Coalition). Asked which party they believed would win the next elections, 46.4 percent named ND and 30.8 percent PASOK. Seamen killed Two seamen died after being struck on Friday by an automatic loading crane in operation on a cargo ship moored in the port of Piraeus, the Merchant Marine Ministry said on Saturday. Sailor Serif Hussein, 49, died instantly, while boatswain Panayiotis Anagnostopoulos, 51, was taken to the hospital but died of his injuries on Saturday. The captain and second mate of the Pontos were arrested. Annan in Knossos United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday visited the Minoan site of Knossos outside Iraklion on the last day of a weekend vacation with his wife Nane in Crete. He was in Athens last week to attend the signing of accession for 10 new European Union members and an informal EU summit. Road blocks Traffic toward the western Athens areas of Ano Liosia and Aspropyrgos will be disrupted this morning as residents of the nearby suburb of Zephyri block key road junctions in protest against the heavy congestion caused by the Ano Liosia waste disposal site. Protesters have said they would block roads from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Traffic police have appealed to municipal garbage trucks to avoid the area between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Armenian genocide A Turkish acknowledgment of its slaughter in 1915 of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians would settle the country’s «unpaid debt to mankind,» Parliament Speaker Apostolos Kaklamanis said yesterday on the 88th anniversary of the massacre. Former Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos, speaking at a commemoration ceremony in Thessaloniki, claimed Turkey is still capable of carrying out similar massacres. «Whoever does not admit to the crimes everyone knows they have committed is ready to repeat them,» he said.
