In Breif
PAKISTAN ABDUCTION
Mayor appeals to embassy over Greek aid worker Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis has written to the Pakistani Embassy in Athens to protest the abduction of Professor Athanasios Lerounis, who had been working as a volunteer teacher for a humanitarian organization in northwestern Pakistan since 1995 and had founded two primary schools, three day centers and a cultural center there. Lerounis was kidnapped on Tuesday from his home in the Chitral Valley along with a servant. A guard was reportedly killed in the raid. ISAP DISRUPTIONS Tavros-Piraeus section out Ongoing engineering work on the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) will disrupt services between the Tavros and Piraeus stations this weekend and next, ISAP managers confirmed yesterday. Commuters will be able to use their tickets on the X11 shuttle bus that will service the stations on the affected section. Siemens releases Two suspects in the Siemens bribery case, former Siemens Hellas executive Giorgos Skarpelis and ex-OTE telecom official Ilias Georgiou, have been released on bail of 300,000 euros each. Both are prohibited from leaving the country and must appear regularly at their local police station. They had both been arrested in May. Meanwhile the fate of the former CEO of Siemens Hellas, Michalis Christoforakos, a key suspect in the bribery probe, remained unclear. A ruling earlier this week by an appeals court in Munich ruled in favor of a second arrest warrant issued by Greek authorities seeking his extradition. Two earlier decisions to extradite him were overturned by Germany’s top constitutional court. Rotting chickens The findings of a Church of Greece investigation into the discovery last April of 337 tons of frozen chicken meat rotting in a Piraeus storeroom are to be handed in to the office of Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis over the next few days. The meat had been purchased as part of national aid for Iraqi war victims by the Church’s charity group, Allilegii, or Solidarity. The Foreign Ministry is reportedlydemanding the return of about 7 million euros, with interest, from Solidarity for a total of 2,650 tons of chicken meat which was allegedly never sent. Rape arrest A 32-year-old Albanian has been arrested on charges of raping two children over the past five years. The children’s parents, who are relatives of the accused, allege that the man had been sexually abusing the 17-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl, both of whom are mentally handicapped, at their home. Road fatalities Two teenagers, one aged 18 and the other 15, were killed early yesterday when the motorcycle being driven by the elder of the two veered off a country road on the island of Rhodes and crashed into the trunk of a large tree. Police did not determine whether the driver had been drinking or give any details about the circumstances of the crash.
