In Brief
PERAMA BLAST
Vessel’s holds give no clues about cause; two face charges Authorities yesterday continued their search of the holds of the Panama-flagged Friendship Gas tanker at the port of Perama where an explosion last Thursday caused the deaths of eight dockworkers, though it remained unclear what provoked the blast. The vessel’s captain and the ship security officer are to face a prosecutor this week on charges of negligent manslaughter. A marine chemist may also face charges. The supervisor of the dockworkers who had been on duty on Thursday is still being sought. CYPRUS TALKS New UN envoy arrives on island The newly appointed United Nations envoy to Cyprus, Australia’s former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, expressed optimism yesterday when he arrived on the island. «All of us at the UN are looking forward to helping in any way we can with the process that… made an important step forward on Friday,» Downer told reporters at Larnaca airport, referring to an agreement made by community leaders to start direct peace talks in September. Downer is to meet Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat in Nicosia tomorrow. Boat collision A pleasure boat carrying 13 tourists ran aground on the islet of Prasonissia, near Chios, yesterday but no one was injured. The 13 passengers, whose nationalities were not made public, were transferred to the nearby island of Oinousses aboard a coast guard patrol boat. The four-member crew remained aboard the Olympia until a tugboat arrived and towed the vessel to shore. There were no reports of any fuel leaks. The incident came on the back of three ferry collisions in the Aegean within the past month. Temporary booking The contents of Athens’s National Library will be moved to a temporary building that will be ready by the end of the year, the library’s president has told Kathimerini. The multistory structure, located on Athinon Avenue close to the metro’s Metaxourgeio station, has a total floor space of 10,000 square meters and offers underground parking, Athanassios Fokas said. A new national library at the Faliron Delta, designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, is scheduled to open by 2015. Warehouse fire Several warehouses in an industrial site at Rodotopi, near the northwestern town of Ioannina, were destroyed on Saturday after a fire broke out. The blaze, the cause of which remained unclear, was fueled by the contents of the warehouses, chiefly paper and cardboard. No one was injured. Panionios out Athens soccer club Panionios has failed to qualify for the UEFA Cup after losing 1-0 to Napoli in Italy in the second leg of its third round Intertoto Cup tie on Saturday. The defeat in Naples meant a 2-0 defeat for the Greek team on aggregate. In front of a crowd of almost 60,000 fans, Panionios had a number of chances to take the lead against its more illustrious opponent and even hit the post in the 29th minute. But the only goal of the match came in the 65th minute through Napoli’s Slovakian midfielder Marek Hamsik.
