NEWS

In Brief

TRAIN DERAILS

No passengers injured in accident near Megalopolis None of the 12 passengers on an Athens-Kalamata train were harmed after it went off the rails at Anemodouri, near Megalopolis, just after 7.30 p.m. yesterday. It was the last run ahead of a massive overhaul starting today. The accident was blamed on the aging track. On December 11, 35 people were injured when an Athens-Kalamata train was derailed between Tripolis and the village of Leontari. BINNED SECRETS Cyprus says military papers found in rubbish dump were not classified The official responsible for binning Cypriot Defense Ministry documents (found at a Cyprus garbage dump last weekend) will not face criminal charges, Cypriot government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday, noting that the documents were not classified. The official, who was not named, removed the classified documents before throwing away the papers, Chrysostomides said. He noted that the functionary should have been more conscientious in checking with his superiors and said that he would be severely reprimanded. POLICE VIOLENCE? Prefect protests at tear gas use Achaia’s prefect yesterday complained to the local police chief and Public Order Minister Giorgos Floridis after riot officers fired tear gas at construction workers protesting outside the prefectural offices. Prefect Dimitris Katsikopoulos accused Achaia police chief Dimitris Karras of denying «chemicals» had been used to pacify workers protesting at the death of an Albanian laborer at a local work site. Protesters said three workers were injured during scuffles with police, which ensued after they tried to enter the prefect’s office carrying a coffin and were met by an officer wielding a fire extinguisher. Three policemen were also injured. Air space violations Eight formations of Turkish fighter jets yesterday violated the Athens Flight Information Region eight times, military officials said. The 22 Turkish jets were chased off by as many Greek aircraft and there were simulated dogfights in five cases, the officials said. Pilot attacked A 60-year-old pilot on contract with Olympic Airlines was in hospital yesterday with minor injuries after being attacked outside his Vouliagmeni home by an unidentified assailant wielding a crowbar. Georgios Chrysanthakopoulos’s lawyer said the attack might have been connected to the imminent trial of one of the victim’s fellow pilots, whom Chrysanthakopoulos had accused of handling an aircraft incorrectly during a storm. Olympic Airlines condemned the «outrageous and barbaric assault.» Bomb hoax An apparent gas canister bomb found on the stairs of a high school in the northern Athenian suburb of Pefki yesterday following a phone threat turned out to be a hoax. Iran aid The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation has deposited 80,000 euros in the Iranian government’s bank account for the country’s earthquake victims, foundation sources said yesterday. Israeli visit Interior Minister Costas Skandalidis is due to welcome his Israeli counterpart Avraam Poraz in Athens today. Poraz is also due to meet Alternate and Deputy Foreign Ministers Tassos Yiannitsis and Yiannis Magriotis. Actor dies Veteran actor Dionysis Kalos, a prominent member of the State Theater of Northern Greece, died of cancer on Tuesday at the age of 63. There will be no funeral as Kalos had decided to donate his body to scientific research after his death. Grisly find Walkers discovered a human skeleton in forestland near the northwestern town of Arta yesterday morning. PPC raid Two gunmen robbed the Public Power Corporation (PPC) branch in Aghioi Anargyroi, western Athens, at 1.30 p.m. yesterday. They escaped with an undisclosed sum.

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