In Brief
TRASH STRIKE
Court says it is against law for municipal workers to stay away An Athens first instance court on Saturday deemed illegal the three-day strike called by municipal refuse collectors. The ruling came after Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis lodged an appeal, saying that it was vital the garbage men returned to work after several days of strikes due to the mess that the weekend’s riots were expected to cause. Kaklamanis said that he continued to support the refuse collectors’ demands despite his action. WITNESSES SOUGHT Teen badly hurt in hit-and-run A 15-year-old boy was admitted to the Geniko Kratiko Hospital in Athens in critical condition late on Saturday after being injured in a hit-and-run incident on Kifissias Avenue. Authorities said the teenager was hit as he was trying to cross the road in Halandri, northeastern Athens. Witnesses said the driver sped away. Police have asked anyone who saw the incident or might suspect they know the driver to come forward. Hamburg raid An attack by masked vandals on a police station in the northern German city of Hamburg on Friday has been claimed by a group that said the raid was linked to the anniversary of the killing of Alexis Grigoropoulos by a policeman in Athens. In a letter sent to the Hamburger Morgenpost daily, the group called itself «Koukoulofori,» or «hood wearers» in Greek, and said that it was responsible for throwing rocks at police officers and setting fire to two parked cars in protest at the murder of the Greek teenager. Egypt conference Greece will be among the countries that Egypt would invite to an international conference it intends to host for countries that are demanding the return of ancient relics from foreign museums, the country’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told the Agence France-Presse yesterday. «We are preparing for this conference but we don’t know the date yet,» he said. ATM seized Four robbers tied up the guard at the premises of the Creta Farm food company in Rethymno, Crete, early yesterday and then used a bulldozer to rip out a cash machine on the premises before loading it onto a pickup truck. Officers later found the ATM abandoned in the Arkadi municipality but it had been forced open and an unspecified amount of cash was missing. Telethon Skai radio will be taking part today in a telethon organized by state broadcaster ERT to raise money for Unicef. Programming will start at 4 p.m. on ET1 and end early on Tuesday morning. Iraklio arson The Iraklio, Crete first instance court was slightly damaged by fire on Saturday when unidentified assailants walked into the building and up to the third floor and set fire to two cooking gas canisters. The resulting fire caused damage to several offices. Nobody was injured as the courthouse was closed. Pensioner found An 83-year-old man who had gone missing from his home in the municipality of Viano in Iraklio, Crete, on Friday was found a day later. Authorities had mounted a large search operation for the pensioner but he was eventually located in the middle of a field by his grandchildren.
