In Brief
SITES REOPEN
Archaeological sites, museums are accessible again today as strike ends The archaeological sites and museums at Knossos, Mycenae, and Epidaurus, which were due to be closed until Friday, will be open today after protesting Culture Ministry contract workers called off strike action yesterday following a compromise with government officials. The strike, for higher pay and permanent contracts, resulted in the closure of the Acropolis, the sites and museums of Pella, Dion and Vergina and the Castle of Platamonas earlier this week. DESECRATION Government condemns ‘barbaric act’ at Ioannina Jewish cemetery Greece yesterday denounced the desecration of a Holocaust memorial in the Jewish cemetery of the northwestern town of Ioannina last week. «Whichever way you look at it, it is a disrespectful and barbaric act,» Foreign Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis said. «But it is a isolated and marginal act which does not in any way reflect the sentiment of the Greek people toward their Jewish fellow citizens.» STEPHANOPOULOS President visits Serbia President Costis Stephanopoulos, on the second day of a visit to Montenegro and Serbia, yesterday laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the outskirts of Belgrade (photo). Stephanopoulos, who will continue today a series of meetings with top Serbian officials, said the integration of the Balkan states into the European Union would establish lasting peace and put an end to the area being known as the powder keg of Europe. Sailors ‘robbed’ The captain of a Panama-flagged tanker belonging to Greek interests in the Persian Gulf yesterday complained to the Foreign Ministry that American soldiers who conducted an inspection aboard the Genie on Sunday mistreated four Greek crew members. The soldiers, who boarded the Genie from a US warship, also allegedly stole cash and other items from the crew members. The ministry advised the captain to seek the help of the Panamanian authorities. Muslim minority The Turkish Parliament’s human rights committee is to launch an investigation into «the question of the human rights» of Greece’s Muslim minority in Thrace, Turkey’s state Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. No ambulances National First Aid Center staff are to stage a five-hour work stoppage from 10 a.m. today, demanding greater state investment in their sector. Immigrant rights Immigrant support groups and anti-racist organizations are to stage a demonstration in central Omonia Square on Saturday at 4.30 p.m., demanding legal status for all immigrants living in Greece. Protesters want an extension of the October 30 deadline for immigrants submitting documents for legalization. Lovers get life A Larissa court yesterday sentenced to life in jail two lovers from the village of Almyros in the Magnesia prefecture for murdering the woman’s husband in December 2001. Nikolaos Kotoulas and Maria Tenta dumped the body of Achilleas Tentas in a well, where it was found three months afterwards. Anarchists protest A group of anarchists yesterday staged a protest at the offices of the Athens Journalists’ Union on central Academias St, reiterating demands for the release of seven people being held over June’s anti-globalization riots in Thessaloniki.
