In Brief
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION
General strike set to affect road, rail and air travel A four-hour work stoppage tomorrow by air-traffic controllers, organized to coincide with a 24-hour strike by civil servants’ union ADEDY and labor union GSEE, will cause flight disruptions between noon and 4 p.m. Passengers should contact their airline for details. The strike will also disrupt public transport services tomorrow. Trams will stop running for 24 hours while bus, trolley and metro services will be suspended for a few hours at the beginning and end of the shifts. Journalists will also join the strike, keeping news bulletins off radio and television and newspapers off Friday’s stands. BUSY ARSONISTS Numerous attacks in Athens Athens experienced another spate of arson attacks early yesterday as bank, post offices and cars were targeted between 12.30 a.m. and 2 a.m. in various parts of the capital. Arsonists struck in the city center and in the neighborhoods of Neo Iraklion, Metamorphosis, Palaio Faliron, Galatsi, Ilioupolis, Glyfada, Spata and Koropi. The attacks, coming just hours after the offices of four politicians, including two deputy ministers, were attacked in Thessaloniki, caused damage but no injuries. Robber caught An armed robber who raided a branch of Agricultural Bank in the central Athens district of Kypseli shortly before 9.30 a.m. yesterday was caught by police who were alerted by a witness. The passer-by telephoned 166 after spotting the robber fleeing the bank and a police patrol car in the area was dispatched to intercept him. Officers confiscated a gun and an unspecified sum of cash. Lawyer murder Two people have been arrested and another is being sought in the Peloponnese for the murder of a local lawyer, police said yesterday. Officers have arrested a 35-year-old ethnic Greek from Albania and a 29-year-old Albanian national on suspicion of being involved in the killing of Spyros Ioannou, who was found dead in his office in Kyparissia in January. A 34-year-old Albanian is being sought. Police believe that the 35-year-old paid the other two suspects to murder Ioannou because he was acting in a case against him. Vatopedi adjournment The former head monk of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, Ephraim, has been given a new extension to his trial date. Ephraim and the monastery’s financial manager, Arsenios, were due to stand trial yesterday but the case was adjourned until May 4 because one of the defendants’ lawyers was unable to attend court. Illegal antiquities Police in Corinth yesterday were questioning a Greek man after finding a large horde of antiquities, believed to have been excavated illegally, in his home. Officers conducted the raid on the suspect’s home on Monday, carrying away 26 artifacts including statues and amphoras dating from various periods. The raid also uncovered a number of weapons and some explosives. Youths released A court in Larissa yesterday released four youths detained in December after being implicated in rioting that caused widespread damage in the town. The magistrate released the youths on bail, pending the date of their trial, which has not been set.
