In Brief
HEAT WAVE
Temperatures set to reach 30C by the weekend in many areas Temperatures are expected to reach unseasonable highs of up to 30C (86F) in central and southern parts of the country by the weekend, the National Meteorological Service said yesterday. Following a couple of days of patchy cloud and showers across much of Greece, conditions are forecast to improve from Friday, benefiting Athenians planning to take advantage of Thursday’s national «Ochi Day» holiday and abandon the capital for four days. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS Dozens arrested on Crete Coast guards on Crete are holding 78 illegal immigrants who arrived on the island’s southeastern coast aboard an Egyptian-flagged vessel on Sunday afternoon, the Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday. A coast guard patrol vessel initially located eight immigrants aboard the Al Qasua off Tertsa, on the southeastern coast, before a land search rounded up the other 70 would-be migrants, the ministry said. The ethnic origin of the immigrants was unclear. OA protest Olympic Airlines (OA) flight attendants are to stage a protest outside the offices of the Transport Ministry tomorrow, reiterating calls for OA managers to approve a collective labor agreement that both sides had signed in August. A 48-hour strike the flight attendants had called for on October 16 and 17 was deemed illegal by an Athens court. Publisher’s trial An Athens appeals court yesterday postponed until March 21 the trial on blackmail charges of far-rightist publisher Grigoris Michalopoulos, after the 65-year-old was admitted to hospital with acute chest pains. The owner of the Eleftheri Ora newspaper allegedly told four top businessmen and Chrysostomos, Bishop of Zakynthos, that they were November 17 targets before demanding hundreds of thousands of euros to have them removed from the terror group’s hit list. His alleged targets included Theodoros Angelopoulos (photo, l) who was at the court yesterday with his wife, Athens 2004 chief Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki (photo, r). Electricity bills Household electricity bills will increase by 2.74 percent from November 1, Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said yesterday during a visit to the central offices of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in Athens. Electricity bills for large families will be 43 percent lower than regular bills, provided that electricity consumption does not exceed 3,000 kilowatts every four months, Sioufas added. Gynecologists convicted Two gynecologists who in 1998 conducted a caesarian section on a woman who has since been in a coma yesterday received two- and three-year suspended jail sentences from a Thessaloniki appeals court. Anestis Kourtidis and Evangelos Terzopoulos were found guilty of inflicting serious bodily harm through neglect after Maria Tsombanidou, then 36, suffered heart failure and heavy bleeding following the operation at a Thessaloniki maternity clinic. Two anaesthetists – one of whom had originally been sentenced to two years in jail – were acquitted. Baby trade A 20-year-old Bulgarian woman was yesterday remanded in custody after testifying before an investigating magistrate in Iraklion following an attempt by two Bulgarians to sell her two-month infant to an undercover policeman. The unnamed mother said she had given her fourth child to her two countrymen as she could not afford to feed it but that she had not known they intended to sell it. The woman arrived in Iraklion a month before the birth – a technique often used by Bulgarian baby-trading rings, police said.
