Piraeus

By Nikos Roussanoglou

Work gets under way on the expansion of the cruise terminal in Piraeus this year, set to make it the biggest cruise hub in the Eastern Mediterranean, allowing for the docking of the biggest and best cruise ships, whose length exceeds 300 meters.

The investment is worth 136 million euros, which is 95 percent subsidized by the European Union.

Convicted November 17 terrorist Christodoulos Xeros has been recaptured a year after he disappered.

Skai TV said that the Xiros was caught by members of the anti-terrorism squad near Anavyssos, southeast of Athens.

Xeros had been on the run since January 2014, when he failed to return to Korydallos Prison after being released on furlough.

A 33-year-old man was arrested as he stepped off a ferry from Piraeus to Iraklio, Crete, on Friday as he was found to be in possession of 730 grams of heroin.

Officers from the local drug squad made the arrest.

The suspect, who was not named, also had 20 grams of cocaine on him.

Convicted urban guerrilla Nikos Maziotis on Tuesday became the first inmate to be transferred to the new maximum-security wing of Domokos Prison in central Greece, built to house inmates serving time for serious crimes such as terrorism.

There will be no service on the Athens metro and electric railway (ISAP) before 8 a.m. on Tuesday due to a protest by employees.

The tram will not be available before 7 a.m. either, as workers demand that the empty positions left by the dismissal and transfer of colleagues be filled.

A week after ending a 31-day hunger strike, the anarchist and convicted bank robber Nikos Romanos was discharged from an Athens hospital and transferred back to Attica’s high-security Korydallos Prison.

The 21-year-old launched a hunger strike on November 10 after authorities refused to grant him furlough to attend classes at Athens’s technical college.

China signed a huge deal on Wednesday to finance a high-speed bullet train between Budapest and Belgrade, a key link in Beijing’s expanding network for getting its goods to European markets.

“This will put in place a corridor between China and Europe,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told reporters after signing the deal in Belgrade, estimated by local media to be worth 1.5 billion euros.

Police on Tuesday arrested seven suspected members of an extortion racket believed to have targeted more than 20 nightclubs in Athens, Piraeus and western Attica, occasionally using violence.

The suspects, five Albanians and two Greeks, were detained on Tuesday following a series of police raids while another three suspected accomplices were being sought late last night.

An elderly woman died Tuesday after falling on the tracks at the Ano Patissia station of the Piraeus-Kifissia electric railway (ISAP).

The woman fell onto the tracks as a Piraeus-bound train was approaching at about 4.30 p.m., according to the police and fire service.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

Every week three or four Trainose trains, each consisting of 38 carriages, depart from Piraeus carrying as many containers of Sony merchandize destined for Slovakia, where the Japanese elctronics giant assembles TV sets to cover the needs of its European market.