In Brief
STRIKE CANCELED
Airline staff will work today and tomorrow after demands are met Staff at the the Federation of Civil Aviation Authority Unions (OSYPA) yesterday called off a 48-hour strike scheduled to start today after the government agreed to meet demands. The ministries of Economy and Transport agreed to a bonus payment and the hiring of 230 more employees. OSYPA said that they will give the government until November 26 to deliver on their promises. The strike would have halted all civilian air traffic to and from Athens International Airport. HIDDEN MIGRANTS Greek man caught with 86 migrants squeezed into back of his truck Police in northeastern Greece have arrested one suspected human trafficker and the 86 migrants he had hidden in a specially made compartment in his truck, authorities said yesterday. The alleged trafficker, a Greek man who was not named, refused to stop at a police check, which caused officers to chase down his truck near Soufli on the Didymoteicho-Alexandroupolis national road. The migrants were hidden in a compartment that had been covered with potatoes. Their nationalities were not made public. UNSPORTING BEHAVIOR Youths vandalize Sports Museum A group of some 30 youths yesterday attacked the Sports Museum in Thessaloniki with rocks and smoke bombs, causing serious damage to the building’s main entrance, police said. The incident occurred at around 2 p.m., shortly after a group of schoolchildren had finished a tour of the museum, but nobody was hurt in the attack. Police said the youths, who were wearing helmets, came from the grounds of nearby Aristotle University and fled back to the campus after the attack. No arrests were made. Homeless death A homeless man was burned alive in Ano Ilioupolis, eastern Athens, early yesterday after the makeshift hut he was living in caught fire, authorities said. Fire officials said that the blaze was probably caused by a candle. The fire broke out around 5 a.m.. The details of the homeless man were not made public. Zisis released The former vice president of the Supreme Court, Achilleas Zisis, who has been charged with multiple counts of dereliction of duty and breaching the law on declaration of assets, was released by a prosecutor yesterday after giving evidence in the case. Zisis told prosecutor Yiannis Fiorakis that he denied the charges against him and gave the names of 20 defense witnesses whom he wants questioned as part of the investigation. UN center closed A center in Thessaloniki established in cooperation with the United Nations seven years ago to train civil servants from Balkan countries and former Soviet republics has been shut down amid concerns over wasted state funds, the government said yesterday. «The way the center operated displayed certain problems… and the supervising Interior Ministry felt that not only was it failing to fulfill its purpose but that it was squandering state funds,» Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos told reporters. Dealers arrested A 55-year-old Greek and a 26-year-old Albanian, believed to have have been dealing large quantities of drugs in the western suburbs of Athens and in Piraeus, faced a prosecutor yesterday. Officers from Attica’s narcotics squad arrested the Greek in Aegaleo and the Albanian in Petralona after finding 22.5 kilos of cannabis, 1 kilo of cocaine and 10,600 euros in their possession. Crooked officer A Thessaloniki court yesterday upheld a suspended sentence of two years in jail for a female police officer found guilty of making a false declaration in order to issue a special identity card for an ethnic Greek woman from Albania. The policewoman’s former supervisor, who had been indicted on the same charges, was cleared. Iranian visit Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi will discuss his country’s nuclear program with Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis during a visit to Athens today, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos. «This meeting is taking place at the request of the Iranian side. I don’t have any further information about it and I don’t know what will be discussed,» said Koumoutsakos.
