In Brief
Greek-Turkish ties
Aegean harassment resumes ahead of ‘exploratory’ talks Turkish military authorities early yesterday sent a radar warning to a Polish aircraft patrolling the eastern Aegean on behalf of the European Union’s border monitoring agency Frontex. The harassment, which occurred while the aircraft was north of the island of Farmakonisi, follows a hiatus in violations by Turkish aircraft in the Aegean. The development came just a few days before the scheduled resumption of «exploratory talks» between Greek and Turkish diplomats in Ankara next Tuesday. Teen dealer Pupil caught selling drugs Police in Athens yesterday detained a 17-year-old youth alleged to have been loitering outside a secondary school in the western district of Ilion with the intention of selling cannabis to pupils. The youth, who is a pupil at another school in the area, according to police, was found in possession of 8 grams of cannabis, which was confiscated. Meanwhile in Nikaia, near Piraeus, a 35-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were held for questioning after police found a much larger quantity of drugs in their possession. Police seized nearly 40 kilograms of cannabis from the couple’s home after receiving a tip-off. Mailman holdup Two armed robbers yesterday stopped an employee of Hellenic Post in the Lagada district of Thessaloniki and forced him to hand over a sack he had been carrying which contained some 15,000 euros in payments destined for pensioners in the area. After the holdup, which did not result in injuries to the mailman, the two gunmen got into a car and fled. Police later discovered the vehicle in the car park of a local supermarket and determined that it had been stolen. Island ferries A committee of the Economy, Competitiveness and Merchant Marine Ministry yesterday gave the green light for two additional weekly ferry connections between Piraeus and the islands of Fournoi and Icaria, which currently each have only one ferry connection per week. According to sources on the island, local authorities and residents are not satisfied with this offer and continue to demand that a second ferry be made available for their island in order to run multiple weekly trips in summer. Robbers thwarted Police in Thessaloniki yesterday detained the driver and two passengers of a car involved in a dramatic chase with a police patrol vehicle on Wednesday night. According to police, the car refused to stop for traffic police at the city’s ring road junction at Stavroupoli, prompting a patrol vehicle to chase it. The fugitives eventually crashed into a roadside barrier in the western suburb of Kalohori. One of the three passengers fled on foot but police arrested the driver and the two other passengers. A search of the car’s trunk turned up tools that police believe had been destined for use in burglaries. Ramps revamp The City of Athens yesterday said it was launching an initiative to repair and revamp the capital’s 2,466 wheelchair ramps with the aim of making them more user-friendly for the disabled. The ramps will also be painted to make them more visible to motorists.
