In Brief
GARBAGE – Local government unions to decide on strike today The federation of local government unions is to decide today whether to continue with industrial action, after a 48-hour strike through yesterday resulted in a pileup of garbage around the country. The Athens municipality is asking residents not to take their garbage out to street dumpsters. Although most garbage collectors are working, as only a minority are members of the federation, the problem has arisen because staff at the Ano Liosia landfill site are on strike. TRAVEL Cyprus toughens security drill at airports Cyprus implemented new checks for travelers yesterday as part of a drive to step up airport security following last week’s hijack attacks on the United States, officials said. Outbound passengers at Larnaca and Paphos airports will now have to get their passports stamped and fill in departure cards. We had in the past adopted a policy of not stamping passports in line with the EU Schengen Pact but this has been reviewed in the light of recent events, Communications and Works Minister Averof Neophytou said. New screening devices had already been installed at both airports, which together handle some four million people every year. (Reuters) OECD Inspection team due next month A delegation from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will be in Athens between October 9 and 11 to look at the course of the Greek economy. They will be focusing on delays in structural policies, particularly in the deregulation of markets and issues of competition. Their findings will form the basis of forecasts to be included in its annual evaluations at the end of the year. Thessaloniki. Deputy Foreign Minister Elissavet Papazoe held talks in Thessaloniki yesterday with northern Greek officials on priorities for the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, which Greece will assume in January 2003. Papazoe said Prime Minister Costas Simitis wanted to hold the EU summit in Thessaloniki to promote the northern part of the country. Karkou remanded. Evelina Karkou was remanded yesterday for trial on charges of conspiracy, in connection with the escape of fugitive killer Costas Passaris. Karkou’s fingerprint was found in the apartment in Neos Cosmos, Athens, where Passaris escaped from a police ambush last month. Karkou, a 22-year-old Romanian, is the companion of Passaris’s accomplice Marco Raducan. She denies any involvement in illegal activities. Passengers tried. Three members of the Russian singing group Ivanushki International, arrested for drunken behavior on a Cypriot Airways flight from Moscow to Larnaca, were sentenced yesterday in Thessaloniki to 12 months’ imprisonment for harassing other passengers. The pilot was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Thessaloniki. Alexander Surin, 30, Sergei Adipin, 34, and Ioulia Grigorieva-Apolonova, who had been traveling to Larnaca to perform at a concert, apologized, appealed their sentences and were released. Unusual means. Mountaineers were called in when a Ioannina livestock breeder, Eleni Vasdeki, who lost a herd of about 20 cattle after wolves chased them over a cliff in the Vikos gorge, was unable to provide evidence of their existence in order to receive compensation. After 12 hours of climbing down cliffs and hiking through a gorge, the mountaineers were able to provide the relevant authorities with photographs of the dead animals. Thyroid treatment. The National Pharmaceuticals Organization (EOF) yesterday issued a temporary ban on the distribution of 19 batches of the drug T4-UNI-FARMA prescribed for patients suffering from thyroid problems. In an announcement, EOF said it was a cautionary procedure. Correction. The management of Athens Tower said yesterday that a report in yesterday’s Kathimerini English Edition of a bomb hoax at the tower on Thursday erroneously stated that the building had not been evacuated and that the police had not been allowed in to search. The tower’s management said that the occupants were in fact evacuated from both buildings and away from the forecourt and that two security police officers with a sniffer dog searched the two stair wells in building A, and another officer and dog in building B.
