Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-05-26

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] School-Immigrants-Shooting (RECASTS, adding detail)

[02] Death-Brawl-Crete

[03] National Marine Parks-Zakynthos

[04] Diamantopoulou-People With Special Needs

[05] Death-German Tourist

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[07] Patriarch-Tour-Cappadocia

[08] School-Immigrants-Shooting

[09] Weather Forecast-Sunday

[01] School-Immigrants-Shooting (RECASTS, adding detail)

Harbour Corps officers used blank fire outside a school near central Athens in a bid to round up four illegal immigrants who broke loose from their guards after leaving a nearby courthouse, the merchant marine ministry said on Saturday.

No one was hurt in Friday's incident, when the immigrants, who were part of a group of 87 arrested in the port of Rafina for illegal entry, fled into the playground in the inner city suburb of Kypseli. The pupils were inside the building, taking exams.

After firing blank shots in the air, the Harbour Corps officers cornered the immigrants in the school playground and arrested them, the ministry said in a statement.

The four had attended a hearing at the Evelpidon court linked to their arrest on Wednesday by the Harbour Corps in Rafina, before jumping out of the bus that was to transport them to a detention centre, where they were finally taken along with the remaining immigrants in the group.

Three suspected migrant traffickers in the incident - a Turk and two Greeks - were each sentenced by an Athens court on Friday to 22 years and six months in jail and each fined 4.7 million drachmas. The immigrants were sentenced to 10 days in jail, the statement said.

The two Greeks were released pending appeal, it added.

[02] Death-Brawl-Crete

An 18-year-old Albanian youth died of a knife wound in the Cretan holiday resort of Elounda on Saturday while trying to break up a fight among compatriots, police said.

The victim was identified as Klotzan Delia (phonetic spelling), who was fatally injured by a 22-year-old participant in the brawl who was wielding a knife, according to police sources.

The man who allegedly knifed the youth was identified as Niko Bala; he and his two brothers - Yani, 41, and Ilia, 29 - fled the scene of the crime in a car but were later arrested.

Police in the nearby resort of Aghios Nikolaos have launched a preliminary enquiry into the incident.

[03] National Marine Parks-Zakynthos

Deputy Environment Minister Ilias Efthymiopoulos said on Saturday that a newly created marine park off the Ionian island of Zakynthos would act as a pilot for similar schemes elsewhere in Greece.

Efthymiopoulos was speaking at a one-year birthday celebration at the island's National Marine Park, which houses the endangered caretta-caretta turtle.

"Creation of the Zakynthos park means that Greece is meeting its commitments to world organisations on protection of the ecosystem," Efthymiopoulos said.

Operation of the park was being monitored in order to aid future planning for other marine reserves, he added.

[04] Diamantopoulou-People With Special Needs

The European Union's Commissioner for Social Affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou, said on Saturday that both Greece and the EU were trying to spur an active role in society for people with special needs.

The way forward was for authorities on an EU level, a national level and a local level to work together in order to ensure that people with special needs were allowed the same rights and responsibilities as the rest of the population, Diamantopoulou said.

Greece's commissioner at the EU was inaugurating an EU citizens' information bureau in the western city of Patras.

[05] Death-German Tourist

The body of a female German tourist was found in a hotel room on the holiday island of Crete on Saturday with two deep knife wounds in the neck, police said.

The woman was identified as Heidi Tast (phonetic spelling), 35, a resident of Dortmund, Germany who was was staying at the Eri Beach Hotel in Hersonissos, Iraklio, as part of a package holiday.

Tast's body was lying on the hotel room bed, clad in underwear and a vest.

Police said that according to an autopsy conducted by a local forensic expert, the death occured on Friday night, and the attacker appeared to have taken the woman by surprise.

One line of enquiry being pursued was that the attacker belonged to the same tour group as the woman, without ruling out other possibilites, police said.

A post-mortem is to be held on Monday at Iraklio University Hospital, followed by an inquest.

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Buying rates until Monday

U.S. dollar 393.475

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 559.174

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 45.316

Swedish kroner 37.340

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 324.988

Swiss franc 221.338

Norwegian kroner 42.782

Cyprus pound 585.863

Canadian dollar 255.300

Australian dollar 205.048

[07] Patriarch-Tour-Cappadocia

SINASOS, Turkey (ANA A. Kourkoulas) Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos on Saturday began a visit to the Cappodocia region of Turkey, accompanied by senior Orthodox clerics and Greek pilgrims.

Vartholomeos led a morning liturgy at the Church of Saints Konstantinos and Eleni in the village of Sinasos in Cappadocia, a region that was a centre of Orthodox Christianity in eastern Asia Minor during the Byzantine era.

During the service, the Patriarch welcomed a recent rapprochement between Greece and Turkey, saying the move would benefit the peoples of both countries and stand as a paradigm for world peace.

His schedule in Cappadocia includes receptions hosted by senior local government officials.

On Sunday, the Patriarch will ordain Metropolitan Bishop Tarasios of Buenos Aires as an elder of the Orthodox Church, nearly 80 years after the last such ordination in Asia Minor following an agreement in 1923 that allowed an exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey.

The event will be broadcast live on Greece's ET-1 television channel.

[08] School-Immigrants-Shooting

Harbour Corps officers used blank fire outside a school near central Athens in a bid to round up five illegal immigrants who broke loose from their guards after leaving a nearby courthouse, police said on Saturday.

No one was hurt in Friday's incident, when the immigrants, who were part of a group of about 90 arrested in the port of Rafina for illegal entry, fled into the playground in the inner city suburb of Kypseli. The pupils were inside the building, taking exams.

After firing blank shots in the air, the Harbour Corps officers cornered the immigrants in the school playground and arrested them.

The five had attended proceedings in the Evelpidon court linked to their arrest by the Harbour Corps in Rafina, before jumping out of the bus that was to transport them to a detention centre, where they were finally taken along with the remaining immigrants in the group.

[09] Weather Forecast-Sunday

Scattered cloud and showers or storms are forecast in most parts of the country on Sunday, including the mainland. The weather will improve from early evening. Winds north-northeasterly, light to moderate, turning strong in parts of the Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 12C to 24C; on the rest of the mainland from 13C to 27C; and in the islands from 16C to 26C. Showers or storms may occur in Athens from afternoon, with temperatures between 16C and 25C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 14C to 23C.

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