In Brief
FLIGHT DISRUPTION
Cancellations, delays due tomorrow as air-traffic controllers strike Airline passengers with flights scheduled for tomorrow are to face disruptions if air-traffic controllers go ahead with a planned four-hour work stoppage from noon. Olympic Airlines (OA) yesterday announced that 13 domestic flights would be canceled and another 36 would be rescheduled. It was not clear if international flights would be affected. Passengers should call OA on 210 966 6666 for details about rescheduled flights. RUSSIAN WHEAT Cargo of 500 tons impounded A consignment of 500 tons of wheat from Russia was impounded in Piraeus after inspections revealed dangerously high levels of ochreoxin – a storage toxin produced by moldy grains, Agricultural Development and Food Minister Evangelos Bassiakos said yesterday. Inspections on imported products will be intensified, Bassiakos said. Priests sentenced… A Barcelona court yesterday jailed a Greek Orthodox priest for two years for sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl he was giving Greek language classes. Dionysios Stafilakis, 57, was found to have touched the girl in an inappropriate manner on at least four occasions during classes for pupils aged 3 to 6. (AFP) …and suspended The local priest of a village in Rhodes was suspended yesterday following allegations that he sexually harassed two girls and one boy aged between 9 and 10. The alleged abuse took place last Friday at the home of the unnamed cleric. Tripolis raid Two armed robbers netted around 150,000 euros in a raid on a bank in the Peloponnesian town of Tripolis yesterday, police said. The two men, both aged around 25, fled in a gray car driven by an accomplice, they said. No one was injured. Euro collectibles Commemorative sets of euro coins, featuring all denominations embossed with the Temple of Apollo Epikourios, at Bassae in the Peloponnese, are to go on sale from Tuesday, the Economy Ministry said yesterday. A total of 30,000 sets have been produced and will be available for 20 euros apiece at branches of the Bank of Greece until December 30, the ministry said. ‘Miracle.’ Clerics and believers in Lamia yesterday spoke of a miracle following the alleged change in color of a piece of burning wood in the hands of a saint depicted in a religious icon. The piece of wood in the hands of Saint Ephraim turned from white to red overnight, according to Fthiotida Metropolitan Nikolaos. European briefing European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas yesterday briefed President Karolos Papoulias on the process of ratification of the European Constitution by the EU’s 25 member states and on environmental matters. Questioned after the talks about the thorny issue of Greece’s law curbing media barons’ access to state contracts – which the European Commission has deemed to be inimical to competition – Dimas said he hoped the government and the EC «would find common ground so the (government’s) goal of ensuring transparency in the awarding of state contracts would be achieved.» Tour boat aground The 35 British tourists and six crew members aboard a tour boat which ran aground on the islet of Skorpios in the Ionian Sea on Wednesday afternoon were safe and sound yesterday on nearby Lefkada, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. It was unclear what caused the Iphigenia Express to run aground upon a reef on the southeastern coast of Skorpios, a private islet bought by late shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis in 1963.
