In Brief
TRAVEL CARD
Weekly ticket for 10 euros offers access to all means of public transport A new weekly travel card, offering access to all means of public transport for a 10-euro fee, will be available at ticket offices from Monday. The ticket, which is good for seven days after being validated, cannot be used on the Metro route from Doukissis Plakentias station to the airport, nor on the E22 Academias-Saronida bus route. The 35-euro monthly travel card has been priced up to 38 euros to include tram access. Passengers can still buy the 35-euro card but must then pay for their tram travel separately. ELECTROCUTION PROBE Five conscripts who died raising flag had not shown caution, probe claims Five conscripts, electrocuted last April while raising a metal flagpole at a military outpost in Evros prefecture, had not taken the necessary safety precautions, according to the results of an army probe which absolved the conscripts’ superiors of any blame. However, the report revealed that senior officers could have enlisted the help of local specialists to move the pole far from overhead power cables. The parents of the victims, aged 20 to 28, have threatened to appeal against the finding. DISTINCTIONS Orders bestowed upon eminent Greeks President Costis Stephanopoulos yesterday bestowed honors upon several eminent Greeks. Supreme Court Prosecutor Dimitrios Linos was appointed Supreme Commander of the Order of Honor, while Athens University Professor Loukas Tsoukalis and American Hellenic Institute President Evgenios (Gene) Rossidis were appointed Commanders of the Order of the Phoenix. Other distinctions included the Golden Cross of Honor for National Gallery Director Marina Lambraki-Plaka and the Golden Cross of the Order of the Phoenix for painter Constantinos Tsoclis. Transport safety An exercise testing road transport safety for the Olympics is likely to disrupt traffic on Kifissias Avenue and coastal Poseidonos Avenue between 5.30 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. tomorrow. The exercise, involving officials from the Transport and Public Works ministries as well as the Greek Police and the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee, will affect the section of Kifissias Avenue between the Ambelokipi junction and Attiki Odos, and the section of Poseidonos Avenue between Aghiou Alexandrou and Amfitheas. Child porn A 33-year-old man believed to have produced pornographic videos of children aged 4-8 and sold them to customers all over Greece after advertising them over the Internet has been arrested, police said yesterday. A raid on the man’s home unearthed a large quantity of pornographic material stored on discs, video tapes and computers, officers said. National Gardens The management of the National Gardens will be handed over to Athens’s municipal authorities, Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos confirmed yesterday during talks with Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis. Pavlopoulos and Bakoyannis also discussed the municipal police force who have received special training for the Olympics. Drug death A 15-year-old girl found dead yesterday in Drosohori, near the northwestern town of Ioannina, had apparently taken an overdose of drugs, a coroner said. The unnamed girl, who lived with her mother in Germany, had been visiting her grandparents for the summer. A youth found next to her in a comatose state was taken to Ioannina’s university hospital. Monastiraki fire A fire which broke out at a small clothing manufacturer’s on the second and third floors of an apartment block in Monastiraki yesterday morning virtually destroyed the business but there were no injuries, firemen said. Three residents of the block became trapped due to the fumes but were rescued from the windows of their fourth-floor apartments by the fire service. Bank robberies Armed robbers carried out three bank robberies in different parts of Attica within two hours yesterday. The first raid, just after midday in Kypseli, was carried out by two men. The second followed an hour later when a lone individual raided a bank in Ilioupolis. The third was just before 2 p.m. when two men robbed a bank in Kallithea. It was unclear how much money was stolen.
