In Brief
JERUSALEM PATRIARCH
Sasson: ‘Bishops to blame for retraction of recognition’ Israel’s retraction of last month’s recognition, by its inner cabinet, of the Greek Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem was due to Orthodox bishops on the Jerusalem Holy Synod intervening in talks between the Patriarchate and the Israeli government, Israel’s ambassador to Greece, David Sasson, claimed yesterday. Sasson said the bishops had aimed to block the patriarch’s recognition by exploiting Israeli government procedures. PALESTINIAN AID Rescue services set off for Jenin, Nablus A team of rescue workers and first-aid experts are due to set off for the Palestinian territories today on a government-backed humanitarian mission to save any survivors from the West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus ravaged by brutal Israeli army attacks. It is unclear whether Israeli authorities will allow emergency rescue workers to enter the towns. A C-130 military transport plane, due to leave Elefsina today, will also carry National First Aid Center workers and two ambulances. EASTER SHOPPINGI Supermarket, shop hours Supermarket opening hours over Easter have been amended following the government’s decision to shift the May Day workers’ strike to Tuesday May 7. Hours are now as follows: Monday April 29 to Thursday May 2: 8 a. m. to 9 p. m.; Good Friday: 1 p. m. to 8 p. m.; Saturday May 4: 8 a. m. to 6 p. m. Other retail stores will be open until 9 p. m. each day during Easter week but will close at 7 p. m. on Good Friday and 3 p. m. on Easter Saturday. All stores will be closed from Easter Sunday through Tuesday May 7. IKA strike Social Security Foundation (IKA) doctors will resume suspended protest action with a 48-hour strike on April 29 and 30 and two work stoppages on May 10 and 15, unionists said yesterday. The key demands of protesters – striking on and off since last July – is permanency for 5,300 colleagues on short-term contracts, a ranking system and more bonuses. Anzac memorial Australian Vice President John Anderson is due to visit the Aegean island of Lemnos on Friday to join a memorial ceremony for the thousands of Australians and New Zealanders killed in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign on neighboring Turkey. Many were buried on Lemnos, where military bases and hospitals were set up. Anderson will unveil a monument to the memory of the fallen Anzacs – donated by Australia’s Greek community. Belgrade trip Prime Minister Costas Simitis will travel to Belgrade on May 9 for a two-day official visit, his office said yesterday. Language schools Maintaining a ceiling on fees for private schools teaching foreign languages is squeezing them out of the market, the National Union of Private Foreign Language Centers stressed yesterday in a letter asking the Development Ministry to abolish an existing fee limit. More than 200 private language schools have closed as they can neither meet their costs nor raise their prices, the union said. Benaki Museum Athens’s Benaki Museum will be closed tomorrow due to strike action by staff seeking higher pay. Drugs den A convicted narcotics offender, who filmed young people taking drugs in his home, was arrested yesterday following a tip-off by a visitor to the hang-out in Nea Ionia near Volos, central Greece. Police seized drugs and dozens of video tapes from the home of Eleftherios Kontogiannis, 55. Medium rare An Athens court yesterday exonerated an astrologer and medium accused of embezzling money from naive Athenians by convincing them she could predict their future. Styliani Koukoulitsa, 53, was cleared of fraud charges after telling the court she had a work permit and paid taxes.
