A 25-year-old medical student has been arrested in the northern city of Kavala on suspicion of trading in child pornography, the Attica electronics crime squad said yesterday. Officers seized from his home two computer hard drives which had more than 200,000 photographs and videos stored on them. Police said that the material was particularly hardcore and contained indecent images of babies. Officers believe the unnamed student is part of an international ring of child pornographers and that he was supplying material to people abroad.

The two owners of the Faran pharmaceutical firm whose factory collapsed during the September 1999 earthquake in Athens, killing eight employees, were yesterday cleared of manslaughter charges by an Athens appeals court. Marios and Nikos Katsikas had appealed against a June 2004 guilty verdict carrying jail sentences of three years and eight months and two years and two months respectively. The court deemed that the factory owners could not have been aware of the factory building’s structural flaws when they took over the company.

An air force plane crashed yesterday during a training flight near the base of Araxos in the Peloponnese but the pilot ejected safely from the Corsair plane, authorities said. The cause of the crash, which occurred shortly after takeoff, was being investigated, authorities added.

The PASOK candidate for the Athens-Piraeus prefecture, Fofi Gennimata, may need a second round of voting to secure victory in the October 15 local elections. According to a VPRC poll made public by Skai TV and Radio yesterday, Gennimata will secure 39.5 percent of votes and her main opponent, New Democracy hopeful Argyris Dinopoulos, will garner 21.5 percent. However, Gennimata will need at least 42 percent to avoid a runoff poll against Dinopoulos a week later.

Police used tear gas at the main courthouse in Piraeus yesterday to deter some 100 people from observing the start of a trial which will examine the circumstances surrounding the death of five workers during an explosion on the Sailor tanker in October 2001. It was not clear why police fired tear gas, and prosecutors intervened to remove the officers from the scene so people could observe the trial freely.

Yesterday afternoon police on Crete rounded up eight migrants who had gone missing from the hotel they were being kept in since arriving on the island illegally. The Egyptian immigrants did not appear for roll call at the Eleftheria Hotel in Drapania, near Hania, and a full-scale search was ordered by authorities. The migrants were found shortly before 2 p.m. Meanwhile, police and coast guard detained 26 illegal immigrants on various parts of the eastern Aegean island of Samos yesterday. The migrants, all Afghans, were taken for medical checks and then to a reception center.

A new bus route between Politechnoupolis (the National Technical University of Athens’s residence halls) in Goudi and Neos Cosmos will begin operating today, the Athens Urban Transport Organization (OASA) said yesterday. The No 245 buses will run every 30 minutes from 7.45 a.m. to 10.30 p.m. every weekday. The new route will pass through Pangrati and the Athens University halls of residence, OASA said. More information is available by dialing 185 or logging on to www.oasa.gr.

Two youths, aged 19 and 17, were killed in a traffic accident on the island of Rhodes early yesterday after the motorbike they were traveling on slammed into an electricity pole. Meanwhile in Athens, two men, aged 18 and 40, were killed in separate motorcycle accidents in Palaio Faliron and Peristeri.

The Hellenic Food Authority (EFET) slapped fines totaling 347,000 euros on 18 food businesses yesterday for violating health regulations. The firms, which have also been referred to a prosecutor, include dairy companies, restaurants and butchers.