In Brief
Kladas out
Director of financial crimes squad informed that he will be replaced The head of Greece’s financial crimes squad, or Special Investigations Service, Spyros Kladas, is set to lose his job, sources told Kathimerini yesterday. Kladas met with the head of the prime minister’s office, Yiannis Angelou, last week and was informed that a new man would replace him. Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis is thought to have lost patience with Kladas over his handling of a number of high-profile investigations. Doping probe Chinese supplements firm was not licensed, according to report The head of the National Pharmaceutical Organization, Vassilis Kontozamanis, was questioned yesterday by the prosecutor investigating the weightlifting doping scandal as reports in China suggested that the company that supplied allegedly tainted supplements to the Greek team was not approved to produce drugs. Chinese investigators had found that Auspure was neither registered nor approved as a drug producer, the China Daily said, citing Yan Jiangying, a spokeswoman with China’s drug watchdog the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). Saudi attack Second embassy car firebombed A car belonging to a diplomat from Saudi Arabia was destroyed in an arson attack in Gerakas, northeast of Athens, early yesterday. No one was injured in the attack which was later claimed by a group calling itself «Anti-State Action.» The blast was the second in as many days to target property of the Saudi Embassy. Monday’s blast was claimed by a group calling itself «Subversive Cell.» The attacks are both believed to be in support of a suspect implicated in a bank robbery last year who faces trial this week. Transport stoppages Getting around in Athens is going to be trickier than usual tomorrow, as public transport employees are due to stage a series of work stoppages. There will be no tram service between 8 a.m. and noon. The metro and Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) will not run between noon and 4 p.m. Also, there will be no buses before 7 a.m. and then from 10 p.m. onward. The employees are protesting the sacking of two tram workers. Egg warning The Hellenic Food Authority (EFET) yesterday warned consumers to be careful when purchasing traditional dyed eggs for Orthodox Easter. The eggs should bear a label indicating the final deadline by which they can be consumed and explaining their date of production and origin, EFET said. Retailers should not mark boiled, dyed eggs as «fresh» as this term can be applied only to eggs before they are boiled, EFET added. Graffiti cleanup Thessaloniki Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos yesterday heralded an initiative to «whitewash» graffiti marring buildings in the northern city. A 100,000-euro budget is to go toward cleaning up public buildings, Papageorgopoulos said and appealed to locals to paint over graffiti on their own walls. «We appeal to citizens to take a liter of paint and fix their own homes,» he said. Markopoulo quarry Residents of Markopoulo, northeast of Athens, complained yesterday that a marble quarry in their area that has been banned from operating is still working as normal. Reporters from Skai TV also said that there was a large number of trucks traveling to and from the site, which has been ordered to close after it was deemed to be operating without a proper license. However, he quarry’s director Constantinos Panagiotou said that there is no more mining going on at the site and that the company is simply using material that had been quarried before the closure order. Food seized Inspectors from the Piraeus Prefecture said yesterday that they confiscated 46 tons of unsuitable food during checks. Of this, 45 tons were lentils that were imported from Canada. The lentils were seized because they were not transported in conditions that met hygiene regulations. Inspectors also seized 500 kilos of meat from the Zouridakis butchershop in the Piraeus municipal market. They also removed 500 kilos of cheese from the store because it was not properly labeled.
