In Brief
Kuneva waiting
Unionist says state has not lived up to promises since acid attack Constantina Kuneva, the cleaner and unionist who had acid poured over her in December, claims the state has yet to live up to its promise to provide her with a home. She was horribly disfigured and has serious health problems as a result of the attack. In an interview in yesterday’s Avgi newspaper, Kuneva also alleged that the investigation into the attack, for which nobody has been charged, was botched and that authorities had not sought a more detailed statement from her than what they took in the immediate aftermath of the assault. FIRES EXTINGUISHED Blazes near Athens put out Firefighters swiftly put out two wildfires that broke out near Athens yesterday afternoon. One blaze started next to the old national road between Megara and Mazi, west of Athens. Two water-dropping airplanes, a helicopter, nine fire trucks and 27 firefighters were needed to extinguish the blaze. The other fire started in the Rountzeri area of Keratea, southeast of Athens, but was put out with the help of 39 firefighters and 13 fire engines. Deadly pileup Two people were killed and six injured in a pileup on a bridge crossing the Loudias River in northern Greece on the Thessaloniki-Athens highway. Traffic police say a 21-year-old drove into crash barriers and then spun into the middle of the highway where five cars crashed into the vehicle. The driver of the seventh swerved to avoid the other vehicles but struck a metal pole. The two men, aged 49 and 59, in the seventh car died instantly. Helios plea Relatives of the 121 people killed when a Helios Airways jet crashed in Grammatiko, northeastern Athens, on August 14 in 2005 held memorial services in Cyprus yesterday and called on the local and Greek government to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. Helios and four officials face a total of 1,190 counts of manslaughter and reckless endangerment in a complex trial in Cyprus that is set to begin proper next month. Arson attempt A 36-year-old man has been arrested in the Soufli area of Evros, northeastern Greece, after allegedly dousing a policeman with gasoline and attempting to set him on fire. Officers said yesterday that the man, who allegedly suffers from mental problems, had attempted to set fire to a rag and then approach the policeman. His attempted attack came after he struck a 45-year-old motorcyclist with an iron bar and damaged a car. The policeman was not injured in the attack. Ferry trouble A mechanical fault on the ferry Marina, which travels between Samos and Piraeus, was expected to lead to several hundred passengers taking almost a day to return to Athens from the eastern Aegean island, which is a trip that normally only takes seven hours. They were expected in Piraeus last night after discovering on Saturday night, after leaving Vathi port on Samos, that the Marina could not carry out the trip. Some 200 passengers from Samos and another 400 were due to board several other ships to return to Piraeus. The Rodanthi will replace the Marina on the Piraeus-Samos line until the ferry is repaired.
