NEWS

In Brief

SUMMERTIME

Clocks go forward one hour at 3 a.m. tomorrow Clocks will be set forward one hour – from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. – tomorrow morning as official summertime begins. Clocks change back to wintertime at the end of October. ‘APOLITICAL’ Archbishop rebuts accusations he gloated at expense of previous gov’t Archbishop Christodoulos yesterday rebutted suggestions that the delight with which he greeted Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Wednesday constituted gloating at the expense of the former PASOK government. Phrases such as: «Things change, thank God» which the archbishop used during his meeting with the new premier «had no political undertones,» Christodoulos said after a meeting with Education Minister Marietta Giannakou. «I personally use the expression ‘thank God’ 50 times a day,» the archbishop said. He maintained that he had used similar language when meeting Costas Simitis following the latter’s election victory in 2000. SALONICA BLAST Gas-canister bombs damage cars Three homemade gas-canister bombs, planted under a security firm vehicle parked at a junction in central Thessaloniki in the early hours of yesterday morning, caused damage to the car and another vehicle, estimated at 2,300 euros. There were no injuries. The blast was the 15th in the northern city this year. Tourism problems The fact that so many Greek museums and archaeological sites are closed for renovation ahead of the Olympics is having a negative impact on the country’s tourism sector, the Panhellenic Federation of Tourist Enterprises (POET) charged in a letter to Alternate Culture Minister Fanni Palli-Petralia and Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramapoulos yesterday. The country’s main museums have been shut for the past two years for renovation work, POET stressed, adding that it was unacceptable that one renovation project should last three years. Drug hauls Drug squad officers arrested five people over the past two days and seized a total of 11 kilos of heroin and 275 grams of cocaine they had allegedly tried to smuggle into the country from Albania via the Krystallopigi border crossing. Police said the arrests had served to break up two drug-trafficking rings. Meanwhile, police are holding the driver of a truck with Albanian registration plates in which they discovered 8.5 kilos of heroin following a search near the same border crossing on Thursday. A costly plan The dean of Istanbul University yesterday called upon Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot negotiators in Switzerland to «not dare make any concessions on Cyprus,» according to an Athens News Agency report. «If necessary, albeit with 135,000 deaths, we can occupy Greece and Turkey,» Kemal Alemdaroglu allegedly said during the projection of a film about the devastating World War I campaign in the Dardanelles. Museum break-in The fashion designer Vassileios Kostetsos and three female models were yesterday charged with illegal entry after police found them on the premises of the Brauron Archaeological Museum – but outside the building – on Thursday night. It appears that Kostetsos had been planning to photograph the models on the site of the museum, which is closed for renovation ahead of the Olympics. Roadworks Athens-bound drivers using the Athens-Lamia National Road today will not have access to the right-hand lane at Tris Gefyres, in western Athens, as works continue to set up electronic information boards along the roadside, the Public Works Ministry said yesterday. Armed robbery Two armed robbers made off with an unidentified sum after raiding a bank yesterday in the Athenian district of Ilioupolis, police said. They fled on a motorcycle. Fake passports A 25-year-old Greek man has been arrested in Bangkok’s airport carrying more than 300 fake passports, The Associated Press cited Thai police as saying yesterday. The suspect was identified as Fotios Manolopoulos.

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