In Brief
FUNDS REPATRIATION
Deadline extended to June 4 as amnesty fails to deliver A new extension was issued yesterday to the deadline for repatriating funds from abroad under a partial tax amnesty passed last summer. Under a draft law made public by the Finance Ministry, the offer – which involves a one-off, 3 percent tax and no questions asked – will now expire on June 4. Last month, it was extended until early May. The government had initially hoped to attract some 20 billion euros in funds banked abroad, but less than 120 million has actually been repatriated. SEAT APPEAL Two PASOK MPs contest ruling Two opposition PASOK deputies who face losing their seats to New Democracy MPs, following a decision by a special electoral court that contests the results of last year’s elections, yesterday appealed the ruling. According to the decision, Giorgos Paschalidis and Efstathios Koutmeridis, PASOK MPs for Pella and Serres respectively, are to be replaced by ND candidates Parthena Fountoukidou and Achilleas Karamanlis, the prime minister’s uncle. Free entry Entry to most state-run museums and archaeological sites around the country will be free on Friday to coincide with War of Independence celebrations, Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis said yesterday. The museums will be open from 8.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. But the archaeological museums and sites in Corinth, Delos, Mystras and Delphi will be shut. Turkish violations Twelve formations of 34 Turkish jets yesterday violated Greek air space in the Aegean six times, military sources said. In all cases, the jets – four of which were photo-reconnaissance aircraft – were chased off by Greek fighter planes, the sources said. The transgressions followed Turkey’s 36 violations of Greek air space on Monday – the largest series of violations in the past eight months. Intercity coaches There will be no intercity coaches serving the country tomorrow as drivers stage a 24-hour strike. Organic products Nearly four in five so-called organic food products on sale at Greek retail outlets have not been certified as such, according to research conducted by the Agricultural Development Ministry’s Organization for the Certification and Inspection of Agricultural Products. In 126 inspections conducted on stores in different parts of the country, 93 were found to be selling ostensibly organic products containing prohibited ingredients, organization officials said yesterday. Soccer fears Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis and Albania’s Ambassador in Athens Bashkim Zeneli yesterday discussed security for the World Cup qualifying match between the Greek and Albanian national teams scheduled for next Wednesday. Caricaturist defiant Austrian caricaturist Gerhard Haderer poses in front of an actor playing Jesus Christ at a press conference in Vienna yesterday. Haderer is appealing a Greek court ruling that he be sentenced to six months in jail for insulting religious feeling with his 2002 book satirizing the life of Christ. Matricide An Iraklion court yesterday exonerated, on the grounds of insanity, a 35-year-old man charged with beheading his 65-year-old mother in April last year and ordered his committment to the Korydallos Psychiatric Center, deeming him a threat to public safety. Yiannis Karalakis decapitated his mother and boiled her head, which he then stored in the refrigerator.
