Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-07-14

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] Judicial Enquiry-Civil Servants-Extradition-Murder

[02] Migrants-Tinos-Kos (RECASTS, adds detail)

[03] Migrants-Tinos-Kos (RECASTS, updates throughout)

[04] Greek-Murder-Istanbul

[05] Patriarch-Cappadocia-Christians-Moslems-Balkans

[06] Opinion Polls-Minister

[07] Police Patrol-Crash-Deaths

[08] Journalist-Funeral

[09] German National-Body-Corfu

[10] Migrants-Tinos-Kos

[11] Migrant Traffickers-Arrests

[12] Weather Forecast: Sunshine on Sunday

[13] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

[01] Judicial Enquiry-Civil Servants-Extradition-Murder

A deputy public prosecutor of the court of first instance on Saturday called an urgent preliminary enquiry into an alleged failure by civil servants to carry out orders aimed at securing the extradition of a murder suspect from the United Kingdom.

The enquiry was called after a deputy supreme court prosecutor reported that officials of the foreign and justice ministries had failed to carry out instructions in the extradition of Panayotis Krambis, wanted for the murder of entrepreneur George Nikolaidis and his girlfriend, Soula Kalathaki.

In a report relayed to prosecutors, Athanasios Kafiris, the supreme court official responsible for extraditions, claimed that files on the case had gone missing that he had personally sent to staff at the two ministries.

He also said in the report that it was "scandalous that (Krambis' extradition) has still not been effected."

The purpose of the enquiry is to investigate actions by both senior and junior staff at the two ministries that constitute a breach of duty, focusing on the illegal appropriation of files.

In addition, the enquiry will seek to find other cases in which the allegations made by Kafiris also apply, that is cases in which civil servants have failed to carry out a prosecutor's instructions.

Krambis, the prime suspect in the murder case, has been held by UK authorities since April 1999. A ruling is pending in the UK on a petition Krambis filed in May opposing his extradition.

[02] Migrants-Tinos-Kos (RECASTS, adds detail)

A sailing boat carrying nearly 200 illegal Pakistani, Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish immigrants ran aground on a rocky beach in the island of Tinos, the merchant marine ministry said on Saturday.

Arrested were 187 of the migrants, who disembarked on Friday night, and authorities are conducting a land and sea operation to find any others, the ministry said in a statement.

The three-masted sailing boat that transported the migrants was identified at the German-flagged Belsed, with a length of 28 metres and breadth of seven metres. It carried no documents.

The migrants, comprising 172 men, 11 women, and four children, said they set sail from an area near Istanbul, Turkey, heading for either Italy or Greece, the statement said.

In a separate incident, Harbour Corps officials on Saturday arrested 14 Afghan migrants in inflatable dinghies off the island of Kos, the ministry added.

[03] Migrants-Tinos-Kos (RECASTS, updates throughout)

A sailing boat unloaded nearly 200 illegal Pakistani, Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish immigrants onto a beach in the island of Tinos, the merchant marine ministry said on Saturday.

Arrested were 187 of the migrants, who disembarked on Friday night, and authorities are conducting a land and sea operation to find any others, the ministry said in a statement.

The three-masted sailing boat that transported the migrants was identified at the German-flagged Belsed, with a length of 28 metres and breadth of seven metres. It carried no documents.

The migrants, comprising 172 men, 11 women, and four children, said they set sail from an area near Istanbul, Turkey, heading for either Italy or Greece, the statement said.

In a separate incident, Harbour Corps officials on Saturday arrested 14 Afghan migrants in inflatable dinghies off the island of Kos, the ministry added.

[04] Greek-Murder-Istanbul

ISTANBUL, Turkey (ANA A. Kourkoulas) A Greek national was found brutally murdered in the boot of an abandoned car in Istanbul, police said on Saturday.

The victim has been tentatively identified as Dimitrios Roumbos, reported missing by his family several days ago.

Greece's General Consulate in Istanbul is monitoring the case, according to diplomatic sources.

[05] Patriarch-Cappadocia-Christians-Moslems-Balkans

ISTANBUL, Turkey (ANA A. Kourkoulas) Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos on Saturday urged for peace between Christians and Moslems, especially in the Balkans, saying the reason for conflict was political, not religious.

Vartholomeos told a vespers service he led in the Cappadocia region of Turkey that clashes between the two religious groups in their history "are not due to religious differences, but to other reasons," which he defined as political.

"This is also happening today in the Balkan region, where some are trying to present the conflict as a clash of religions, as a clash between Christians and Moslems, but things are not like this," he told the congregation.

Vartholomeos outlined initiatives the Patriarchate had taken for dialogue between the two religions, including a proclamation signed in 1994 after an inter-faith meeting in Istanbul.

