NEWS

In Brief

KAKAOUNAKIS PROBE

Three hospital doctors charged over journalist’s death An Athens prosecutor yesterday brought charges of manslaughter through neglect against three doctors at Athens’s Evangelismos Hospital over the death in December of well-known journalist and TV personality Nikos Kakaounakis. Prosecutor Theodora Botsa brought the charges against the unnamed doctors after relatives of the deceased complained about certain decisions made by the medics. Kakaounakis died on December 30 last year at the age of 72 after suffering complications from surgery. THESSALONIKI BLASTS Politicians’ offices attacked Small incendiary devices went off outside the offices of two politicians in Thessaloniki yesterday, while another two at other locations were safely detonated. The police said that the first device exploded shortly after 1 p.m. outside the office of Ecologist Greens MEP Michalis Tremopoulos. Shortly afterward, there was a blast outside the office of Kyriakos Velopoulos, a deputy of the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS). Both explosions caused minor damage to the entrances of the offices but no injuries. Police said they found and detonated another device at the office of New Democracy MP Elena Rapti and another at a shipping firm. German threat A German economist is planning a legal challenge in Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court against a rescue package for Greece agreed to last weekend by eurozone finance ministers, according to a German press report. Joachim Starbatty, a professor at Tubingen University, was quoted by the Rheinische Post daily as saying the aid package breached the European Union’s Maastricht Treaty. «We will file a suit at the Constitutional Court against the credit from euro states,» the economist was quoted as saying. Starbatty is reportedly being backed by Wilhelm Hankel, who in 1998 appealed to the same court against Germany adopting the euro. Lerounis Athanasios Lerounis, the Greek aid worker who spent eight months as a Taliban prisoner, yesterday expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister George Papandreou for the efforts made by the Greek government to secure his release from captivity in Afghanistan and for the premier’s personal interest in his ordeal. «We are not accustomed to such sensitivities among politicians,» Lerounis said. Bet safe Betting shops are to be policed more intensively and their owners are to be trained by officers in deterring crime or dealing with robbers, it was decided yesterday. Following a spate of armed robberies at betting shops, one of which led to a man being killed in the Athens neighborhood of Kato Patissia last month, representatives of the state-owned betting firm OPAP, betting shop owners and police met with Deputy Citizens’ Protection Minister Spyros Vougias. It was agreed that all betting shop owners would inform their local precincts of their opening hours – so foot patrols can be arranged accordingly – and sign up for security seminars to be given by officers.

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