NEWS

In Brief

IRAQ

Ministry welcomes UN resolution, Athens lawyers plan to sue Britain The Foreign Ministry yesterday welcomed the adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution on post-conflict Iraq which it said «provides a framework which should allow the international community to help Iraqis… live in freedom, peace and prosperity under a representative government.» Meanwhile, the Athens Bar Association said it will sue Britain in the International Criminal Court at The Hague for its «repeated violations» of international law and human rights during the US-led invasion of Iraq. The association did not say whether it planned similar action against the USA, which has challenged the court’s jurisdiction over Americans. IMIA, AGAIN Turkish patrol boat harasses Greek caique near islet A Turkish patrol boat yesterday repeatedly crossed into Greek waters while harassing a small fishing boat carrying a farmer toward the islet of Imia in the Dodecanese where he keeps his goats, port authority officials in Kalymnos said. Imia was the scene of a fierce confrontation between the Greek and Turkish navies in January 1996, which came close to open war when Turkish commandos landed on a smaller, adjacent islet. Turkey claims both islets as its own. The Turkish boat sped in and out of Greek waters yesterday, several times destabilizing the caique, according to the farmer who alerted the Kalymnos Port Authority on his mobile phone. The Turkish boat disappeared when a Greek vessel arrived on the scene. SIMITIS IN UK Talks on EU summit, migrants The agenda of the European Union summit next month in Thessaloniki, including the drafting of a European Constitution, the fight to curb illegal immigration and Europe’s foreign policy and defense concerns were the chief points of discussion between Prime Minister Costas Simitis and British Premier Tony Blair during a meeting yesterday in London, Simitis said. Britain’s adoption of the euro was not discussed, Simitis said, adding however that all EU states believe Britain should join the eurozone. Kidnappers’ trial A Thessaloniki court yesterday gave long jail sentences to three men who kidnapped a 7-year-old girl in April last year and held her hostage in a flat in the northern city for 26 days. Dimitris Kitsikidis, 26, Evangelos Saridis, 21, and Sergei Zohabyan, 23, face sentences of 23 years and eight months, 21 years and four months, and 20 years and one month, respectively. The trio had demanded $3 million in ransom to release Maria Hazaki, who was rescued by police last May. Algeria quake The Foreign Ministry, representing Greece as European Union president, yesterday sent its condolences to the government and people of Algeria following Wednesday’s Richter 6.7 magnitude earthquake which caused over 1000 deaths at yesterday’s count. Two C-130 transport aircraft and a team of National First Aid Center (EKAB) workers are on standby to ship humanitarian aid to Algeria and help quake victims, should that be requested, government sources said yesterday. Missing cadet A first-year army cadet officer disappeared from his training school in Athens’s coastal suburb of Vari on Wednesday night with his G3A3 service machine gun – but without any ammunition, the college said yesterday. Matricide A 49-year-old bus driver yesterday morning beat his mother to death in their home in Kalambaka near Meteora for reasons which remain unclear, police in the central Greek town of Trikala said. Ilias Iliadakis, whose wife and 5-year-old child were away, burst into the room of Grigoria Iliadakis, 68, and punched her to death, according to police who arrested the man after he told customers at a local cafe what he had done. Work exchange Greece and New Zealand are due to sign an agreement allowing young people from each country to have temporary employment during vacations, Alternate Foreign Minister Tassos Yiannitsis said yesterday following talks in Athens with New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Philip Goff. The proposal, announced two years ago, would overturn a current ban and allow travelers aged 18 to 30 to work in the other country.

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