"Fanaticism and fundamentalism are not blessed by any religion, and every war in the name of a religion is a war against all religion, he added.

It is the third time in two years that the Patriarch has visited Cappadocia, which was a centre of Orthodox Christianity in eastern Asia Minor during the Byzantine era.

[06] Opinion Polls-Minister

Education Minister Petros Efthymiou said on Saturday that opinion polls on the government did not necessarily match election results, and that the ruling PASOK party's political initiatives would reverse the unfavourable outcome of surveys published recently.

"From 1998 to 2000 the opinion polls were adverse for PASOK, but the public itself conducted the final poll in April, 2000," Efthymiou told reporters, asked to comment on the recent surveys.

"The polls will be reversed by PASOK's political initiatives," he added.

On April 9, 2000, the ruling party won national elections, remaining in power.

The minister was replying to reporters' questions on the sidelines of a PASOK youth meeting held on the island of Crete.

[07] Police Patrol-Crash-Deaths

Two youths on a motorcycle were fatally injured in a collision with a police patrol car near Athens in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The patrol car had switched lanes and entered oncoming traffic in the suburb of Ano Kalamaki, when it hit the youths' bike, which carried no licence plates.

The dead were identified as Dimitris Papadimitriou, 18, and Evangelos Gortsas, 21.

[08] Journalist-Funeral

Vangelis Bistikas, a noted journalist and political commentator, was buried in Athens on Saturday following his death a day earlier from cancer.

Born in 1937, Bistikas held positions including director of the Kathimerini daily newspaper (1989-1990), news direct of ERT-1 state TV (1977-1980), and press officer of the late president of the republic, Constantine Karamanlis (1980-1983).

Expressing condolences were the Athens Union of Journalists and the leader of the main opposition New Democracy party, Costas Karamamlis.

[09] German National-Body-Corfu

The body of a German national was found floating in waters off the holiday island of Corfu, the merchant marine ministry said on Saturday.

The deceased was identified as Will Johannes Klaus Gerhard, aged 62, the ministry said in statement.

An autopsy on the body, which was found on Friday, is to be conducted at the Kerkyra General Prefecture Hospital.

The Harbour Corps on the island has launched a preliminary enquiry into the death, the statement added.

[10] Migrants-Tinos-Kos

A sailing boat unloaded about 150 illegal Pakistani, Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish immigrants onto a beach on the island of Tinos, the merchant marine ministry said on Saturday.

An unspecified number of the immigrants, who disembarked on Friday night, were arrested soon after arrival, and authorities have launched a land and sea operation to find the remainder, the ministry said in a statement.

In a separate incident, Harbour Corps officials on Saturday arrested 14 Afghan migrants in inflatable dinghies off the island of Kos, the ministry added.

[11] Migrant Traffickers-Arrests

Three suspected Turkish migrant traffickers were arrested and are awaiting to hear charges after a freighter loaded with illegal travellers was caught in rough seas and towed to the southeast Aegean island of Karpathos, the merchant marine ministry said on Saturday.

The three suspects and 70 immigrants, who are believed to be Arabs, Turks, Moroccans, Pakistanis and Kurds, were taken to the island of Rhodes for questioning after their arrest on Friday.

The migrants, who include nine women and 11 children, said the vessel, identified as the Turkish-flagged Angel, was heading for Italy after sailing from the port of Bodrum in Turkey three days previously.

They also told Harbour Corps officials that they each paid 3,000 US dollars for the trip to Italy.

The ministry identified the suspected migrant traffickers as Yuksel Vysal, Erdogan Yurtkorn and Kudrei Ozanemre.

Athens has initiated procedures through diplomatic channels to return the illegal immigrants to Turkey, from where they entered Greek territory, according to sources.

[12] Weather Forecast: Sunshine on Sunday

Sunny weather is forecast throughout the country on Sunday, with scattered cloud on the mainland from late afternoon that may turn into isolated storms in Epirus and Macedonia. Winds northerly, light to strong, turning very strong in parts of the Aegean. On the mainland, temperatures will range from 20C to 37C; in the Ionian from 22C to 35C; and in the Aegean islands from 24C to 33C. Sunshine in Athens with temperatures between 25C and 36C. Same in Thessaloniki, with temperatures from 23C to 35C.

[13] Foreign Exchange Rates-Monday

Indicative buying rates until Monday afternoon

U.S. dollar 395.852

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 554.958

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 45.421

Swedish kroner 36.614

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 318.517

Swiss franc 223.589

Norwegian kroner 042.483

Cyprus pound 588.636

Canadian dollar 258.163

Australian dollar 200.949

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article