In Brief
CRETAN QUAKE
5.4-Richter tremor shakes island, causes no injuries or damage A strong earthquake, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale, shook the port of Iraklion and other parts of northern Crete at 1.30 a.m. yesterday morning, but no serious damage or injuries were reported. The tremor, whose epicenter was 80 kilometers north of the Bay of Siteia, was felt on many islands of the southern Aegean and even in some Athenian suburbs. It was the strongest to hit Crete since a 5.7 quake on May 21. FERRY ROUTES Ships to run as scheduled after sailors’ strike suspended Passenger ships will leave Greek ports as scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday after a planned 48-hour sailors’ strike was called off by the Panhellenic Seamen’s Federation. Unionists announced the decision after receiving a letter from Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeritis, promising to satisfy their demands for higher pensions and productivity bonuses. IKA ACTION Doctors’ strikes deemed legal A series of seven 24-hour strikes launched by protesting Social Security Foundation (IKA) doctors yesterday morning is legitimate action, an Athens court ruled yesterday afternoon, rejecting as groundless an appeal by IKA managers that the strikes be declared illegal and excessive due to the heightened need for public health services ahead of an expected heat wave. Doctors – who want permanency for 5,500 colleagues on short-term contracts – stage the second in their series of strikes on Monday. Saunders service A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in central Athens for Brigadier Stephen Saunders, the British military attache assassinated by the November 17 terrorist group on June 8, 2000. A wreath will be laid at the spot in Filothei where Saunders was murdered at 7.45 a.m. in a ceremony to be attended by British Ambassador David Madden and representatives of the Greek and British armies. Players grounded Turkish-Cypriot authorities have banned their soccer players from visiting Pyla – a small village in the middle of the buffer zone between ethnic Greek and Turkish areas – to hinder their access to the island’s south and the prospect of employment with Cypriot teams, the Athens News Agency said yesterday. A full list of all Turkish-Cypriot soccer players has been published by the northern regime, ANA said. Turkish-Cypriot midfielder Sabri Selden moved to the south last month after being granted Cypriot citizenship. Karali dead Journalist and writer Malvina Karali died at the age of 48 yesterday after a year-long battle with cancer. Karali started her career in 1976 writing for newspapers and magazines before working in radio and hosting a television program offering offbeat political analysis. She also wrote five novels. Her funeral is at 12.30 p.m. today at the Athens First Cemetery. Railway works Services on the Athens Kifissia to Piraeus electric railway will be suspended between the Tavros and Piraeus stations until 10.30 a.m. tomorrow due to works on the tracks at Faliron. Free replacement buses will be available every 15 minutes to shuttle passengers between Tavros and Piraeus via Faliron. Trains will run normally between Kifissia and Tavros. Saliarelis arrested Businessman and former chairman of Olympiakos soccer team, Argyris Saliarelis, was yesterday charged with causing damage to property and illegal gun possession following his arrest in connection with a shooting attack on a car outside a Glyfada hotel on Thursday morning. Saliarelis was arrested in his Piraeus office yesterday morning after a native Greek from Germany, who had rented the car that was targeted, pressed charges against him. The man claimed Saliarelis had been trying to get back at him for going to the police earlier this week after discovering that Saliarelis had repaid part of a 264,000-euro debt in forged notes.
