In Brief
ISAP stoppage
Railway workers walk out to protest vandalism of trains Employees of the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) will stage a four-hour work stoppage today to protest attacks on their colleagues by vandals who spray-paint carriages. The work stoppage will start at 11 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. Last week, a gang of youths vandalized a train that had been moving into the Patissia station. The youths littered the tracks with objects to hinder the passage of the train and then smashed a carriage and sprayed graffiti on its side. Today’s stoppage will only add to commuter disruption, as the section between Omonia and Ano Patissia will be closed on Saturday and Sunday for track works. The section between Kallithea and Neo Faliro is also closed until April 1. Frontex Office to open in Piraeus The European Union’s border-monitoring agency Frontex is opening its first European regional office in Piraeus, the Citizens’ Protection Ministry said yesterday. According to a statement released by the ministry, the office is being set up in the context of efforts by Greek authorities to intensify border inspections and curb an illegal influx of immigrants. According to Frontex, which has its headquarters in Warsaw, the Aegean is expected to remain the «key point of entrance» for would-be migrants seeking to enter Greece illegally in 2010. Customs fraud Ten officials from three customs points in the northwestern prefecture of Ioannina, alleged to have swindled the state of an unspecified sum in customs charges, were indicted to face a prosecutor yesterday. The officials are alleged to have allowed trucks to cross the border into Albania at a fraction of the full customs charge and in exchange for an under-the-table payment. Suspect remanded A 21-year-old man charged with participation in the terrorist organization Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire was remanded in custody yesterday after defending himself before an investigating magistrate. According to sources, the suspect denied having visited an apartment in Halandri, northern Athens, believed to have been the group’s hideout, where police say they found his fingerprints. The 21-year-old admitted to having met one of the other three suspected members of the group at his local gym, the same sources said. Murder probe Police in Nafplio, in the Peloponnese, yesterday charged a 25-year-old woman, her father and a 29-year-old man with the murder of the woman’s 31-year-old husband whose body was found on the bank of the Erasinos River, a few meters from his car. According to police, the victim – who had been separated from the 25-year-old woman – bore several wounds on his head and body, believed to have been inflicted using planks of wood. The corpse was discovered by a passing farmer who alerted police. Cigarette thief An unidentified gunman held up a convenience store in Thessaloniki’s Touba district late on Wednesday, fleeing with a small sum of cash and five cartons of cigarettes, police said. The store owner was not harmed during the raid.
