In Brief
ENVIRONMENT
Ten mln euros go to Lake Koroneia; pacts signed for wetlands protection Ten million euros in state funds have been secured for the revitalisation of polluted Lake Koroneia, Thessaloniki Prefect Panayiotis Psomiadis said yesterday in response to last week’s threat by the European Commission to sue Greece for violating EU environmental law. The money is to be spent on upgrading the town of Lagadas’s sewerage network to stop waste ending up in the lake. Meanwhile, Deputy Environment Minister Stavros Kaloyiannis signed two draft presidential decrees and a joint ministerial decision for the protection of wildlife habitats in Kastoria, Kos and Karla. CYPRUS Annan-Erdogan meeting called off A meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan scheduled for later this month in the Swiss resort of Davos has been postponed as Annan will be unable to attend, officials in Ankara said yesterday. Erdogan had intended to discuss the Cyprus issue. Also yesterday, European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU should promote «pro-European forces» in Cyprus’s Turkish-occupied north. Meanwhile, the president of the Cypriot Democratic Rally (DISY) party, Nikos Anastassiades, said he has been invited by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party to visit Ankara next month. Dead fish The severe weather conditions of the past few days are believed to have been responsible for washing up more than five tons of dead fish discovered along the Ammoudia Beach at the northwestern town of Preveza. The sea was still washing up dead fish – mostly sardines but also striped gray mullet and bream – yesterday afternoon. Sculptor dies Sculptor Yiannis Pappas, the artist behind some of the most important public statues in Athens, died on Monday aged 91, it was announced yesterday. His best-known works include the bronze statue of Eleftherios Venizelos in Eleftherias Park and the marble statue of Harilaos Trikoupis outside Parliament. «(Pappas’s) life and work will remain an example of a generation of artists who, often in difficult circumstances, endowed Greece with its modern cultural identity,» PM Costas Karamanlis said. Farmers protest Larissa cotton producers will use their tractors to block crucial road junctions at Melissohori, Megalo Monastiri, Kileler and Farsala from 11 a.m. tomorrow, unionists decided yesterday. Farmers are demanding state compensation for their produce. Heroin haul Harbor police in the northwestern port of Igoumenitsa were yesterday questioning a 33-year-old Turkish trucker who allegedly tried to board a ferry to Italy with 16 kilos of heroin hidden in his truck. The man, who was not identified, was arrested on Monday night. Unprofessional Athens Bar Association President Dimitris Paxinos yesterday summoned two celebrity lawyers to appear before the association’s disciplinary council for allegedly breaking their professional code of conduct. Athanassios Kehayioglou allegedly received payment for releasing drug barons from prison. And Alexis Kouyias is being indicted for claiming that homosexual lawyers and judges received payment for giving special treatment to defendants. You-know-who The Athens Journalists’ Union yesterday called on the media not to refer to the Defense Minister and his senior aides by name – and on TV channels not to broadcast video footage of them – as part of an ongoing spat regarding ministry press briefings.
