In Brief
Turkish harassment
Another Frontex aircraft gets radar signals during patrol A Swedish aircraft participating in a patrol in the eastern Aegean organized by Frontex, the European Union border-monitoring agency, yesterday morning received a series of warning signals via Turkish radar, Greek defense officials said, adding that the pilots ignored the signals and continued with the patrol. The signals were sent while the aircraft was flying over the islet of Farmakonisi. It is the third time that aircraft have been hassled by Turkish radar in the past month. Far-rightists suspected Youths spray singer in face Singer Sofia Papazoglou received first-aid treatment yesterday after being attacked outside Katehaki metro station by assailants who released a can of pepper spray in her face. According to Papazoglou’s account of events, a young man outside the station had handed her a leaflet promoting the extreme-right organization Chryssi Avgi which she threw in a nearby trash bin. The action reportedly prompted a hail of verbal abuse from a group of youths, one of whom attacked with her with the spray. Later yesterday, Chryssi Avgi denied that members of their group were involved in the attack. Robbers thwarted Police in central Trikala yesterday detained two would-be robbers, one aged 46 and the other 70, following a raid on a branch of Piraeus Bank. According to police, the 46-year-old emerged from the bank with a bag of cash. He then handed the loot and his gun to the 70-year-old before fleeing, police said, noting that they caught the elderly suspect first and the younger man shortly afterward. Another bank raid in Attica was more successful. Three men fled with an undetermined sum following a raid on a branch of Emporiki Bank in Markopoulo, southeastern Attica. Cyprus hopes As Cypriots celebrated the 49th anniversary of their nation’s independence yesterday, Greece’s President Karolos Papoulias stressed the importance of a settlement being reached on the divided island «without the intervention of third parties and artificial deadlines.» Papoulias sent a message to his Cypriot counterpart Dimitris Christofias, who is currently participating in face-to-face peace talks with the island’s Turkish-Cypriot community leader Mehmet Ali Talat, expressing his wish that Nicosia will «eventually cease to be Europe’s last divided capital.» Road fatality A 37-year-old truck driver yesterday was being questioned in connection with a collision between his vehicle and a motorcycle on the stretch of national highway between Thessaloniki and Veria that resulted in the death of the 31-year-old motorcyclist. It was unclear what caused the crash. Bomb scare Police cordoned off a section of central Mitropoleos Street yesterday following the discovery of a suspect device outside a bank. Bomb disposal experts were dispatched to the area to examine the device. No details were released later yesterday regarding the composition of the device.
