In Brief
DANGEROUS DROP
Child, 4, in intensive care after falling down escalator at airport A 4-year-old boy was being treated in the intensive-care unit of the Aghia Sofia Hospital in Athens yesterday after falling from a moving escalator at Athens International Airport. The child suffered serious head injuries after falling some 10 meters. The boy had gone to the airport with his mother to see off a relative. He had been playing at the top of a stationary escalator but slipped over the side when the steps were activated. Doctors said the unnamed boy was in a stable condition. HAIDEMENOU DIES Praise for supporter of Asia Minor Greeks who died aged 108 Filio Haidemenou, a high-profile member of associations of Greeks from Asia Minor, died yesterday at the age of 108. «Filio Haidemenou was a rare, worthy Greek,» said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis in a statement. «With the determination and dynamism that characterized the generations of Greek refugees, she made it her life’s aim to keep the historical memory and cultural wealth of Asia Minor Greeks alive.» Haidemenou also founded the Asia Minor museum in Nea Philadelphia, northern Athens, which is now named after her. «We will all remember with love and a sense of duty that we should continue the work she began,» said President Karolos Papoulias. STUDENT BEATING Eight officers to face trial The eight policemen who allegedly beat up a Cypriot student in Thessaloniki on November 17 last year will face trial, according to a prosecutor’s decision yesterday. Seven of the officers are accused of causing unprovoked bodily harm. The eighth policeman is accused of being complicit to the act. The 24-year-old student was hospitalized after the incident but the police initially claimed that he suffered injuries when he fell on flowerpot. TV footage later showed that undercover officers had manhandled the student. Cyprus report In a report yesterday to the United Nations Security Council, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that «small but incremental steps in the right direction» had been taken by Greek and Turkish Cypriots toward reuniting the island. «The time has come, however, to move from talks about procedure to substance,» Ban said. He urged both sides to begin implementing the two-tier agreement signed last July and bring an end to «the ongoing mutual recriminations, which only serve to undermine the process.» Arsonist suit The police may consider claiming damages from the three people arrested in Athens on Tuesday while attempting to place a homemade explosive device under a municipal police car, sources told Kathimerini yesterday. Officers found a map at the home of one of the suspects detailing the locations of traffic cameras. Police are now investigating whether any of the suspects were also involved in setting fire to traffic cameras. If a link is proved, the police intend to sue for damages. Blackmailer caught A 39-year-old man has been arrested in Athens on suspicion of blackmailing a food company and threatening to tamper with their products. Police said yesterday that the unnamed suspect demanded 50,000 euros from the company, which was also not named, otherwise he would poison the firm’s products and put consumers lives at risk. Officers arrested the man as he went to pick up an envelope that contained the money. Four other food companies also claim to have been blackmailed by the man. Fraud suspects A 31-year-old man was arrested at a bank in central Athens yesterday after attempting to withdraw 20,000 euros from a loan he had secured using forged paperwork, police said. The man is believed to have used a fake identity along with forged pay slips from an employer and tax certificates to have obtained the loan. Police are also searching for another man and a woman believed to have been involved in the racket, which earned them 60,000 euros. Pensioner murdered A 90-year-old woman was found murdered in her home in Aspropyrgos, west of Athens, police said. The body showed signs that she had been strangled to death as well as severe head injuries. Police added that the home had been broken into and that theft was the likely motive for the attack.
