NEWS

In Brief

Reppas charges

MIG chief sues minister over contracts for air routes Parliament is to decide whether Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Minister Dimitris Reppas should have his immunity lifted to face criminal charges that have been brought against him by the president of Marfin Investment Group, Andreas Vgenopoulos, it emerged yesterday. Vgenopoulos, whose group owns Olympic Air, has taken legal action against Reppas over the rejection of bids by Olympic and by Aegean Air for 15 air routes to islands in the Aegean. The routes were given to Athens Airways and Sky Express which, according to Vgenopoulos, has cost Greek taxpayers 2.2 million euros. Murder probe Two held over double killing Police in Thessaloniki yesterday detained two foreign nationals, aged 27 and 20, in connection with the killing of two men whose bodies were found on Sunday buried on farmland near the village of Hortiatis. According to police, the 27-year-old had been involved in a brawl in a Thessaloniki bar over the weekend. Witnesses told police that they saw the 27-year-old forcing a young man into a car in which another two people were sitting. Police said evidence found in the car implicates the 27-year-old and a 20-year-old acquaintance. The two victims had been shot in the head and neck. Bank closed The branch of Marfin Egnatia Bank on Stadiou Street, in Athens, which was destroyed on May 5 when protesters pelted it with firebombs, leading to the death of three bank employees, will not reopen, the president of Marfin Investment Group, Andreas Vgenopoulos, which owns the bank, said yesterday in a letter to bank workers. «The murder of our colleagues must be examined calmly, honestly and in depth by the authorities,» Vgenopoulos said in the letter. Petralona corpse The corpse of a woman, wrapped up in plastic bags and hidden behind a garbage dumpster in the southern Athens district of Petralona, was being examined by a coroner yesterday. Police were called to Alkminis Street by residents complaining about a strong smell coming from the dumpster. The corpse, whose hands and feet had been bound, was found under a pile of trash. No details about the woman’s identity had been released by late yesterday and the cause of her death remained unclear. Couple shot A 70-year-old man was killed and his wife, also 70, was injured yesterday when a man, believed to be the woman’s brother opened fire on the couple near their home in the northern Athens suburb of Neo Iraklio. Police said the perpetrator turned himself in to police. FYROM talks The outstanding dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia regarding the latter’s official name was the topic of a brief discussion between Prime Minister George Papandreou and his FYROM counterpart Nikola Gruevski on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Madrid yesterday. According to sources, the two leaders discussed the outlook for stalled negotiations to settle the dispute. According to a statement by Gruevski’s office, the meeting was «spontaneous» and «cordial.»

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