In Brief
Kallithea killing
Man shot dead in Athens cafe over alleged settling of scores A young immigrant, shot dead while sitting in a cafe in the southern Athens district of Kallithea on Friday night, was probably executed by a compatriot in a personal settling of accounts, police said on Saturday. According to witnesses, the victim was shot at virtually point-blank range by one of a pair of assailants. All three were believed to be Albanian. The pair had walked into the cafe, approached the table where the victim was sitting and started arguing with him, witnesses said. The two men, who fled in a car after the shooting, were still at large yesterday. Jail death Detainee found hanging in cell A 30-year-old man detained by police in Thessaloniki yesterday after being arrested for mugging a local woman was found dead in his cell later in the day, hanging from the bars of his cell. According to police, the man used the belt from his pants to fashion a noose and hang himself. Police said they had launched an internal investigation into the incident to determine whether anyone at the precinct should be charged with negligence. Corpse in barrel Police on Crete yesterday were investigating the exact circumstances surrounding the death of a 49-year-old woman whose body was found in a metal barrel near the village of Palaiochora in Hania prefecture on Sunday morning. The woman had been shot at close range in the temple by a perpetrator holding a sawed-off shotgun. Bruises on the woman’s wrists indicated that there had been a struggle, police said. The killing took place between May 13 and 19, according to police, who said the body was in an advanced state of decomposition. The corpse had been covered with mud, manure and old fishing nets, police said. Misfire A 37-year-old off-duty policeman was in detention in Kozani, northern Greece, yesterday after he fired shots into the air at a wedding in the area, injuring himself and a 74-year-old relative. They were both transferred to a local hospital with minor injuries. Cyprus talks Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias is tonight to have his first official meeting with the new leader of the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus, Dervis Eroglu, a hardliner elected last month. Christofias and Eroglu are to meet for dinner in a restaurant located in the United Nations-controled buffer zone separating the divided island to «get to know each other.» The community leaders’ wives are to attend the dinner, which was an initiative by the UN’s special mediator for Cyprus, Alexander Downer. US Embassy The Consular section of the US Embassy in Athens will be closed tomorrow, as is normal on the last Wednesday of every month. The closure affects visa, US benefits and passport units. Masts down Municipal officials are to take down nine illegal mobile telephone masts in an operation in central Athens today. The crackdown, being organized by the town-planning department of the City of Athens, is to focus on major streets, including Aristotelous and Lenorman.
