A new rector was elected at the Technical University of Crete yesterday but not before hooded youths had stolen a ballot box and ripped up votes that had been cast in what had been seen as something of a precursor for how smoothly things will run in the tertiary education sector in the new academic year. Joachim Gryspolakis was named as the new rector after the electoral board decided to simply disregard the votes that had been destroyed.

Olympiakos's Champions League qualifying match against Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus was marred by clashes before the game last night. Olympiakos fans attacked about 1,500 Cypriot fans that gathered at the Karaiskaki Stadium in Neo Faliron for the game. Details of arrests and injuries were not immediately available. Olympiakos lost the first leg of the tie 3-0 and had to better this score last night to go through to the group stages of the tournament. The Piraeus club's bitter rival, Panathinaikos, secured its place in the next round of the competition with a 1-0 win over Sparta Prague in Athens on Tuesday night, which meant the Greens won the tie 3-1 on aggregate.

An explosion that caused minor damage to a bar in Porto Rafti, southeastern Attica, in the early hours of yesterday morning, has been attributed to a settling of accounts by rival entrepreneurs. It was unclear what kind of device was used to cause the blast which caused no injuries. The Del-Mare was targeted about 10 years ago with a hand grenade, police said.

A man who was killed yesterday after falling onto the tracks at the KAT station of the Athens-Piraeus electric railways (ISAP) appears to have committed suicide, police said. The man, who jumped in front of an approaching train, was not identified. The incident led to the temporary suspension of services on the line.

Two men and one woman in Serres, northern Greece, were charged with human trafficking, detaining someone against their will and serial rape after police released a 31-year-old Bulgarian woman who had been kept in a remote house where she was allegedly forced to have sex with various men. The woman, who had come to Greece to work as a tobacco picker, had been kept in the house for nine days, according to police, who said they were tipped off by Bulgarian colleagues when the woman's husband contacted them to inform them that his wife had phoned home and told him of her experience. The two men charged are Bulgarian nationals, aged 29 and 49. The 29-year-old female suspect is also from Bulgaria.

Police in Attica said yesterday that they have arrested four Iraqis suspected of selling forged documents to migrants in Attica for between 300 and 500 euros. Officers said they found the four suspects in possession of 54 passports but did not give any further information as to their identity.