In Brief
SHIPWRECK
Greek captain, two sailors sought after corpses of four crew discovered Rescue vessels were yesterday seeking the Greek captain of a Greek-owned cargo ship and another two sailors following the discovery of four dead crew members after the vessel sank off Malta. The Merchant Marine Ministry last night identified the missing captain of the Honduran-flagged Vigla as Yiannis Serraios. The identity of the remaining crew members was not known. The Vigla had been bound for Slovenia with a cargo of salt from Tunisia when it was caught in gale-force winds late on Wednesday. AFGHAN UNIT NATO wants Greece to assume the force’s rotating command in 2007 Greece will be asked to assume the rotating command of NATO’s international force in Afghanistan from mid-2007, Alliance sources told Greek officials yesterday. The Government Council on Foreign Policy and Defense (KYSEA) will decide whether Greece will undertake the mission. Last week, government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros stressed that Greece would not contribute soldiers for active service in Afghanistan. BANK WORKERS Monday’s strike is called off Unionists representing the country’s bank employes yesterday called off a 24-hour nationwide strike scheduled for Monday as «a sign of good will» pending further discussion on pension reform. They stressed, however, that 24-hour strikes slated for the remaining Mondays in February were still scheduled to go ahead if talks fail to yield any progress. Unionists are demanding the creation of a single auxiliary pension fund. Child porn A 72-year-old man has been charged with posting on the Internet photographs and video footage of children as young as 2 being raped, police in Attica said yesterday. Officers tracked down the pensioner following the arrest of a US citizen believed to have set up the website on which the Greek allegedly posted material. List dispute The Authority for the Protection of Personal Data yesterday called upon government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos to explain the legal justification for having provided the Athens Journalists’ Union (ESIEA) this week with a list of journalists allegedly holding second jobs in the state sector. Roussopoulos said he had not acted illegally. Gym dealer The 35-year-old owner of a Thessaloniki exercise club and his 37-year-old wife have been arrested on drug-dealing charges, police said yesterday. Officers confiscated nearly half a kilo of heroin, 127 grams of cocaine and some electronic scales following a surprise raid on the club on Wednesday night. Goat checks European officials are to supervise tests for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) on around 15,000 Greek goats following a decision by European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou, sources in Brussels said yesterday. The tests, which follow last week’s news that a French goat tested positive for BSE, are to be carried out over six months in all EU member states. Previously, the disease had been confined to cattle. Karamanlis death Alekos Karamanlis, the father of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and the brother of the late president Constantine Karamanlis, died yesterday at the age of 91. He had been at Athens’s Erythros Stavros hospital since January 11 after suffering respiratory problems. He is to buried in his native village of Proti, in Serres, today. Food inspections Of a total of 10,315 inspections carried out on food outlets such as hotels and restaurants last year, 825 (8 percent) were found to have violated food safety standards and resulted in prosecution against those responsible, the Hellenic Food Authority (EFET) revealed yesterday. Mbeki visit South African President Thabo Mbeki is to pay a state visit to Greece on February 24, Agence France-Presse yesterday cited Foreign Ministry officials in Pretoria as saying.
