In Brief
HOSPITAL ‘NEGLIGENCE’
Minister orders investigation into death of 1-year-old boy Health Minister Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou yesterday ordered an urgent investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of a 1-year-old boy with gastroenteritis who was seen at four different hospitals within the space of two weeks. The minister also wants authorities at Thessaloniki’s Ippokrateio Hospital, where the baby died late on Wednesday of multiple organ failure, to explain why the infant’s body was tagged with the wrong name when it was sent to the morgue. The baby’s parents claim that the infant was not given medical attention by the first three hospitals they took it to. DOUBLE TRAGEDY Man, 90, kills wife, then self A 90-year-old man suffocated his bedridden 84-year-old wife before fatally injuring himself with a knife at their home in the affluent northern Athens suburb of Vrilissia, police said yesterday. The couple’s daughter, who lived with her parents, told police that she had been away at the time of the incident, taking her daughter to school. Upon her return, she said that she found both her parents dead. Officers said that the 90-year-old left a note explaining the reasons for his actions but did not reveal the contents of the letter. Cyprus talks Prime Minister George Papandreou yesterday reassured visiting Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias of Athens’s active support for Nicosia, which is involved in a new United Nations-mediated effort to reach a settlement on the divided island. «The solidarity of the Greek government is a given, permit me to say an absolute,» Christofias said after the talks in Athens. New protest The main civil servants’ union ADEDY yesterday confirmed that its members would hold another rally in central Athens next Tuesday in protest at the government’s austerity measures. ADEDY, which has staged three 24-hour strikes over the past month, is planning further action in April. Arson attacks A previously unknown group calling itself Revolutionary Memory Patrols yesterday claimed responsibility for a bloodless firebomb attack on an annex of the Culture Ministry in the central Athens district of Exarchia on Thursday and arson attacks yesterday on six parked cars in the district of Kypseli, near the center. The arson attack in Kypseli destroyed the vehicles and started a fire but caused no injuries. Firemen managed to extinguish the blaze before it could spread to adjacent vehicles and buildings. In a related development yesterday, police were investigating a suspected arson attack on a school in the Olympic Village, north of Athens. The fire, which broke out in a staff room at the school, caused serious damage. Crete brawl Three Cretans were in an Iraklio hospital yesterday following a financial dispute between members of rival families, police said. A total of six people had been involved in the brawl, which culminated in several knives being drawn, according to police, who detained five of them. The sixth suspect eluded arrest.
