NEWS

In Brief

AIR-SPACE VIOLATIONS

Turkish jets back in the Aegean, are chased off by Greek aircraft Six formations of Turkish fighter jets yesterday entered the Athens Flight Information Region six times and violated Greek national air space near Samothrace, Lemnos, Psara and Antipsara seven times, military sources said. The 12 Turkish jets were chased off by as many Greek aircraft and there were three simulated dogfights, the officials said. Last Friday, the same number of Turkish aircraft violated national air space near Samothrace and Lemnos, as well as northwest of Lesvos. MISSING MIGRANTS Search under way for two people who fell off boat on way to Lesvos Lesvos coast guard officers were yesterday searching for two illegal immigrants believed to have been lost when the inflatable rowboat they were traveling in from Turkey capsized in a storm off the island. The search, aided by a navy vessel and a Super Puma helicopter, was launched after three illegal immigrants arriving on Lesvos told authorities they had lost two fellow passengers when their boat overturned. Also yesterday, a Xanthi court handed down a nine-year jail sentence to Georgios Matziras, 35, who was caught smuggling 30 illegal immigrants through the northeastern Evros region in his lorry last week. HIGHWAY DISRUPTION Works between Athens and Corinth Roadworks which started yesterday on key sections of the Athens-Corinth National Road will disrupt traffic for at least two months, the Public Works Ministry said yesterday. Athens-bound traffic between Kakia Skala and the Elefsina tollgates will be affected. There will also be disruptions on the section between the Corinth Canal and the Ancient Corinth junction, and along some of the stretch to Patras. Disruptions on sections of the Athens-Lamia National Road are scheduled to last for four months. In all cases, traffic will be restricted to two lanes, except on Saturdays and Sundays. Public works Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas has instructed Attica’s state electricity and gas utility firms to communicate with municipal authorities before beginning public works and to clean up afterward, the ministry said yesterday. According to Sioufas’s instructions, any holes in roads or other damage should be repaired immediately, the ministry said. Doping probe The doctor who summoned disgraced Greek sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou for a drug test on behalf of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on August 12 yesterday reportedly told prosecutors that IOC proceedings involving the athletes had been entirely legal. In his testimony, Dimitris Valatsiadis also said Kenteris had passed a doping test two or three months before the start of the Olympics, sources said. Privacy ruling Greece’s personal data protection agency has slapped a 50,000-euro-fine on an insurance firm that allegedly hired a private investigator to dig up information about the victim of a car crash bringing legal charges against one of its clients, and used it in court, sources said yesterday. Insurance firms must ask the approval of their clients, and of third parties, before they can use their personal data for legal purposes, the authority found. Russian condolences Members of the public will be able to sign a book of condolences for the hundreds of victims of the Beslan school massacre from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Russian Embassy. The embassy is at 28 Nikiforou Lytra in Palaio Psychico. Policeman suicide A 29-year-old policeman, who had been serving at the force’s Ambelokipi unit, shot himself in the heart at his apartment in Neo Iraklion on Sunday, police said yesterday. Christoforos Toumbas was found in his first-floor apartment with his service revolver by his side, according to police. Phanar demo Acting government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros yesterday condemned Sunday’s violent protests in Istanbul by Turkish ultra-nationalists riled by reports that the Turkish government may reopen an Orthodox seminary on the island of Halki.

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