In Brief
CYPRUS – Denktash tells UN, formally, that he will not join talks Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has informed the United Nations he will not be attending talks next week aimed at resolving the Cyprus issue, a UN spokesman said yesterday. Denktash had previously told a news conference that he did not feel the needed groundwork was in place for him to resume the negotiations next week, as proposed by Alvaro de Soto, the UN envoy for Cyprus. But UN spokesman Manoel Almeida e Silva had said as recently as Thursday that the world body had not yet received a direct reply from Denktash and remained hopeful he would show up. Yesterday, however, the spokesman said: We did receive confirmation from Mr. Denktash that he cannot attend the meeting here… We regret this development. We hope this is not Mr. Denktash’s final position. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and efforts must get back on track without delay and in earnest. Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides will be in New York on Monday, having accepted the invitation. (Reuters) ARCHBISHOP Christodoulos receives warm welcome in Belgrade Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece arrived in Yugoslavia yesterday to a warm welcome by Patriarch Pavle, who heads the Serb Orthodox Church. The patriarch thanked him for spiritual and material aid during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. Christodoulos is to meet Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on Monday. Christodoulos was a vociferous critic of NATO’s campaign against Yugoslavia and the Greek Church sent aid to both Serbs and Albanian Kosovars. Migrants Total of 268 detained on Evia Another 32 of the estimated 350 illegal immigrants, mostly Iraqi Kurds, that were abandoned on a Turkish ship, the Imdat, just off the coast of the island of Evia Wednesday, have been taken into custody, the Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday. Yesterday’s arrested brings the number of immigrants in custody to 268. The group includes 14 women and 13 children. The three human traffickers, all Turks, are to stand trial today in Halkida. Med Games. Weightlifter Leonidas Kokkas won two gold medals at the Mediterranean Games in Tunis yesterday in the 94-kilogram category, lifting 170 kilos in the snatch and 212.5 kilos in the clean-and-jerk. In the same event, Costas Garipis lifted 210 kilos, a junior record, to finish second. In the women’s Over-75-kilos category, Katerina Roditi won gold in the snatch with 107.5 kilos and silver in the jerk with 125 kilos. In the women’s 69-kilos, Maria Tatsi won gold in the clean-and-jerk with 122.5 kilos. Mail fraud. Angeliki Marinaki, 33, was arrested yesterday at a post office on Mesogeion Avenue as she attempted to take delivery of a registered letter addressed to Kyriakoula Yiannouli, using forged identity documents in the latter’s name. Marinaki and an accomplice Dimitris Metaxas, 27, who is being sought by police, allegedly stole mail from the entrances of apartment buildings and cashed checks from tax returns using forged IDs and used credit and cash cards posted to owners, that also contained the pin numbers, to withdraw money from ATM machines. The initial investigation revealed they had withdrawn more than five million drachmas from the accounts of six people. Pain, no gain. The trial began in Thessaloniki yesterday of three doctors charged with causing bodily harm to four women during liposuction treatments which they were not qualified to carry out. Two surgeons Stylianos Papastavrou and his wife, Anna Katsaka, along with anesthetist Giorgos Kassinos, charged a woman, her two daughters and another woman a total of 2.5 million drachmas. All say they suffered severe pain, cardiac arrhythmia and fainting spells after the surgery. Urban trains. Trains on the old urban railway line (Kifissia-Piraeus) will terminate at the Eirini station after 8 p.m. tonight while work is carried out on the line. Delphi hours. The national tour operators’ federation has written to Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos protesting the decision to close the Delphi archaeological sites at 3 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. as of September 11. The opening hours have been shortened due to the expiry of seasonal workers’ contracts.
