A Greek tax office was yesterday hit by a bomb blast in an attack blamed on far-left militants, one day after a top judge’s car was destroyed in an explosion, police said.
The anti-terrorist service launched a probe into the tax office bombing in the central district of Ambelokipi, believed to be the work of Revolutionary Struggle, a far-left group that fired a rocket at the US Embassy two years ago.
Half an hour before the early morning blast, which caused a fire that was put out before it could spread, anonymous warnings were telephoned to two Greek dailies, the police said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Revolutionary Struggle, which features on the EU’s list of terrorist groups, more recently launched two strikes against US-based banking group Citibank and attacks on police that nearly killed a young officer.
The service car of the chairman of the Council of States, Greece’s top administrative court, was gutted on Thursday in the explosion of a gas canister bomb that was planted under the vehicle. Nobody was injured in the attack.
Judge Panagiotis Pikrammenos had just been appointed the previous day in a scheduled justice ministry handover.
The offices and homes of senior judges, which are not always well guarded, are popular targets in attacks designed to embarrass the authorities.
In April 2007, extremists snatched a submachine gun from a policeman guarding the home of then-Supreme Court president Romylos Kedikoglou and used the weapon to strafe a police station a few days later.
Extremist hits against police and business targets intensified after police fatally shot a teenager in December, unleashing a wave of youth protests and violence that emboldened radical groups, analysts said.
But despite a flurry of attacks since December, police have been unable to make arrests.
“There are a number of people under close surveillance, but so far no evidence has surfaced to arrest them,” a police source said.
In another attack, a gas canister bomb exploded outside the offices of the government-funded Hellenic Migration Policy Institute (IMEPO), causing minor material damage and no injuries.
No group claimed responsibility but police suspect far-left extremists were also involved to send a message to the Interior Ministry, which recently hardened its immigration policy despite criticism from rights groups.
“IMEPO is the organization that gives statistics to the Interior Ministry and advises on the formulation of immigration policy,” the police source said.
Claiming that a surge in immigration has pushed Greek resources to the limit, the ministry last month began repatriating migrants despite warnings that they could face persecution at home.
Greece deported 55 Pakistanis and 25 Afghans, citing agreements with their respective governments.
Beijing yesterday dismissed as “groundless speculation” a report that said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) was the target of a Chinese spy plot. The article by the New York Times, published on Thursday, said that US intelligence officials concluded that a Chinese executive linked to a Singapore-based data center company had been funneling information to Beijing. “The report in question is based on groundless speculation and is nothing more than an attempt to smear China,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) told a regular briefing. China is in a race for tech dominance with the US, which restricts the export
Long dubbed an “air-conditioned nation,” Singapore is experimenting with cooling alternatives from chilled beams to “passive displacement” to curb its thirst for energy-guzzling air-conditioning. The city-state has the highest per-capita air-conditioner ownership rate in Southeast Asia, with about 99 percent of private residences equipped with cooling units. Singapore’s local building sector accounts for one-fifth of its emissions, while cooling itself accounts for 40 to 60 percent of a building’s energy consumption, according to studies. A stroll down Orchard Road highlights that dependence. Shoppers are greeted by blasts of cool air that waft into the street as doors swing open — a major draw
KIRIBATI: Nine people on a skiff had been reported missing after they failed to return to Ruo Island in Micronesia on July 30. Four people remained missing Five people, including two children, were rescued this week in the South Pacific island nation of Kiribati after three months drifting at sea in a 20-foot (6m) skiff, authorities said. Another four remained missing. Villagers rescued the group on Sunday off Fanning Island in Kiribati, the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) reported, after they had drifted an estimated 5,400km east from the Federated States of Micronesia. The US Coast Guard in Guam yesterday confirmed that the skiff with nine people aboard had been reported missing after it failed to return to Ruo Island in Micronesia on July 30. 10-DAY SEARCH A 10-day search covering
33 MISSING: The unprecedented number of empty seats at the fifth plenum, an annual gathering of top officials, serve as a symbol of the extent of the purges under Xi Jinping China expelled a record number of officials from the Chinese Communist party (CCP) as it concluded a major political gathering, which saw an unprecedented number of empty seats indicating the scale of the purges under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). A record 33 members were expelled at this week’s fifth plenum, a gathering of top officials that takes place roughly once a year. Just 279 of the full and alternate members of the CCP’s Central Committee attended this week’s gathering, compared with the 376 originally named as members in 2022. That means that more than 25 percent of the original cohort were
RSS