NEWS

In Brief

MIDDLE EAST- Papandreou to meet with Rabin, Arafat in Israel Foreign Minister George Papandreou is visiting Israel tomorrow and on Sunday to attend the enthronement of the new Patriarch of Jerusalem Irenaios tomorrow. On Sunday he will meet with his Israeli counterpart, Shimon Peres, and the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat. MAN OVERBOARD Sea and air search off Santorini An air and sea search was under way yesterday for a person who fell overboard from the Vincenzos Kornaros passenger ferry on Wednesday night about 20 nautical miles southwest of Santorini. Passengers on the ship, which was sailing from Aghios Nikolaos on the island of Crete to Milos and Piraeus, reported the incident to the captain, who radioed for help. EARTHQUAKE Strong tremor shakes Crete A strong earth tremor measuring 5 on the Richter scale was recorded at 6.43 p.m. yesterday in the sea bed north of Aghios Nikolaos on the island of Crete. The tremor was felt throughout eastern Crete. There were no reports of damage. Custody death. A 41-year-old man died suddenly in custody at Attica Security headquarters on Wednesday night. Giorgos Tsoukanaras was being held on drugs possession charges. The coroner ruled that Tsoukanaras died of a pulmonary edema, although he had not indicated to police that he was ill. A day earlier, a young Albanian woman died suddenly in police custody in Piraeus. Self-mutilation. A drug addict sewed his mouth shut yesterday in protest at a decision by the state drug rehabilitation center (OKANA) to halt his supplies of methadone. OKANA representatives said that Savvas Hadziyiannis’s dose had been gradually reduced over some time because he had to appear in court on charges in connection with the murder of a woman, Eva Fotiadou. Moreover, they said he had infringed the regulations of the methadone program and was therefore no longer eligible. President. President Costis Stephanopoulos is to pay an official visit to Spain later this month at the invitation of King Juan Carlos. Stephanopoulos, who will be accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Elissavet Papazoe and National Economy Undersecretary Ioannis Zafeiropoulos, will be in Spain from September 25-27. Turkish consul. Hussein Anvi Botsali has been appointed Turkish Consul in Komotini, it was announced yesterday. Botsali, who served until recently in Washington, made a courtesy call on Monday on the Foreign Ministry’s charge d’affaires in Xanthi, Theodoros Theodorou. Fourlis factory. The case against the owner and the engineer responsible for the construction of the Fourlis factory, which collapsed in the 1999 earthquake killing six people, is closed due to the expiry of the statute of limitations, an Athens court ruled yesterday. The factory was completed in 1970. Relatives of the victims had lost their right to press a civil suit against the owner, A. Fourlis, engineer A. Thomopoulos and architect I. Stabolopoulos, in December 1999. Ambulances. The Health Ministry yesterday issued strict regulations for the transfer of patients from one hospital to another after an investigation indicated that many patients who could easily have been treated in regional hospitals were moved to Athens, Thessaloniki or other major centers. According to a statement made by ambulance service doctors after the crash earlier this year of a helicopter bringing a patient to Athens, around half of all patients flown to Athens from the islands could be treated on site. Murder suspect. A man was arrested in Halkidiki on Wednesday afternoon in connection with a murder four years ago in a night club in Halkidiki. Aristidis Kefalas allegedly stabbed a waiter, Sophocles Tsitiridis, 46, in the stomach because he was late in bringing his order. He then fatally stabbed Nikolaos Dosas who tried to stop him. Convict recaptured. Thessaloniki police yesterday arrested 35-year-old Melvudi Dodashvili, who had escaped from Diavata prison in October 1997 where he had been serving a sentence for theft. In February of this year, Dodashvili and an accomplice allegedly robbed and seriously injured a furrier, Damianos Mavrofrydis.

Subscribe to our Newsletters

Enter your information below to receive our weekly newsletters with the latest insights, opinion pieces and current events straight to your inbox.

By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.