NEWS

In Brief

UNIVERSITY FIGHT

Party-affiliated student groups clash on northern city campus In an escalation of underlying friction between party-affiliated student unions, members of DAP, linked to the conservative New Democracy party, yesterday accused their rival group PASP, affiliated with the ruling Socialists, of an attack involving a firearm during freshman registration at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University. A spokesperson for DAP claimed that PASP was behind a sudden attack by a group of about six young men wearing crash helmets to cover their faces. One of the assailants allegedly hit one of the DAP members on the head with the butt of a pistol, injuring him slightly. PHONEY SMOKES Factory raided in Menidi A fully equipped factory producing bootleg cigarettes was raided by officers of the police’s financial crimes squad (SDOE) in the early hours of yesterday morning, reports said. The factory in Menidi, northwestern Athens, had been producing large quantities of illegal cigarettes that were being packaged and sold under the Marlboro brand name. Officers arrested three men who were working on the premises, where they found some 27 tons of tobacco and 3 million cigarettes. AIR delay The National Council for Radio and Television is to rule two weeks from now on the legitimacy of a decision by an Athens prosecutor to confiscate the transmitter of Athens International Radio (AIR), the foreign-language radio program of the municipal Athina 98.4 station. The station has been off the air since last Thursday, after the transmitter was removed following claims that its operating license was not valid. The council’s legal advisers recommended that AIR not be permitted to resume broadcasting, noting that it had been lent a frequency in order to operate during the Athens 2004 Olympics but that this was not tantamount to an operating license. Footbridge opens Residents of Maroussi, north of Athens, will be able to get from side of the town to the other with greater safety as of yesterday, following the opening of a footbridge over Kifissias Avenue. Residents have been petitioning the state for several years to have the crossing built. Ongoing strikes Disruptions to Greece’s railway services will continue today and tomorrow as Hellenic Railway Organization (OSE) employees walk off the job today from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and tomorrow from 9 a.m. to noon in protest at government plans to deregulate the sector. Staff of the Proastiakos suburban railway will also participate in today’s five-hour work stoppage. Meanwhile, municipal and prefectural services will be understaffed today as employees on short-term contracts said they would stage a 24-hour strike today and permanent employees a work stoppage from 7.30 to 11.30 a.m. Product recall The Hellenic Food Authority issued a recall yesterday for two products carried by the French Carrefour supermarket chain under its own brand name: the 180-gram package of «Mousse de foie a l’angienne» with an expiration date of October 3, 2010, and 300 gr cans of corn with a use-by date of August 31, 2013.

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