NEWS

In Brief

SOCRATOUS SQUATTERS

Municipal team cleans derelict court building used by migrants A team of City of Athens workers yesterday cleaned up and disinfected the area around the former appeals court building on Socratous Street in the city center, which more than 500 migrants have made their temporary home. Hygiene standards in the building are very poor due to the lack of facilities and the number of people squatting there. The City of Athens said that it would oblige the owner of the building, the Store Employees’ Auxiliary Insurance Fund, to pay for the cost of the clean up. SKOPJE REACTION? Extremists target Athens event Greek diplomats were yesterday waiting to see if there would be a reaction from Skopje to members of the ultranationalist Chryssi Avgi group disrupting the presentation on Tuesday night of the «Modern Greek-Macedonian Dictionary» organized by the Rainbow organization at the Foreign Press Association in central Athens. The incident was covered by news media in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) but there was no reaction from the government. Greek Foreign Ministry sources said the police soon restored order and that it should be viewed as an isolated incident. Balcony fall An 11-year-old boy died late on Tuesday night after falling from a fifth floor balcony in Larissa, central Greece. It is not clear what led to the boy’s fall, which was broken by an awning on one of the lower floors. However, the injuries suffered by the boy, who was not named, proved fatal and he died soon after being taken to the hospital. Kifissia hanging A 56-year-old man was found hanging outside the Aghios Nektarios church in the northern Athens suburb of Kifissia early yesterday. Police said that the unnamed man suffered from mental problems but did not give any further details. His body was discovered at 6 a.m. Mall fire Four cinemas and three cafeterias were destroyed in a fire that swept through the Olympia shopping mall in Karditsa, central Greece, yesterday. The fire service said that the blaze, which spread to neighboring buildings, had probably been caused by a short circuit. Nobody was injured. Heated debate Arsonists set fire early yesterday to the stand that had been set up in central Athens by the leftist party ANT.AR.SYA. The small communist party is taking part in the European parliamentary election on Sunday. Assailants doused the kiosk with a flammable liquid and then set it alight. The stand was completely destroyed but nobody was injured. Thessaloniki arsonists Two cars belonging to Thessaloniki’s municipal TV station and another two vehicles of OTE telecoms were severely damaged by arsonists in the northern city early yesterday. Authorities said that that 10 cooking gas canisters had been placed under the cars of the TV 100 station in an attack that occurred at about 4 a.m. A couple of hours earlier, assailants threw a flammable liquid over the two OTE cars. Both incidents occurred in the Sykies area of Thessaloniki.

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