In Brief
ELDERLY KILLER
Athens pensioner, 78, strangles her husband, 96, to death with cord A 78-year-old woman has been detained after admitting to strangling her 96-year-old husband to death in their Kypseli home, police in Athens said yesterday. The unnamed woman allegedly killed her husband, who was senile, using a length of cord and then called a doctor to check he was dead, police said. The 78-year-old, who allegedly has mental problems, was arrested after a coroner confirmed that her husband had been strangled. CRETE MURDERS British man suspected of killing his parents given an extra day to testify Ryan Johnson, the British man suspected of murdering his parents at their home in Crete on Saturday, is due to face a prosecutor on the island today after being given a 24-hour extension to testify. Johnson, accompanied by two lawyers, saw the prosecutor in Hania yesterday and was granted the extension after a 15-minute hearing. SEARCH OPERATION Fears mount for missing fisherman A search operation for a 55-year-old fisherman, Christos Kostas, continued in Ammoudia, western Greece, yesterday after his boat overturned on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. The man was fishing with his 25-year-old son when the boat overturned in rough seas. The son swam to shore and notified authorities, who started a search but had not found any trace of the man as of last night. Strike arrest A 29-year-old unemployed man was arrested yesterday after an attack on the Labor Ministry on Pireos Street in central Athens. Around 60 anarchists threw rocks and paint at the building, damaging 10 cars. Some 5,000 protesters marched to the US Embassy yesterday as part of a general strike which was called by Greece’s two largest unions, ADEDY and GSEE. The strike brought much of Athens to a standstill. OA deadline Greece was yesterday given until the end of the month to present to the European Union a business plan for the future of Olympic Airlines. The extension was granted after Deputy Finance Minister Petros Doukas met with EU officials in Brussels yesterday. Greek-Belgian ties Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his Belgian counterpart Guy Verhofstadt agreed yesterday that their two countries should work more closely for better political, social and economic cooperation within the European Union. The two leaders made the comments after meeting in Athens. Both men agreed that as members of the eurozone, Greece and Belgium should help drive greater union within the 25-nation bloc. Food confiscated Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexandros Kontos said yesterday that authorities blocked the entry of nearly 31,000 kilos of food in the last week that was unfit for consumption. The intercepted goods included frozen and fresh seafood imported from Thailand and Morocco. Student protest Medical students from Athens University held a sit-in protest in their department yesterday because they argue the Education Ministry’s planned changes to the recognition of degrees from non-EU universities will lower standards. The students were also protesting a Health Ministry proposal to introduce exams before students start their medical specialization. Coast guard chief The Government Council on Foreign Policy and Defense (KYSEA) yesterday appointed Vice Admiral Ilias Sionidis as the head of the country’s coast guard, replacing fellow-ranking Theodoros Glezakos.
