In Brief
‘ECUMENICAL’ CHURCH
Archbishop backs opening into Europe Archbishop Christodoulos yesterday spoke out against criticism of Greece’s European orientation, saying that Greeks «will not withdraw into their shells.» «Those who criticize us for for opening up to Europe are in the wrong,» the archbishop said during a service at Aghia Paraskevi Church in the Athenian suburb of Nea Pendeli. «They want to restrict our Church to within the narrow limits of Greece, but we have a universal dimension, which is a dimension that we must serve,» Christodoulos told churchgoers. GM cargo A 56,000-ton cargo of allegedly genetically modified soya seed and corn is to stay locked up in customs until the necessary checks on the goods have been carried out, port authorities in Corinth on Saturday reassured Greenpeace activists who had earlier blocked the unloading of the cargo at the port of Kalamaki. Activists aboard stopped the Flag Tom cargo ship from docking in Kalamaki for more than eight hours, demanding that necessary checks be carried out before the goods are distributed in the Greek market. The cargo came from Argentina. Pirate taxi Traffic police arrested a taxi driver at Athens’s international airport on Saturday after determining that his license did not tally with the vehicle’s serial number. Police later established that the license had been issued to two taxi drivers for another vehicle of the same make but different serial number. Family shooting A 61-year-old man on Friday night fatally shot his 33-year-old son outside the apartment block where they had been living together in the Athenian district of Vyronas. Antonios Koronaios shot his son Giorgos – who was reportedly a drug addict – following an argument in their apartment, according to police. Ship collision A ferry that bumped onto the breakwater at the port of Aghios Kirykos on Icaria while it was mooring on Saturday afternoon sustained a 1.2-meter crack to its stern but the 74 passengers aboard were unharmed. Experts said that the crack did not pose any threat to the Rodanthi’s seaworthiness. Bulgarian ties Deputy Defense Minister Vassilis Michaloliakos is to conduct bilateral talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Ilko Dimitrov during a three-day visit to Bulgaria starting tomorrow.
