In Brief
MAY ACTION
May Day strike shifted to May 7 to avoid Easter chaos The traditional May Day workers’ strike on May 1 has been shifted to the first Tuesday after Easter (May 7) to allow citizens to carry out their preparations for Easter without major problems, said Labor Minister Dimitris Reppas yesterday. «We respect the workers’ struggle and its symbolic celebration on May 1… but (the decision) is in the interests of all citizens,» said Reppas. Unions said their May Day strike would go ahead on May 1. ROAD SAFETY Fines begin for motorists without seatbelts, helmets Drivers without seatbelts and motorcyclists without helmets will henceforth be fined if caught, said Attica’s traffic police chief yesterday. «A severe crackdown» on road safety offenders begins today, said Constantinos Tzekis during an awards ceremony at Zappeion Hall for 25 traffic policewomen who have spent three months advising motorists on road safety at major Athens junctions. «Even a trip to the kiosk for cigarettes will require a safety belt,» said Deputy Public Order Minister Vangelis Malesios. JERUSALEM PATRIARCH Cabinet retracts recognition Israel’s recognition last month of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Jerusalem was retracted by the Cabinet, Greek government spokesman Christos Protopappas said yesterday. He said the earlier acceptance represented only the inner cabinet. Bus attack A supporter of Panathinaikos football team – alleged to have thrown stones and smoke bombs at a bus carrying dozens of passengers along Alexandras Avenue on Saturday night – faced a prosecutor yesterday. Police said Angelos Zafeiropoulos and a group of fellow supporters attacked the bus carrying fans of rival team Olympiakos who had beaten AEK that night just outside Panathinaikos’s home ground following the conclusion of its match with Xanthi. There were no injuries. Alarm test The Civil Defense Authority’s electronic sirens will sound nationwide today for one minute shortly after 11 a. m. to test a new remote control-activated alarm system, the Public Order Ministry said. Vegetable prices The government will start importing tomatoes from Turkey and Morocco and potatoes from Egypt to combat an unanticipated rise in vegetable prices this year, Deputy Development Minister Christos Theodorou said yesterday. Meat prices correspond to those last year. School fees up Private school fees will increase by 4 percent with draft legislation due to be submitted to Parliament in the next few days, Deputy Development Minister Christos Theodorou said yesterday. Shrine collision A father and son – Giorgos Paraskevopoulos, 66, and his Angelos, 37 – were killed yesterday when their car crashed into a roadside shrine of the type erected to commemorate the victims of car crashes. The accident occurred near the village of Kato Achaia near Patras. Israeli Embassy The Israeli ambassador in Nicosia, Michael Eligal, said his meeting yesterday with the Foreign Ministry’s General Director Christodoulos Pasiardis did not mark his official protest against last Thursday’s demonstrations outside the Israeli Embassy. It was an opportunity for the two men to exchange views about the incidents which would not affect bilateral relations, he said. Soldier’s death The case of national serviceman Spyros Romiopoulos – found dead near a military base in Soufli, northern Greece in 1997 – is to be reopened by a military court in Xanthi after the Supreme Court’s acceptance yesterday of an appeal by the victim’s father against the court’s dismissal of the chief suspect, a trainee officer. Journalist attack An Athens court yesterday sentenced an Albanian national to 13 years in jail for providing explosives found under the car of right-wing Hora tabloid publisher, Giorgos Tragas, in April 1999. Uran Mato, 32, claimed to have been unaware of the destination of the «harmless» bomb. Tragas said his opposition to NATO strikes against Serbia had provoked Mato’s attack.
