NEWS

In Brief

DEVICE EXPLODES

Blast outside IKA offices in Aegaleo causes no injuries A homemade gas-cannister bomb went off in Aegaleo, western Athens, outside the offices of the main social security fund IKA a few minutes into the new year, causing minor damage to the building, police said yesterday. No one was hurt in the attack. In a separate incident shortly afterward, a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera used for monitoring traffic was set on fire and destroyed in Glyfada, southeast Athens. Dozens of similar cameras, installed for the Olympic Games, have been destroyed by arsonists. CHRISTMAS NUMBERS Trade slumps over festive season Trade figures during the festive season were much lower than last year for 31 percent of retail stores, according to the Athens Traders Association (ESA). The survey, conducted on 150 retailers between December 28-29, found that 33 percent of stores said that figures were slightly worse than a year earlier, while only 11 percent said that business had improved. Meanwhile, open-air markets will operate as normal today, unionists said on Friday. Sliding homes One of the three homes that collapsed in the village of Harokopi, located near Ioannina, in northwestern Greece on Saturday. Heavy rainfall over the last few days resulted in a landslide in the area where the houses were built. No one was hurt in the collapsing buildings as residents had vacated the homes on Friday when cracks in the structures first started to appear. Hostage freed A Cypriot man kidnapped in Iraq over four months ago was released after payment of a $200,000 (168,000 euros) ransom, his relatives said yesterday. The Cypriot Foreign Ministry said it had been informed by the family of Garabet Jekerjian, aged 41, who was kidnapped in August, that he was freed on Saturday. Jekerjian holds both Cypriot and Lebanese citizenship and was in good health, his relatives said. Dozens of foreigners have been kidnapped by anti-US insurgents in Iraq and some have been executed by their captors. Road fatalities Four people were killed on Greek roads over the New Year’s weekend, police said. Three women died at lunchtime on Saturday when the jeep they were traveling in veered out of its lane on the Athens-Lamia national road, near Thebes, and crashed into an oncoming KTEL inter-city bus. The coach driver suffered minor injuries but none of the passengers was harmed. Yesterday, a 43-year-old man was killed on the Egnatia Highway, near Kozani, when a vehicle driven by a 24-year-old crashed into the back of his car. Cyprus talks Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said that the United Nations and many European Union countries back his stance for fresh Cyprus peace talks without any set deadlines or arbitration. «Our aim remains an agreed upon settlement, without arbitration and without the pressures of a deadline,» he said on Saturday in his New Year’s address. Efforts to reunify the island have been shelved since a UN peace plan was voted down by a large majority of Greek Cypriots but was backed by Turkish Cypriots in the north. Teenage hoaxer A 13-year-old boy who telephoned Attica police on Friday to warn them of a bogus bomb at a public service office was arrested later that day after officers traced the call to his family home. The teenager was released on prosecutor’s orders. BBC Greek The Greek section of the BBC World Service broadcast its last program in Greece through Skai Radio on Saturday afternoon. The Greek section is one of 10 radio services, including Polish and Bulgarian, that will stop broadcasting completely by March as part of a restructure toward the BBC launch of an Arabic-language television station. Hunger strike A prisoner accused of being a member of anarchist organizations and taking part in attacks on policemen has begun a hunger strike, authorities said on Friday. Panayiotis Aspiotis has been in custody in Amfissa Prison, central Greece, for the past six months and began his hunger strike on Thursday complaining about conditions at the jail and asking to be transferred to the Korydallos Prison in Athens. Aspiotis claims he is innocent of all the charges against him. Food recall Food company M&I Tanagias is recalling its cheese from the market after the Hellenic Food Authority (EFET) found listeria monocytes in samples with December 6 and 13 production dates. Additionally, Action Man X-mission chocolate eggs are being taken off shelves after checks found that the products are unfit for consumption.

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