In Brief
GRAFT REPORT
Chief inspector finds corruption is still rife in public sector Corruption and inefficiency is thriving in the public sector, particularly at town-planning offices, Public Administration Inspectors’ Agency head Leandros Rakintzis said in his annual report which he presented yesterday. Rakintzis said that town planners were in many cases failing to enforce environmental laws and were not conducting enough checks on illegal construction. Rakintzis noted widespread illegal building in the southern Aegean and Ionian islands. He investigated 592 cases of alleged corruption or mismanagement and referred 62 of them to prosecutors for further investigation. (Editorial Page 2) REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE Group claims responsibility for attack aimed at Voulgarakis Far-left group Revolutionary Struggle has claimed responsibility for an attack aimed at Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis last week. In a declaration sent to a weekly newspaper, the group said it was behind the May 30 botched attack on the ex-public order minister that claimed no victims. Revolutionary Struggle has been the most active group since authorities caught up with the leaders of the N17 group in 2003. HOLIDAY BREAK Four arrested over Internet scam The police’s electronic crimes squad said yesterday that its officers had arrested four suspects who allegedly set up a website offering free holidays, which proved to be a scam and is thought to have earned them over 160,000 euros. The men set up the site in 2004 and advertised free holidays for applicants whose names were drawn in a lottery. The winner would be sent an information pack by courier, which they would have to pay 105 euros for. But it turned out that the holiday was not free and the winners actually had to pay for everything, officers said. BBC recordings The BBC gave copies of the audio archives of the Greek section of the World Service to Parliament during a ceremony in Athens yesterday. The Greek section began broadcasting in September 1939 and conducted its final program last December after the BBC decided to close down several foreign-language services in favor of starting an Arabic television channel. The archive is made up of some 2,000 CD-ROMs. Children’s medication Nine in 10 Greek parents give their children one or more drugs without having previously consulted a pediatrician, doctors said ahead of the 44th Panhellenic Pediatric Conference which begins on Rhodes on Friday. The president of the Greek Pediatric Society, Andreas Constantopoulos, also said that recent tests revealed that one in two children in Greece were being treated for asthma unnecessarily. ND ahead The ruling New Democracy party is leading PASOK by 2 percent in a poll held by GPO that measured which party voters intend to vote for. According to the poll, 34 percent of voters chose New Democracy, while 32 percent favor PASOK. The survey also showed that 49 percent of voters prefer Costas Karamanlis as prime minister, with 33 percent opting for George Papandreou. Hania stabbing A 40-year-old police officer, Spyros Mavredakis, was hospitalized in Hania, Crete, yesterday after being stabbed in a cafe while he was off duty. He was in stable condition. Witnesses said that the victim was attacked by Ioannis Ieronimakis, aged 48, for no apparent reason before he fled the scene in his taxi. Ieronimakis later gave himself up to police. Trading places Street traders, mainly from African countries, held a protest yesterday outside the Development Ministry in Kaningos Square in central Athens to demand a change in a recent law which allows only European Union citizens to get licenses to sell their wares at markets in Greece. Hospital sacking The director of the Dromokaitio mental hospital in Athens, Orestis Schinas, was fired yesterday by Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, who cited «serious professional reasons» for sacking the administrator. The hospital gained notoriety last December when pieces of rat were found in soup that was served to patients. Schinas had suggested that employees had purposely added the rat bits.
