In Brief
GRAND TOUR
Barroso shown New Acropolis Museum ahead of June opening Culture Minister Antonis Samaras has promised that the opening of the New Acropolis Museum on June 20 will be a «global event.» He made the comment while giving European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso a guided tour of the building yesterday. «I believe that Greeks should be proud of this excellent museum,» said Barroso. «It is one of the world’s most important for our heritage – the heritage of Europe, but also world culture.» Barroso is due to be awarded a medal of honor in Parliament today, during a ceremony that will be boycotted by the Communist Party, which opposes the European Union’s policies. SWINE FLU Precautionary measures taken There will be a doctor with expertise in infectious diseases on 24-hour duty at Athens International Airport and «discreet checks» will be carried out on some passengers following the breakout of a deadly case of swine flu in Mexico, the government promised over the weekend. Four rooms at the Sismanoglio Hospital in northern Athens have also been set aside for the treatment of any victims of the flu, which has killed more than 80 people in Mexico. The head of the Emergency Pandemic Committee, Panos Efstathiou, said that Greeks and Europeans should not fear contracting the disease, as it is likely to be confined to Central and North America. Patras migrants Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos promised on Saturday that a makeshift camp housing hundreds of illegal immigrants in squalid conditions next to the port of Patras would be shut down by the end of May and that its inhabitants would be moved to a former army camp. «The new camp will be organized, guarded and will meet standards of hygiene and the protection of human rights,» said Pavlopoulos during a visit to Patras on Saturday. He added that underage migrants would be transferred to two other special camps. Medical fistfight An internal investigation has been ordered by the head of the Trikala Hospital in central Greece after an anesthesiologist reported that two doctors were involved in a fight prior to surgery. The hospital’s director, Grigoris Vlachakis, said over the weekend that he has asked the two doctors to give evidence as part of the investigation, which will last about 10 days. Police firebombed A group of about 50 people threw Molotov cocktails at policemen stationed at Kaningos Square early on Saturday morning. The attack occurred at 3.20 a.m. and police said that the hooded assailants emerged from George Street, threw the firebombs and then fled the scene. No injuries or arrests were reported. Domestic murder A 40-year-old man was arrested in Athens yesterday on suspicion of murdering his partner in the apartment they had shared for the last five years near Omonia Square. The 42-year-old woman died of severe head wounds. Her body was found in the second-floor apartment. Police said the man confessed to hitting his partner, but no motive was reported. The name of the suspect and the victim were not made public.
