Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-08-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Shooter Anna Korakaki wins first gold for Greece in Rio

[02] Public safety is guaranteed daily by state institutions, says PM's office

[03] Gun-wielding masked men hold 13 hostages in Piraeus Bank before escaping with loot

[01] Shooter Anna Korakaki wins first gold for Greece in Rio

It is the second medal for the 20-year-old champion from the northern city of Drama, who also won bronze in the 10-meter air pistol final earlier in the Games. She is the first Greek athlete in more than a century to win two medals in the same Olympics, since Konstantinos Tsiklitiras won gold and bronze for standing long and high jump in the 1912 Games in Stockholm.

It is also the first gold medal for Greece in 12 years, as both in Beijing (2008) and in London (2012) the country's athletes won silver and bronze.

Switzerland's Heidi Diethelm Gerber won the bronze after winning China's Zhang Jingjing with 8-4.

[02] Public safety is guaranteed daily by state institutions, says PM's office

"Feeling uneasy with the government's initiatives concerning institutions, the economy and the welfare state, Mr. Mitsotakis follows the known but failed recipe of 'Law and Order', a known and consistent political policy of the [Antonis] Samaras government in economy and propaganda," Maximos Mansion said.

"When you have a failed program, you count on 'security'," it added.

[03] Gun-wielding masked men hold 13 hostages in Piraeus Bank before escaping with loot

According to an initial police estimate, the four perpetrators stole about 60,000 euros in cash and unknown content from 21 deposit boxes they managed to crack open in the roughly two hours they spent in the bank.

Police is looking at CCTV footage to piece together the movements of the armed men. They said the suspects entered in pairs at the branch on Kifisias Avenue shortly after 14:00 (local time) and used what appear to be rifles to hold up employees and customers. They wore silicon masks with fake faces which were not of politicians, as some media reported.

They then forced bank employees to take them to the vault in the basement, opened it using drills and other tools they carried in their sacks and removed the content from 21 deposit boxes. They also emptied cash from the cashier registers on the main floor. Before leaving, the robbers threw disinfectant liquid, presumably to eliminate genetic material and other traces. They left the bank at about 16:00 and employees notified police who are now on site investigating the incident.

Police is puzzled that nobody outside the bank branch noticed anything was wrong saying employees and customers received phone calls on their mobiles but didn't respond.

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