A court ordered yesterday Dimitris Vrakatselis, the man accused of murdering Social Security Foundation (IKA) Chairman Yiannis Vartholomaios in February, to stand trial for the homicide. Vrakatselis admits to striking the late IKA chief but claims that Vartholomaios’s death was the result of his own health problems. According to court sources, Vrakatselis will be charged with murdering Vartholomaios on evidence that he had been lying in wait for the victim before launching a brutal attack against him and that there was a motive for the murder. Vrakatselis’s wife, Thomais, has admitted that she was having an affair with Vartholomaios.

Greece’s communication privacy watchdog yesterday fined the Greek branch of Swedish telecom equipment giant Ericsson 7.36 million euros (10 million dollars) in relation to a wire-tapping scandal in which even the Greek prime minister’s cell-phone was compromised. The level of the fine against Ericsson Hellas was imposed, bearing in mind the company’s turnover, the Greek authority on communication privacy (ADAE) said in a statement. Uncovered in February 2006, the illicit network had tapped Vodafone cell-phones containing Ericsson technology that were used by Greek PM Costas Karamanlis, his wife and several ministers from June 2004 to March 2005. (AFP)

Three Norwegian tourists who planned a holiday on the island of Rhodes landed in the small agricultural town of Rodez in southern France on Monday after misspelling their intended destination on their Internet booking, French airport officials said yesterday. The three travelers were reportedly surprised when they arrived in Rodez, the little-known capital of the mountainous Aveyron region. “We were told of the mistake... and tried to make their stay as agreeable as possible,” a local tourism official told Reuters.

An Athens appeals court yesterday decided to release the former vice dean of the city’s prestigious Panteion University who in June was sentenced to 16 years in jail after being found guilty of mismanaging university funds in the 1990s. Panagiotis Getimis appealed to be released, citing ”serious family problems.” Getimis was one of five academics jailed for mismanaging funds. Some of his former colleagues received multiple life sentences. The former vice dean was released after paying 50,000 euros in bail and agreeing to report to his local police station once a month.

A total of 55,000 euros was taken from banks in Thessaloniki yesterday in seperate heists, police said. The first robbery took place at a branch of Marfin Egnatia Bank at about 9.30 a.m. by two armed men who took some 48,000 euros, according to police. A few hours later, a second robbery was held at a branch of Bank of Cyprus by two armed assailants. The men took 7,000 euros from the bank before escaping by high-powered motorcycle, authorities added.

The General Secretariat for Consumer Protection announced the recall yesterday of Barbie dolls and accessories as well as Fisher-Price Geotrax products due to excessive levels of lead paint. It was the third such recall of Chinese-manufactured toys by the company Mattel this summer.

Two people, a man and a woman, were killed in a car accident in Kalyves, in northern Greece’s Halkidiki, yesterday when the vehicle they were traveling in collided with a utility truck. The 66-year-old driver and 70-year-old passenger were killed while the driver of the truck suffered minor injuries. It was unclear what provoked the collision.