PROTRACTED WORK stoppages and strikes by public transport workers fail to persuade the government to withdraw a bill creating a metropolitan transit authority to oversee and coordinate public transport in greater Athens. Unions again walk out on strike and threaten continued stoppages after Parliament passes the bill.
SOME 300 undocumented migrants agree to end their hunger-strike after a compromise is reached with the government. The migrants, who had arrived in Athens from Crete where they lived, had initially occupied a section of the University of Athens School of Law building in central Athens, demanding unconditional legalization. A smaller group had staged a similar action in Thessaloniki.
GREEK POLICE arrest a Palestinian student suspected of being a member of Fatah al-Islam. An Italian newspaper reports the man, identified as Ghaleb Taleb, had been in Greece for months planning attacks in Europe.
POLICE ARREST and charge six people in connection of the radical anarchist group Nuclei of Fire after a raid on a suspected hideout yields explosives and notes detailing targets. Nuclei of Fire has claimed responsibility for sending booby-trapped packages to foreign embassies in Athens last November.
MUSICIAN MANOLIS Rassoulis is found dead in his apartment in Thessaloniki. According to the coroner, he had passed away four days earlier. Rassoulis was sixty-five. The Crete-born musician had a seminal influence on contemporary Greek music.
FRONTEX, the European Union agency charged with guarding the EU’s external borders, extends the mandate of a team of guards along Greece’s border with Turkey on a permanent basis. The 200-strong force has been detailed to help Greek authorities stem the flow of illegal migrants across Greece’s borders.
GREEK OFFICIALS protest Turkish harassment of an Italian ship in the Aegean. The ship was exploring a possible fiber optic cable route from Italy to Israel with permission from the Greek government.
MILTIADIS EVERT, the former leader of the conservative New Democracy party, passes away after extensive hospitalization. A former mayor of Athens known for establishing private radio, Evert had a history of heart problems. He was 72.
GREECE OFFERS a 1.3-million-euro reward for information leading to the arrest of Vassilis Paleokostas, who became a celebrity after escaping prison twice in an audacious helicopter break-out. Paleokostas had been serving a sentence for robbery and kidnapping.
THE NUMBER of deaths from the H1N1 flu virus climbs to 45, according to health authorities. In January, some 104 people were in intensive care after developing complications from the disease.
GREECE UPDATES its “basket of goods” used to calculate inflation, removing common light bulbs, ladies sweaters, and retsina from items described and representing “average household purchases”. New items added to the basket include espresso coffee, MP4 and Blu-ray players, GPS devices, low-fat cheese, baby wipes, diet biscuits, mouthwash, sun block, hair dye, and post-graduate education fees.