In Brief
OLYMPICS SECURITY
Former Sydney chief Ryan hired as Athens adviser The organizers of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (ATHOC) have hired the former security chief for the Sydney Olympics as an adviser, ATHOC confirmed yesterday. Peter Ryan, who also handled security for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, will work with the Greek Police which is in charge of security for the Olympics. Ryan, a Briton, began talks with ATHOC earlier this month after resigning from the position of police commissioner for the Australian state of New South Wales. STRIKE Civil servants to protest on May 29 over pension reforms Public sector workers will stage a 24-hour strike on May 29, the civil servants’ union (ADEDY) said yesterday. Workers are protesting over government proposals for social security reform which will oblige them to wait longer than the current 35 years to retire. CYPRUS SPORTS Sprinter seeks citizenship in south As the Cypriot government debates whether to grant Cypriot citizenship to a Turkish-Cypriot footballer – rejected by a Greek-Cypriot team on the grounds of ethnic impurity – the Cypriot Embassy in London has received an application for Cypriot citizenship from a local Turkish-Cypriot sprinter, the Fileleftheros daily said yesterday. If Eser Mustafa Resiat, 21, is really a Turkish Cypriot, there is no reason why citizenship should be denied him, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou commented. Kifissias Avenue Drivers using Kifissias Avenue must get to grips with two major changes to traffic flow necessitated by the forthcoming construction of a junction at Paradeisos, the Public Works Ministry said yesterday. Traffic will be only one-way on Sorou Street from Amarousiou-Halandriou to Kifissias Avenue (in the direction of Kifissias) and there will be no left turn at the Paradeisos junction, the ministry said. Informative signs and extra lighting will be set up for guidance. Cyprus talks Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash met again in Nicosia yesterday to press on with the third round of face-to-face talks aimed at unifying their divided island. UN special adviser on Cyprus Alvaro de Soto attended the meeting. Denktash said on Thursday that the Turkish-ruled north may «hermetically seal» the border if Cyprus joins the EU before a settlement. Developers rebuffed The Council of State has told a housing cooperative that it cannot build on a 60-hectare plot in Drafi, on the southeastern slopes of Mount Pendeli, as the land has been officially declared a sports and recreation area and so cannot be included in the town plan, court sources said yesterday. Furthermore, the land – ravaged by forest fires – is due to be reforested, the court ruled. Metro robbery A security firm employee on his way to stock up a bank’s ATM was robbed of 220,000 euros as he emerged from the Athens Metro’s Ethniki Amyna Station at 12.30 a. m. yesterday. Angelos Veroneze, 22, was attacked by an armed assailant, police said. Bank heist A security guard who chased a masked gunman following a bank robbery in the Athens district of Patissia yesterday morning backed off when he realized his opponent was not willing to hand over his loot of 14,670 euros. The robber responded to warning shots fired into the air by the bank guard by removing his hood and firing two warning shots of his own before disappearing. No one was injured. Extremists jailed An Athens court yesterday jailed three members of the Chrysi Avgi far-right organization for assaulting members of a far-left group six years ago in the Athens district of Kypseli. Yiannis Panayiotidis received two years in jail, while Dimitris Zafeiropoulos and Charalambos Kousoumvris got one year each for beating and robbing members of the Socialist Workers’ Movement.
