PASOK's Constantina Bei was named the new Athens-Piraeus prefect on Saturday. She was voted in by PASOK councilors at the Athens and Piraeus prefectures after the previous prefect, Fofi Gennimata, stepped down to run as a parliamentary candidate. The Supreme Court blocked Gennimata's bid as the Constitution states that local authority officials must see out their term in office before they can stand as MPs. Bei had previously served as deputy Athens-Piraeus prefect in charge of health matters.

Nine people were killed and five injured in three car crashes over the weekend, authorities said. Four people died and two were injured when a truck, a car and two motorcycles were involved in a pileup on a country road between Arachova and Livadia, central Greece. Three people were killed and one seriously injured in Thessaloniki early yesterday when the car in which they were traveling struck an electricity pole and caught fire. A 62-year-old man was killed in Voula, southern Athens, early yesterday when the car he was driving collided with a truck. Two people traveling in the truck were injured. A motorcycle rider also died when he crashed his bike on Vassilisis Sofias Avenue at around 7 a.m. yesterday.

About nine in 10 residents of the small Dodecanese island of Leipsoi refrained from voting yesterday due to a protest over poor ferry links with other islands and the port of Piraeus. Residents raised a banner over the polling station, saying that anyone voting in the general elections was a traitor. Just over 1,000 people are registered to vote on the island but by yesterday evening, reports indicated that only 68 voters had cast their ballots.

Police said yesterday they had found the body of a young woman abandoned in an isolated area of Varibobi, north of Athens. An autopsy showed the woman had suffered a single gunshot wound to the head. Police said the unidentified woman was likely to have been murdered some three months ago.

Firefighters yesterday had partially controlled a forest fire that broke out in a forest area close to Florina in northeastern Greece. Two planes and a helicopter were involved in the operation to put out the blaze which destroyed about five hectares.

A fire broke out on a Greek ship carrying nearly 600 Russian cars from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk to Turkey overnight Friday, the interfax news agency reported. The ship, Ange de Mer, flying the Maltese flag, was between 40 and 45 kilometers southwest of Novorossiysk. A ministry official quoted by Interfax said 21 crew members including 18 Russians and three Greeks were on board the Ange de Mer. (AFP)