In Brief
STOCK MARKET CASE
DEKA overhaul combined with inquiry on manipulation charges The Economy and Finance Ministry is preparing the overhaul of the State Portfolio Management Company (DEKA) and at the same time wants to reopen an investigation into its activities from the period of the bull market in 1999 to the national election of 2000. The present government has alleged that DEKA was used to manipulate the stock market ahead of that election, which the then-PASOK government won by a whisker. A judge’s report on DEKA’s activities, submitted to Parliament in 2000, had been shelved by PASOK. ‘IMPERIALISM’ DENOUNCED KKE leader warns of ‘holy family’ influencing EU, NATO decisions Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga yesterday charged that the deal on the European Constitution in Brussels earlier this month and the current NATO summit in Istanbul had both been orchestrated by the same «holy family» of imperialists. Citizens should be informed of the implications of the EU’s political unification on the Constitution, she said. Papariga also reiterated her objection to a new anti-terror law and to US foreign policy. «The Greater Middle East Initiative… foresees the ‘settlement’ of Greek-Turkish differences in order that both countries serve the alliance’s needs,» she said. QUALITY HOSPITAL Onassis Center gets ISO certificate The Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center is the first hospital in the country to have received a key International Standardization Organization (ISO) certificate for quality, the center’s management told a press conference yesterday. The EN ISO 9001:2000 certification, awarded by the Greek Standardization Organization (ELOT) and the Swiss Association for Quality and Management Systems (SQS) will pave the way for the steady upgrading of the hospital’s services, managers said. CORRUPT POLICE Three officers get jail sentences Three police officers who frequented a nightclub in Kilkis in northern Greece from 1996 to 2000 were yesterday found guilty of abuse of power, dereliction of duty and, one of them, of repeated rape. A Thessaloniki passed down a four-and-a-half-year jail sentence on the officer convicted of raping six of the foreign women employed at the club in exchange for not revealing their status as illegal immigrants. The second officer was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for abuse of a power and the third to three years in jail for dereliction of duty. Flight disruptions A four-hour work stoppage by air-traffic controllers today is expected to disrupt more than 200 flights scheduled to arrive at and leave Athens International Airport between noon and 4 p.m. The workers are protesting against interference from radio station antennae in western Greece which they say endangers flight safety. They are also demanding a special bonus for working over the busy Olympic period. Multilingual firemen The president of the Federation of the European Union Fire Officers Associations yesterday unveiled a program to train employees at the coordinating centers of Greece’s fire service to respond to calls in six different languages. The Multicom 112 program will train officers in basic terminology ahead of the Olympic Games so that they are able to respond to fire emergencies communicated in English, French, German, Dutch and Spanish in addition to Greek, Dieter Nassler told an Athens seminar. The service is at number 112. Olympic clerics The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece yesterday elected 20 clerics to attend to the spiritual needs of Orthodox athletes during the Olympics. Anti-war rallies The Synaspismos Left Coalition is holding a rally protesting at US policy in the Middle East at central Syntagma Square at 7 p.m. today. A Communist-led rally begins at 8 p.m. at the Old Athens University. Correction Greece will be playing the Czech Republic on Thursday in the semifinals of the Euro championship in Portugal, not on Wednesday, as reported in ‘This Week’ yesterday.
