In Brief
TERRORISM – Cretans honor victims of New York murders A ceremony will be held outside the US Embassy today for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States, two Cretan groups said yesterday. The gathering at 2 p.m. will be in memory of Ioanna Achladioti-Kokalaki, who worked on the 102nd floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center, the Cretan Association of New York and the Society of People of Kourna, Crete, said. The 27-year-old woman was from Kourna in Hania prefecture. In an announcement yesterday, the two groups said the ceremony would pay tribute to Achladioti-Kokalaki and other victims of the terrorist attack on the United States. Diplomatic strike Foreign Ministry personnel to walk out indefinitely Diplomatic personnel at the Foreign Ministry are beginning a strike on Monday, September 24, in protest over the Ministry’s failure to meet their pay demands. Union representatives failed to reach agreement with Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who they said had expressed support for their demands but that the Finance Ministry had refused to raise their pay. The union said, though, that they might call off the strike if a new international crisis breaks out. Espionage Three Turkish Kurds charged Three Kurds from Turkey arrested on August 28 on the eastern Aegean island of Mytilene have reportedly been charged with espionage. Olmez Isak, 32, Hussein Dilmaz, 31, and Hussein Kiliz, 34, said they came to Greece seeking political asylum. According to sources, electronic equipment was found in their home, along with maps of Greece and Turkey showing secret paths. The Mytilene port authority yesterday received information that there is strong evidence of the three being engaged in espionage against Greece. They are being held temporarily in Chios prison. US murder arrest. Authorities have arrested a man in Philadelphia for the 1997 murder of a Greek immigrant, according to an Associated Press report. Constantinos Boulias, 53, a pizza parlor owner, was shot in the back at close range after struggling with an intruder in his home. His wife and two young children were unhurt. Police arrested Brian Parnell, 29, of Philadelphia, after an FBI computer matched his fingerprint to one found at Boulias’s home. Prosecutor Patrick Carmody said the victim’s family had sold their business and moved back to Greece after the shooting. Window dressing. Parliament yesterday adopted an amendment banning the display of advertisements on windows of public and private buildings. Window-pasted advertisements, which proliferate around Omonia Square in the city’s center, circumvent a ban on ads on the exterior of buildings. The prohibitions are part of an effort to upgrade the city’s image ahead of the 2004 Olympics. Passaris reports. Fugitive killer Costas Passaris, who escaped from a police ambush last month, was subsequently responsible for the murder of a pharmacist on August 28, the Athens News Agency reported yesterday, quoting police sources. Passaris, accompanied by an accomplice, allegedly went into the pharmacy owned by Maria Sapfou and shot her dead when she recognized him. He also seriously injured Sapfou’s sister Argyro who was in the shop at the time, and who has given police a written statement that her sister’s killer was Passaris. According to the same sources, Passaris is also responsible for the March 2 slaying of Public Power Corporation cashier Ioannis Papalexandris in Peristeri, during a botched robbery. Bulgarian prosecutor. Thessaloniki prosecutor Nikolaos Kallidis has called for Bulgarian prosecutor Rosen Dimov, his wife Ilinka Karantorova and another five people, including Thessaloniki businessmen Giorgos Anthemidis and his brother Iraklis, to be remanded on charges of money-laundering. Dimov and his wife had a joint bank account with a Greek businessman who has been charged with smuggling. Kallidis also alleges that the Anthemidis brothers conspired with Antonis Koimtzis, who in 1995 blew up a car belonging to customs employee Panayiotis Karanikaris. Bomb hoax. A caller to Alpha radio yesterday claimed a bomb was to go off at noon in the Athens Tower, Ambelokipi. The building management did not allow the police to search the building, and did not evacuate it. Fortunately, the call proved to be a hoax.
