In Brief
WINTER HOURS
Clocks go back one hour at 4 a.m. on Sunday as summer time ends Clocks go back one hour on Sunday at 4 a.m. – to 3 a.m. – as European Summer Time ends and Greece officially enters winter time. Clocks change back to summer time at the end of March. TAXI STRIKE No cabs in Athens until 5 a.m. tomorrow as action continues Athens taxi drivers today continue with a 48-hour strike they began yesterday in protest at a government decision forcing them to install receipt-issuing meters in their vehicles – a measure designed to clamp down on tax evasion while also discouraging rampant overcharging. Cabbies will be back on the job from 5 a.m. tomorrow. Unionists also want access to Athens bus lanes as well as the right to increase their fares. HOLIDAY WEEKEND Traffic restrictions until late Tuesday Traffic on the national road network will be subject to restrictions from this afternoon until Tuesday night to deal with the expected exodus from the capital as Athenians take advantage of the national holiday of «Ohi Day» on Tuesday, October 28 to enjoy a long weekend away. Trucks weighing in excess of 1.5 tons will be banned from circulating on the national highways. Honest workers Two workers yesterday handed over to police 105,450 euros they had found hidden in a wardrobe in a Thessaloniki apartment they had been preparing for renovation. Ilias Apostolou, 40, and his Albanian assistant Apostolos Bali, 18, found the cash in a cardboard box as they were clearing out the apartment at the request of relatives of the owner, who died in May. Demolition probe Panayiotis Tzavaras, husband of Finance Ministry official Rubini Stathea who killed herself earlier this month, yesterday testified before a prosecutor conducting an investigation into delays in the demolition of illegally constructed seaside villas in Attica. Stathea committed suicide on October 12 after being criticized for the delays by the press and the Public Works Ministry. Tzavaras, who has launched a spate of public statements following his wife’s death, refused to speak to reporters upon his arrival at the prosecutor’s office. Fire on Crete Hania’s entire fire service, aided by four firefighting aircraft and backup from Rethymnon and Iraklion, was yesterday evening struggling to contain a blaze that broke out around lunchtime in the area of Georgioupolis and which has caused great damage to forests and olive groves, fanned on by strong winds. Several villages had to be evacuated. Traffic was suspended on the Hania-Iraklion national road when the fire reached the edge of the highway. A smaller fire broke out yesterday afternoon near the ancient site of Knossos. Handling drunks Four Greek police officers are tomorrow due to return from the northern English resort of Blackpool where they have been getting tips from their British counterparts on how to handle alcohol-fueled holidaymakers. The visit by the officers – two from Rhodes, and one each from Crete and Corfu – follows a visit to Rhodes at the end of August by two senior officers of the Blackpool police handling the Nightsafe initiative. The cooperation follows a series of violent incidents over the summer in Greece involving drunken Britons. Jewish monument President Costis Stephanopoulos is to unveil a monument to the 513 Greek Jews who died fighting Italian and German forces in 1940-41 during a ceremony in Thessaloniki’s Jewish cemetery in Stavroupolis on October 27 at noon. A total of 12,898 Greek Jews fought in World War II. Sovereign fraud A ring of fraudsters managed to extract a total of 123,000 euros from six people whom they convinced they had gold sovereigns for sale, police in Attica said yesterday. The victims would pay a cash deposit only to be fobbed off with 50-cent coins rather than gold sovereigns, police said. No ferries Passenger ferries yesterday afternoon remained moored at the ports of Piraeus and Rafina as winds reached 9 on the Beaufort scale in the Aegean.
