In Brief
TRASH COLLECTION
Municipal workers promise to clear up garbage by tomorrow The piles of rubbish clogging up Athens’s streets will be cleared up by tomorrow, City of Athens sanitation workers have promised. Speaking to Skai Radio, workers’ spokesman Vassilis Polymeropoulos said that efforts would be made to ensure that the trash has been cleared ahead of Christmas Eve. He blamed the backlog on a power vacuum at the City of Athens – where the new mayor, Giorgos Kaminis, will not assume power until the beginning of 2011 despite being elected last month – and on work-to-rule protests by workers at the Ano Liosia landfill. TURKISH SHIP Corvette sails into Greek waters A Turkish navy ship reached close to the shores of Evia yesterday after setting sail from a base in Izmir on Tuesday and sailing through Greek waters for no apparent reason, military sources said yesterday. The Bodrum, a B-class corvette, was shadowed by two Hellenic Navy vessels after entering Greek waters at 3 a.m. yesterday but it was decided that there was nothing menacing about its behavior. Turkish ships have entered Greek waters unannounced several times this year. Vatopedi verdicts Two senior monks from the Vatopedi Monastery, which has been implicated in an allegedly corrupt land-swap deal with the state, were yesterday given 10-month suspended jail sentences by an appeals court in Thrace for being moral accomplices to a breach of duty. Ephraim, the monastery’s former chief monk, and Arsenios, its ex-financial manager, were accused of colluding with Maria Psalti, the former judge of a first instance court in Rhodope, northern Greece, where tracts of land involved in the swap are located. Psalti also received a 10-month suspended sentence for delaying making public a ruling on the ownership of the land. Palestinian clarification The diplomatic mission of the Palestinian Authority in Athens yesterday rejected press reports that Palestinians were involved in clashes with Afghan immigrants in Patra. Palestinian diplomats said that none of the hundreds involved or the dozens arrested by police were Palestinian. They said that the suspects are illegal immigrants from other countries who declared they were Palestinian when they arrived in Greece and have been issued with documents by Greek authorities that identify them as Palestinian. Soccer cup Olympiakos, PAOK and holder Panathinaikos advanced to the quarterfinals of soccer’s Greek Cup to join Olympiakos Volou and Atromitos who had qualified on Tuesday. Olympiakos downed Asteras Tripolis 1-0 away, PAOK defeated PAS Giannina 2-1 at home and Panathinaikos saw off Trikala 3-2 in Athens. Basketball Panathinaikos finished top of its Euroleague pool after thrashing Armani Jeans Milano 93-62 last night at home.
