In Brief
FYROM deadlock
Skopje seeks international arbitration in name dispute The foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) yesterday proposed the establishment of an international arbitration committee to intervene in stalled talks aimed at solving a bilateral dispute between Greece and FYROM about the latter’s official name. Antonio Milososki expressed Skopje’s desire to find a «constructive mechanism for dialogue with Greece» and cited the example of Slovenia and Croatia, which managed to solve an 18-year border dispute following the intervention of such a committee. Greece’s Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis is today due to meet in New York with Matthew Nimetz, the United Nations envoy appointed to mediate in the name dispute. Zakynthos quake Island hit again, by 5.4 tremor A moderately strong undersea quake, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale, occurred off the Ionian island of Zakynthos just before noon yesterday but no injuries or damage were reported. The epicenter of the quake was located on the seabed off the southwestern coast of the island, seismologists said. A stronger tremor, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, occurred last Tuesday, between the islands of Zakynthos and Cephalonia, again causing no damage or injuries. Ship hijacked Somalian pirates yesterday hijacked a Greek-owned cargo ship and took its 22 crew members hostage off the coast of the Seychelles, maritime officials in the region said. The Marshall Islands-flagged Filitsa had been en route to South Africa from Kuwait with a cargo of chemicals, the officials said. There were no details released about the 19 Filipinos and three Greeks aboard the vessel. Several Greek-owned cargo ships have been attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia this year. Last month, a Greek cargo ship seized in April in the Gulf of Aden was released by Somali pirates, who said they received $2 million (about 1.4 million euros) in ransom. Holy row A Marine reservist was released from a Florida jail on bail yesterday after being charged with using a tire iron to beat a Greek Orthodox priest who he claimed had sexually assaulted him. Jasen Bruce, 28, claimed to have attacked the priest in self-defense when the latter allegedly grabbed his genitals after following him into the garage outside his apartment. According to police, Bruce also claimed to have feared that Alexios Marakis, 29, was an Arab terrorist. Marakis, who was on a visit to the US from his native Crete, was released from hospital after receiving first-aid treatment for minor injuries. «I did not even touch him,» Marakis was quoted as saying. Electrocution Police on Zakynthos yesterday detained a landlord on the Ionian island on charges of manslaughter after a 27-year-old tenant of his was electrocuted while taking a bath in one of his properties on Tuesday night. The Albanian woman is said to have been pregnant. The exact circumstances surrounding the incident were unclear. Inmate protest The 153 inmates of a jail in the Cretan prefecture of Hania yesterday launched a hunger strike to protest detention conditions at the institution. The inmates are chiefly protesting overcrowding in the jails.
