In Brief
ALBANIAN VISIT
Stephanopoulos ends trip, urges Tirana to respect minority rights President Costis Stephanopoulos yesterday wrapped up a three-day trip to Albania with a visit to the ethnic Greek minority area, including the village of Dhrovian where his great-grandfather was born. Speaking in another minority Greek village, Stephanopoulos, the first president of Greece to visit Albania’s ethnic Greeks, warned Tirana that it could not expect closer ties with the EU unless «it applies, from A-Z, all provisions in international treaties regarding minorities.» He also visited a military cemetery containing the graves of Greek World War II soldiers killed fighting Italian troops who had invaded Greece through Albania. ANCIENT MONUMENTS Ministry announces new closing hours for Athens crowd-pullers The Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora and the Theater of Dionysus, as well as the Acropolis Museum and the Stoa of Attalos, will now be closing at 7 p.m. as the days become shorter, the Culture Ministry said yesterday. Sites and museums had previously been open until 8 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. respectively. Santorini’s prehistoric site at Akrotiri will be closed to visitors due to works, the ministry added. DAILY TARGETED Bomb defused at publisher’s home A homemade bomb planted outside the Kolonaki home of Eleftherotypia newspaper publisher Christos Tegopoulos late on Tuesday night was destroyed in a controlled explosion, police said yesterday. The bomb, made of three gas canisters, was located following an anonymous call to the daily. The attack came one day after the newspaper’s sports editor, Philippos Syrigos, was badly beaten by three unidentified me in Kallithea. Syrigos was in a stable condition yesterday. N17 protest Convicted November 17 terror group mastermind Alexandros Yotopoulos yesterday said he would continue his hunger strike in protest at conditions at Korydallos jail. Yotopoulos complained of «a practice of isolation which leads to madness.» Also yesterday, a young man was charged following riots on Tuesday night in Exarchia, central Athens, involving about 40 youths who had earlier marched to express solidarity with the N17 detainees. Landfill death A 31-year-old truckdriver died yesterday morning when his vehicle fell into an illegal landfill in Markopoulo, eastern Attica. Firemen retrieved the body of Haralambos Hozovitis from the refuse of the landfill – an old quarry used by residents as a dump. Hozovitis had gone there to dump building rubble, and died after the ground where he had parked the truck subsided. Stray decision A Thessaloniki court yesterday cleared a man charged with keeping some 250 stray animals in wretched conditions in a shelter for which he allegedly had no license. Animal rights groups had charged that Tzimis Samaras was keeping dozens of dogs cramped and underfed at his «Northern Greece Animal Shelter,» which covers about 4,500 square meters and is located in the municipality of Mikra. Traffic disruption There will be disruptions at the junction of Pireos Street and Kifissou Avenue from tomorrow until next Wednesday as works get under way, the Public Works Ministry said yesterday. Srebrenica Independent MP Andreas Andrianopoulos yesterday called on Parliament to investigate whether Greek volunteer fighters who joined Serb forces in Bosnia took part in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, The Associated Press reported.
