In Brief
AIR-SPACE VIOLATIONS
Turkish jets breach Aegean border for sixth time in just over a week Four formations of Turkish fighter jets yesterday entered the Athens Flight Information Region four times and violated Greek national air space seven times between Lemnos and Lesvos and southeast of Kastellorizo, military sources said. The 10 Turkish jets were chased off by as many Greek aircraft and there were two simulated dogfights. The sixth such incident in just over a week came a day after the Greek government indicated it might reconsider its support, if such violations continued, for Turkey to begin talks with the European Union. WEEKEND TRAFFIC Patrols, helicopters to monitor exodus Traffic police will be monitoring key junctions of the national road network from today in preparation for an exodus from the capital as Athenians take advantage of tomorrow’s public holiday to leave the capital for a four-day break. Police helicopters will provide extra surveillance of the national road network from the air. Also, trucks weighing over 1.5 tons will be banned from key sections of major roads on all four days to avoid bottlenecks. Migrants detained Border guards yesterday detained 24 illegal immigrants and were seeking their three suspected smugglers after searching three cars near Alexandroupolis. The drivers of the cars fled after being flagged down by police. The migrants, whose ethnic origin was not determined, traveled to Greece across the Evros River with the help of a Turk who subsequently fled, police said. Store hours Stores and supermarkets will be open until 8 p.m. daily and until 6 p.m. on Saturdays as of next Monday when they switch to winter hours. Winter hours apply until March 31, when Daylight Saving Time ends. Oil subsidies State inspectors discovered 241 cases where the names of dead people had been used to make applications for olive oil subsidies this year and last, the Development Ministry revealed yesterday. The applications were made using the names of people who had died before 2002 and in seeking up to 7,000 euros in olive oil subsidies, Agriculture Minister Evangelos Bassiakos said yesterday. Appeal rebuffed The criminal section of the Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal by Serb national Dejan Milenkovic – one of the prime suspects in the March 2003 murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic – against a court ruling allowing his extradition to Serbia. The appeal by Milenkovic is unacceptable because it was lodged with prison authorities and not with the secretariat of the appeal court, according to yesterday’s ruling. Milenkovic was arrested in Thessaloniki in July. Rivals meet Italian war veteran Michele Monzagano, 86, and his Greek counterpart Costas Kantrelis embrace yesterday in the village of Kalpaki, north of Ioannina, where Greeks and Italians fought on opposite sides in 1940. «I ask forgiveness for the misery we caused, without wanting to but under pressure from Mussolini’s fascist regime,» Monzagano said.
