In Brief
HELICOPTER CRASH
Army craft found in pieces in northern Greece; four feared dead Rescue services last night found the remnants of a military helicopter which had been carrying four armed forces staff and had disappeared from radar screens shortly after 8 p.m. while in the region of Yiannitsa, northern Greece. The Huey aircraft had taken off from Alexandreia, in Imathia, about 40 minutes earlier to go on a training sortie, officials said. POLICE VIOLENCE? Force used against protesting bank workers being probed, minister says The alleged use of violence by police officers ordered to restrain protesting bank workers trying to enter a bank in central Athens on Friday is under investigation, Public Order Minister Vyron Polydoras said yesterday. Polydoras told a gathering of unionists and workers that the police had been ordered to use «discreet constraint» to keep protesting workers, who had wanted to obstruct fellow staff from working, out of the bank. TSALIKIDIS PROBE Prosecutor questions co-workers Yiannis Diotis, the prosecutor investigating the alleged suicide of Costas Tsalikidis, questioned yesterday two of the software engineer’s former co-workers at Vodafone. Diotis is expected to have finished questioning people by the end of the week. Sources said he is also due to inspect Tsalikidis’s former office at Vodafone headquarters in Halandri this week. Diotis has to decide whether to agree to allow Tsalikidis’s body to be exhumed. Thessaloniki battle The mayor of Thessaloniki, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, yesterday blasted a decision by the leader of the right-wing Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) Giorgos Karadzaferis to stand for mayor of the northern city in local elections in October. Karatzaferis announced his intention on Saturday but Papageorgopoulos yesterday referred to him as the «candidate from Athens» and accused him of «insulting the intelligence» of the people of Thessaloniki. Karadzaferis hopes to boost support for his party’s hardline views on Greece’s relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Truck stop Three of Greece’s largest truckdrivers’ unions are staging a 24-hour strike today in protest over changes the government plans to introduce to the transport industry. Drivers argue the changes threaten their social security rights and put an end to collective bargaining. The unions say the reforms go against EU legislation and have taken legal action against the government. Gaining independence The government yesterday submitted an amendment to a draft law in Parliament to grant administrative autonomy to three communities in Crete and one in Larissa, central Greece, from the larger municipalities to which they currently belong. Stabbing suspect Police on the eastern Aegean island of Kos arrested a 17-year-old Albanian national yesterday in connection with the attempted murder of a 23-year-old compatriot. Officers said the unnamed teenager stabbed the victim several times in the body and head after the two had an argument. The 23-year-old was yesterday in stable condition. N17 appeal Aristomenis Adamopoulos, a policeman who was on board a riot squad bus blown up by the November 17 terrorist group in Keratsini in November 1985, said yesterday that the attackers had intended to kill everyone aboard. Officer Nikolaos Georgakopoulos was killed in the blast. Narcotics haul Police in Ioannina arrested a Greek national yesterday after they found 83 kilos of cannabis in his car. The suspect told police that he was being paid 3,000 euros to bring the drugs to Ioannina from the Albanian border. Bank robberies Unidentified armed robbers raided two banks yesterday, one in the suburb of Aghios Dimitrios and one in Glyfada. It was unclear how much money was netted in the raids.
