In Brief
TIF fatality
One worker killed, second critical after stand collapses A 51-year-old Georgian worker was killed and a 50-year-old Bulgarian seriously injured yesterday when a wooden stand they had been dismantling on the grounds of the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) collapsed on them. There were no details about the circumstances of the incident nor the condition of the Bulgarian worker who was transferred to Thessaloniki’s Ippocratio Hospital. Police detained the owner of the firm that employed the men for questioning. Bomb farce Central MacDonald’s evacuated Police evacuated a branch of MacDonald’s in central Syntagma Square and cordoned off the surrounding area yesterday after an anonymous telephone caller told police that a bomb was due to explode outside the fast-food branch just after noon. The call, which was made at 11.30 a.m., said that a bomb would go off in 40 minutes. But a police search of the evacuated area did not locate any suspect device. US ties Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis yesterday met with the US Ambassador in Athens Daniel Speckhard for talks that reportedly focused on a forthcoming meeting between Bakoyannis and her US counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in New York. Bakoyannis and Speckhard also discussed bilateral economic issues. Armed heist Police on Crete yesterday were seeking an armed robber who fled with 150,000 euros after holding up a branch of the Pancretan Cooperative Bank in the small town of Patelles near the port of Iraklio. No one was injured in the raid. Zagorianos rebuffed The Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal lodged by magistrate Nikos Zagorianos, who has been charged with mishandling an investigation into the Siemens bribery scandal, against two senior members of the judiciary. Zagorianos had, in turn, brought action against two officials, including Supreme Court Vice President Ioannis Papanikolaou, who have launched disciplinary proceedings against him. Knife attacker A 49-year-old man was in police custody yesterday in Kalamata, in the Peloponnese, after allegedly stabbing a 37-year-old Romanian woman in the leg with a jackknife. It was unclear why the suspect lashed out at the woman in the street but police said he has been detained on similar charges in the past. Student brawl A student was yesterday in a Thessaloniki hospital with head injuries following a brawl on the grounds of a technical college (TEI) in the northern city. The brawl reportedly broke out between two different factions of the union affiliated with ruling New Democracy during the registration of freshmen. Lamia quake A moderate earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale shook two villages west of Lamia yesterday morning but there were no reports of any damage or injuries. The quake, which occurred shortly after 10 a.m., had its epicenter near the villages of Makrakomi and Xiniada. The tremor was felt across central Greece.
