In Brief
ANKARA WARNED
Valinakis says Turkey must drop ‘bazaar’ tactics and follow EU rules Athens upped the pressure on Ankara yesterday to fulfill its obligations to the European Union as Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Valinakis urged Turkey not to treat the accession negotiations like an «Eastern bazaar.» «We want to see a stable, democratic Turkey which behaves like a European neighbor,» said Valinakis. He said Ankara had to comply with the rules of the EU if it wanted to join the bloc and urged it commit to «good neighborly relations» with Greece. RUBBISH STRIKE Municipal garbage collectors consider extending action for further 48 hours A strike by municipal workers which began on Thursday and has resulted in the suspension of rubbish collections, may continue next week, unionists said yesterday. The heads of the municipal workers’ union POE-OTA are due to meet tomorrow to discuss whether to extend their strike for another 48 hours. Some 20,000 tons of rubbish are estimated to have piled up on Athenian streets already. KORYDALLOS CONVICTS Most to go to new jails next year The government wants to move most of the inmates of Korydallos Prison in Athens into new prisons by the beginning of next year, Justice Minister Anastassis Papaligouras said yesterday in response to a question about a fire at the facility last week which killed three prisoner. The new jails will provide some breathing space for existing prisons, which are accommodating 9,500 convicts, compared to the 5,500 they are designed to hold, Papaligouras said. ATM scam Police said yesterday that they had arrested five people from two gangs in Attica who allegedly obtained people’s cash cards and PIN numbers to steal money from their accounts. The men, all Romanians, allegedly placed equipment at several cash machines to read the bank customers’ details and used small cameras to view the PIN numbers. Shooter charged A prosecutor charged a 21-year-old man in Crete yesterday for attempted murder and possessing and using a firearm, sources said. The man is accused of shooting and seriously wounding Anastassios Hairetis, aged 24, and a 16-year-old male high school student on Wednesday. Murder suspects Three men were charged in Hania, Crete, yesterday with the murder last weekend of a priest, police said. The men, who were not identified, confessed to police about the crime, which authorities say was well organized. The suspects knew that the priest kept money in the house so he could offer it to people who needed it. The men are said to have been involved in petty crimes and drug use in the past, police added. Worker killed A construction worker was killed and another was injured in Rethymon, Crete, yesterday. The two workers, both foreign nationals, were conducting restoration work when the building’s roof caved in and crushed them. Firefighters freed them from the debris, authorities said. Camera action A group of some 20 youths destroyed three traffic cameras in central Athens yesterday, police said. The suspected anarchists threw Molotov cocktails at the cameras in the neighborhood of Exarchia. The incident occurred just before noon. No injuries or arrests were reported. Fraudster caught A 40-year-old man who posed as a member of a well-known shipping industry family so he could defraud businessmen has been arrested, police said yesterday. The unnamed man swindled 36,500 euros from a businessman after promising to help him improve his investments. The businessman soon became suspicious and contacted the family but was told that the man was an impostor, police said. Explosive find Police on Lesvos yesterday confiscated some 20,000 illegal fireworks and arrested a 30-year-old man after a raid on a warehouse in Geras. The man did not have a license for selling the fireworks.
