In Brief
ADEDY STRIKE
Civil servants to walk off job on Thursday over pay, benefit cuts The civil servants’ union (ADEDY) yesterday called on public-sector workers across the country to join a 24-hour strike on Thursday over government plans to create a new salary structure for civil servants. Unionists have threatened to boycott the talks, claiming that public-sector workers have already made enough sacrifices as part of the government’s austerity plan. ADEDY President Spyros Papaspyros told a press conference that his union wants the government to revoke cuts to civil servants’ supplementary income introduced by the government this year. Unionists are to hold a rally in central Athens and Thessaloniki on Thursday morning. ISAP DISRUPTION Section closed, stations reopen Services on the Piraeus-Kifissia electric railway (ISAP) will be suspended between the stations of Ano Patissia and Eirini today to allow the completion of engineering work. Passengers can use the X15 bus on this section. Commuters are reminded that the section of the ISAP route between Attiki and Monastiraki is out of service. As of tomorrow, the ISAP stations in Perissos and Pefkakia will reopen to the public. ND strife The former head of New Democracy’s youth wing (ONNED), Christos Kourousis, is set to be expelled from the party after declaring his support for independent candidate Yiannis Dimaras in the race for Attica governor rather than the conservative party’s man, Vassilis Kikilias. Dimaras, a former PASOK MP who was expelled from that party for failing to support the austerity measures put forward by the government, is also being supported by ex-ND leadership hopeful Dora Bakoyannis. US Congress Nineteen members of the US House of Representatives have written to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ask them to encourage other NATO member states to accept the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s (FYROM) bid to join the alliance when it holds its summit in Lisbon next month. Greece blocked FYROM’s bid to join NATO at the last summit, in Bucharest two years ago, arguing that it had to settle its name dispute with Athens first. Rape probe Police on the Aegean island of Paros yesterday detained a 25-year-old man who allegedly admitted to robbing and raping a 20-year-old American tourist after breaking into her hotel room. The woman contacted police after the man allegedly entered her room in the early hours of the morning, wearing a motorcycle helmet, and forced her to hand over 100 euros before assaulting her. Smugglers intercepted Two suspected people smugglers, a Turkish and a Bulgarian national, were being questioned by police in the port of Igoumenitsa, northwestern Greece, yesterday after officers discovered three Turkish immigrants during an inspection of their car at the northwestern port. Soccer violence Fifteen soccer fans were detained by police inside and outside Toumba Stadium in Thessaloniki, where home side PAOK lost to local rival Aris late on Sunday. The PAOK supporters were mostly suspected of throwing objects at opposition players and clashing with riot police.
