ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek police arrested two people Friday in connection with a 2010 firebomb attack in which three people trapped in a burning bank died while some in a crowd outside shouted for them to be left to burn.
The Marfin bank employees — one man and two women, one of whom was pregnant — were trapped after protesters threw firebombs at the building during a demonstration by tens of thousands of people participating in a general strike against new austerity measures imposed by the government.
The arrests are the first of anyone accused of carrying out the firebombing since an initial suspect was acquitted of all charges. Three bank officials were convicted in 2013 of failing to take adequate safety measures inside the bank branch.
“Our democracy is strong and always wins in the end. It does not win vengefully. Its victories have to do with vindication and the administration of justice,” Michalis Chrysochoidis, Greece's Minister for Citizen Protection, said in a statement.
“There cannot be a crime, the taking of a life, without the administration of justice. There cannot be democracy without the administration of justice,” he added.
Chrysochoidis also referred to the separate arrests Friday of three people in connection with a series of bomb attacks targeting members of the country’s governing conservative New Democracy party on July 1 which killed one person and injured another four.
The arson attack on the Marfin bank on May 5, 2010, came in the early stages of Greece’s nearly decade-long financial crisis, which in which harsh austerity measures, including deep pension and wage cuts, were imposed on Greeks in return for three successive international bailouts.
The bank branch was on the route of a mass demonstration called during a general strike to protest austerity measures imposed for the country’s first bailout. The protest turned violent, with some hurling Molotov cocktails into the bank.
The fire spread quickly, trapping employees inside. When they made it out onto a small balcony, choking from the smoke, some in the crowd below shouted for them to be left to burn because they were working during a general strike. Firefighters were significantly delayed in reaching the site because of the large crowd.
Greek authorities reopened the inquiry into the deaths in 2020.
Greece’s financial crisis wiped out a quarter of the country’s economy, plunging it into a depression that saw poverty spiral and unemployment skyrocket to around 27%. The country’s economy has since gradually recovered, but the crisis left a deep mark on Greek society.
FILE- Bank employees trapped by a fire stand on a balcony at a Marfin Egnatia Bank branch during an anti-government protest in central Athens, Wednesday, May 5, 2010, where three bank employees died after the branch was firebombed during demonstrations against austerity measures at the start of Greece's financial crisis. (AP Photo/Iakovos Hatzistavrou, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will let the bipartisan housing bill approved by Congress become law without his signature, saying Friday that he was refusing to put his name on it because of the little progress made in passing a strict voter ID bill that he has been pushing.
“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump had 10 days until the Friday deadline to sign the bill, issue a veto, or allow the measure to take effect without his signature. He has chosen to let the measure become law without his express approval, undercutting his administration's claims that he considers it a priority to combat inflation.
Trump’s rejection of the bipartisan housing legislation exacerbates tensions with his own party in a midterm election year and cuts short their efforts to address a key voter concern about rising costs. His post comes more than a week after he canceled plans to sign the bipartisan legislation, announcing he was using it as leverage in his push for a strict voter ID bill.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act aims to lower the cost of housing and spur more home construction. It’s the broadest federal effort in decades to address America’s housing affordability problems, as state and local regulations have made it difficult to build in many of the communities that are also sources of job growth and economic opportunity. White House economists estimated earlier this year a national shortage of 10 million homes and the bill could help to close a portion of that gap.
But Trump called the bill “a yawn” and “so unimportant” compared to legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters.
He surprised Republican lawmakers on June 24, when, shortly before a planned signing ceremony at the Capitol, he announced he would not approve the bill until lawmakers first passed the voting legislation.
That bill, the SAVE America Act, doesn’t have enough Republican support to pass.
The housing bill passed the Senate on an 85-5 vote and the House approved it with an 358-32 vote.
That legislation seeks to cut federal housing rules, slim-down environmental reviews, make it faster to build homes and limit the ability of corporations to buy single-family homes.
The bill does not address all of the causes of the country’s housing woes, including a shortage of construction workers, climbing insurance costs and wages that have not risen fast enough for renters and buyers.
But the bill has drawn support from the real estate industry and housing advocates.
The U.S. housing market has been a driver of recent affordability challenges as skyrocketing prices have kept aspiring buyers out of the market. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that the median sales price increased 1.8% in June from a year earlier to $440,600, an all-time high on data going back to 1999.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in flight on Air Force One after landing at U.S. Air Force Base at RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, Eastern England, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
