An Albanian immigrant has been arrested in Athens for using forged 50-euro notes to pay for a series of minor purchases in the capital’s shops, police said yesterday. The suspect, Artur Rubiye, 22, was allegedly carrying seven forged 50-euro notes at the time of his arrest. Police who raided his Athens flat said they had found another 42 counterfeit banknotes of the same denomination. Officers are also seeking a second Albanian believed to have been Rubiye’s accomplice. Meanwhile, a second man was arrested in Athens after allegedly trying to buy a telephone with a forged 500-euro note, police said yesterday.

Three people were burnt to death and a fourth was seriously injured when their car slewed off a highway north of Athens and fell off a bridge. The victims were identified as driver Ioannis Saratsopoulos, 45, Stamatia Hochlakaki, 66, and Ukrainian national Larissa Saveva, 36, while another Ukrainian woman, Irina Cerva, 42, was seriously hurt. Police attributed the crash, near Malakasa on the Athens-Lamia highway, to speeding.

New Democracy enjoys a 7.7-percent lead over socialist PASOK ahead of the June 13 elections for the European Parliament, according to a poll published in yesterday’s Eleftheros Typos newspaper. The nationwide poll gave ND 41.1 percent, over PASOK’s 33.4 percent.