In Brief
OLYMPIC WORKS
Court rejects residents’ appeals against table tennis center Appeals by residents of the Athens suburb of Galatsi against the construction of a local ping-pong and gymnastics center for the Olympic Games have been rejected by the Council of State, in a ruling made public yesterday. Conservationists and residents had protested that the planned construction of the center, on the Veikos Estate very close to the Byzantine church of Omorfoklissia, violated laws protecting the environment and antiquities. Firebomb attack A group of hooded youths lobbed Molotov cocktails at the coast guard office near the Zea marina on Saturday, causing minor damage and no injuries. The youths had earlier unsuccessfully tried to gate crash an open-air concert at Freattyda, Piraeus. Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeritis yesterday condemned the attacks as «political hooliganism… which has no relation to ‘class solidarity. ‘» Archaeologists strike State-employed archaeologists will stage a 48-hour strike tomorrow and Wednesday to protest against a draft antiquities law currently being debated in Parliament, the Association of Greek Archaeologists decided yesterday. Unionists object to an article that allows for the lending and exchange of ancient monuments with other countries. Heroin haul Customs officials at the northwestern border crossing of Kakavia confiscated 12 kilograms of heroin yesterday from an Albanian national carrying the drugs into Greece from Albania. The drugs were found in a car being driven by the 25-year-old man who told police he was promised 1,460 euros to take the drugs to Athens from a town in southern Albania. Cretan ambush Police in Crete were looking yesterday for a tractor-borne gunman who fatally shot a motorist he apparently laid in wait for on Friday night. Nikolaos Katsanevakis, 35, was attacked on the road from Hania to the southwestern region of Sfakia after stopping behind a tractor which, having overtaken him earlier, had stopped in the middle of the road ahead, according to the victim’s brother who was following in another car. The assailant fled in his victim’s car after setting the tractor alight, police said. Mailroom scam A Thessaloniki postman who netted 20,000 euros by plundering 1,800 letters containing salaries destined for court clerks, was arrested on Friday morning, reports said yesterday. Following a complaint lodged by a post office inspector, police caught the 54-year-old after he removed 105 euros from eight stamped, addressed envelopes which he had then resealed. Unwelcome Soldiers in an army outpost on the uninhabited eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonisi fired warning shots into the air yesterday to deter a suspected migrant-smuggling ship anchored about 500 meters from the island’s shore. The ship, which had ignored orders to withdraw announced by loudspeaker, promptly retreated. THURSDAY
