In Brief
REPEAT RAPIST?
Convict held for furlough attack A 32-year-old convict has been arrested and charged with raping a 14-year-old girl and stealing her mobile phone last Thursday while he was on an eight-day furlough from Korydallos Prison, police said yesterday. Ioannis Frangakis, who is serving a sentence for crimes involving sexual abuse, gained access to the apartment block where the girl lives in the Athenian district of Kypseli by telling her he was looking for a doctor, and then attacked her, police said. EU defense Greece, Italy, France, Germany and Britain will be at the core of a drive to establish a European Operational Center for missions undertaken by the European Union’s rapid reaction force, Defense Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said on Saturday after attending an EU summit in Rome. A working group of experts from all five countries is considering the proposal, Papantoniou said, adding that it was too early to assess the connection the center will have with NATO. Overture In a gesture of conciliation to Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, Archbishop Christodoulos thanked the Istanbul-based prelate for his assistance in the setting up of a Church of Greece office in Brussels, which the archbishop inaugurated yesterday. The two churchmen are engaged in a power struggle over jurisdiction for more than 30 Greek sees. Migrants held Coast guards on Lesvos on Saturday detained 26 illegal immigrants who had reached the island on a wooden sailing boat from Turkey. The detainees were all Palestinian.
