In Brief
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE – Communist Party chief calls on people to resist ‘im Communist Party of Greece (KKE) leader Aleka Papariga yesterday called on to the Greek people to disobey and resist the new law of the imperialists, and attacked both NATO and the European Union. Speaking in Thessaloniki yesterday, Papariga said NATO had become an international terrorist with the blessing of the European Union. The EU, she said, was claiming the role of world policeman so that the US would not have a monopoly. It is tragic to be so brainwashed that you have no other choice but to bow your head to NATO and the EU and to be awed by so-called globalization, supposedly because resisting means remaining on the margins, she said. SCHOOLS Orthodox blessing on first day of academic year Hundreds of thousands of school pupils returned to school at the beginning of the academic year yesterday. For many children, though, yesterday was their first day at school, with the little newcomers looking dazzled at the traditional blessing of pupils and teachers by Orthodox teachers. Today the pupils will get down to the business of learning. BIG BROTHER Lawyer calls for ban on TV show A Piraeus lawyer has asked the courts to ban the Greek version of the reality show Big Brother that began broadcasting Monday, claiming it was an insult to himself and his 16-year-old daughter and restricted their freedom. The suit, brought by Giorgos Trantalidis, is the second injunction brought against the program, which is being produced by ON Productions for Antenna television. Death in custody. A young Albanian woman died while in custody at a Piraeus police station early yesterday morning. Police in a patrol car spotted Stella Bifsa, 24, stumbling along a street in Piraeus, apparently under the influence of alcohol or drugs. She told them she was Albanian and had been in Greece for a year. As she had no identification, Bifsa was taken to the police station where she was held in an open cell and not locked up with other prisoners accused of serious crimes. The woman fell into a coma yesterday morning and died before an ambulance arrived. Illegal immigrants. A group of illegal immigrants from the Turkish coast landed on the Dodecanese island of Kos yesterday, where 69 people, including two women and two children, were found in the area of Aghios Fokas. Most were Iraqi nationals. Four Afghans were found at sea near another part of the island. Also found yesterday were 20 Kurdish illegal immigrants on a Cypriot-flagged passenger ferry off the island of Corfu. The ship’s captain discovered the immigrants concealed inside a refrigerator truck that had boarded the ship at Igoumenitsa. OA strike. Olympic Airways aircraft technicians are to hold a protest rally outside the National Economy Ministry tomorrow and a 24-hour strike on September 18 against what they say is a sell-out of the airline. They accuse National Economy Minister Yiannis Papantoniou and Transport Minister Christos Verelis of trying to reduce the number of staff and say the three candidate buyers for the national carrier were offering ridiculous sums for its purchase. Local government. Members of the municipal workers federation around the country are to stage a 48-hour strike next week, on September 20 and 21. Mother freed. An Albanian woman whose baby was found to have died of asphyxiation last Thursday has been released on bail. The coroner found that the baby died of asphyxiation caused by falling into a toilet right after it was born. Maria Aliko, 30, who has two other children, claimed that it was an accident. Airport protest. Residents of Artemis and Spata, near Athens’s new international airport, yesterday protested against the dramatic deterioration in the quality of life in the area. In a resolution sent to the Public Works and Transport Ministry, a citizens’ committee claimed that the most basic noise reduction measures had not been taken and that aircraft were taking off and landing at very low heights. They said they would have recourse to national and European courts.
