In Brief
DEKA – New Democracy postpones call for probe as bourse picks up Opposition New Democracy leader Costas Karamanlis decided yesterday to put off his plan to officially seek a parliamentary investigation into claims that the government used the state portfolio management company (DEKA) to boost the Athens Stock Exchange just before the 2000 national elections. He is believed to have been influenced by the recent bullish trend on the bourse. Olympics 2004 chief: ‘We women understand each other’ Athens 2004 organizing committee President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki yesterday met the new Public Works Minister, Vasso Papandreou, to discuss preparations for the Olympics. Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who is understood to be annoyed at the government’s decision to have Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos attend her future press conferences with International Olympic Committee officials, told journalists that we women can understand each other. Yesterday, the government denied that Angelopoulos-Daskalaki had tendered her resignation to the prime minister. Hard done by Greeks work more for less Greeks must work up to twice as many hours as other Europeans to buy the same products, according to the results of a recent consumer institute (INKA) survey. The English work an average of 57 hours to buy 100 food and drink products that a Greek has to work to 95 hours for. Greeks work an average 226 days to buy 10 electrical appliances, compared to 126 days for a French person and 102 days for a German. Meanwhile, INKA found price variations ranging from 55-87 percent for the same products during the same period and concluded that prices in Greece do not depend on population density, distance from production centers or size of businesses. Youth released. Nikos Vasdekis, 23, one of three people charged with a mugging of an 82-year-old man last year that resulted in his death, was granted a conditional release from detention yesterday. Vasdekis has denied that, along with Abdul Al Hakim and Victoria Mageiropoulou, he attacked and robbed Vassilis Kalafatis in Piraeus. Kalafatis was beaten up and his wedding ring torn off his finger. He was then locked in the trunk of a car and abandoned in a remote area of Piraeus. He died a week later in hospital. Man amok. An apparently mentally disturbed man who shot and wounded four passers-by with a shotgun from his balcony on 15, Heimarras Street in the Athens suburb of Nea Halkidona yesterday, was disarmed and subdued by police shortly after threatening to shoot officers and journalists that rushed to the scene. Minas Antoniadis, 60, wounded Andreas Politis, Panayiotis Pergamalis, Anna Patzola and Vassiliki Dimitiri. ‘Trojan Horse.’ A top-priority map exercise was held behind closed doors yesterday in Athens with the participation of the police, fire brigade, coast guard, search and rescue squad (EKAB) and the National Information Service. Code-named Trojan Horse, the exercise concerned security plans, the coordination and confrontation of serious incidents such as terrorist acts, particularly in view of the Olympic Games. It was the first exercise of its kind in the history of the Greek Police, according to a Public Order Ministry source. Security forces. Representatives of police, fire brigade and coast guard unions yesterday started a 24-hour picket in front of the House of Parliament, demanding higher pay, better training and a reform of the law on police arms. The protest ends at noon today. Bach on arms. Britain’s Government Minister for Defense Procurement, Lord Bach, will visit Greece from tomorrow until November 13 to address a symposium on cooperation between Greek and British defense industries. He will also have talks with National Defense Minister Yiannos Papantoniou and the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Gen. Manousos Parayioudakis. Lord Bach will attend the Remembrance Day service on November 11 in St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Together with Heather Saunders, the widow of Brigadier Stephen Saunders, he will unveil a memorial plaque to the late Brigadier in a private ceremony. Saunders was assassinated by the November 17 terrorist group in Athens in June 2000.
