In Brief
TRASH TALK
Workers warn just 10 days remain before landfill reaches capacity Workers at Athens’s only legal landfill in Ano Liosia, northwestern Athens, warned yesterday that rubbish may soon pile up on the city’s streets as the dump has almost reached capacity again and that work to create more space has not begun. The head of the employees’ union, Giorgos Hardas, said that the stopgap unit that had been built in nearby Fyli to hold garbage until new dumps are constructed will fill up with trash in the next 10 days. He said that work on a new unit has not begun yet and would take at least two-and-a-half months to be completed. CRASHES EASE Accidents down 15 percent this year, 43 killed over Easter break Car accidents were down by 15.2 percent this year compared to 2006, traffic police said yesterday. The number of people killed was also down by 21.7 percent. There were 368 accidents between April 1 and April 10 this year, compared to 434 last year. The figures also show that 43 people were killed and 44 seriously injured this Easter, whereas 55 were killed and 75 seriously hurt in 2006. Traffic police said that 2,500 officers were on duty each day during the Easter period and some 1,200 patrol cars were stationed along national highways. KOUMOUTSAKOS ROBBED 2,500 euros taken in heist Robbers broke into the house of Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos in Nea Erythraia, northern Athens, and stole some 2,500 euros in cash, police said yesterday. The thieves smashed a kitchen window to gain access to the house at about 5 a.m. They ran off after being confronted by Koumoutsakos, police said. The home of a businessman in Pendeli, northern Athens, was also broken into and robbers stole a car and 1,500 euros in cash. Apartments targeted A 26-year-old man has been arrested in Peristeri, western Athens, accused of breaking into 42 apartments in the last year, police said yesterday. The suspect is believed to have targeted mostly top-floor apartments by lowering himself onto balconies from rooftops. Police said he committed the crimes to support a drug habit. Robber halted Residents in Kolonos, central Athens, chased and caught an armed man who held up a supermarket yesterday and handed him over to police. The suspect, who was armed with a knife, was caught with the 500 euros he had taken from the retail store. The suspect was caught about 500 meters from the store he had just held up. Corruption fight Greece intends to ratify a United Nations document against corruption, despite the European Union not yet having taken this step, Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said yesterday. Speaking at an event held on Greece’s position on the UN document, Pavlopoulos said the government has made efforts to cut bureaucracy, simplify procedures and improve transparency in state funding programs as a means of fighting corruption. The government has also doubled the number of state officials employed to stamp out corruption in the public sector, the minister added. Reports of corruption among Greek public sector officials are among the highest in the EU. Environment protest Residents from the Dimitrios Ipsilantis Municipality, in northern Greece’s Kozani district, gathered to protest environmental problems caused by the Public Power Corporation’s lignite mining plant in the area. Protesters called for measures to help fight the environmental pollution they argue is harming the health of workers and residents. Local municipality officials met with the head of the lignite plant, Christos Davakos, where they held talks on implementing safety standards. Meningitis fears Authorities on the eastern Aegean island of Samos said yesterday that two children who have been admitted to a local hospital suffering from meningitis are not in any danger. The children have been placed in the intensive-care unit and everyone who has come into contact with the youngsters has been checked by doctors.
