A man does some window shopping at a store in central Athens yesterday. The retail sales season kicks off today. Stores will offer discounts for the next five weeks. The Development Ministry said that inspectors will be checking shops to see whether the sales are genuine and to catch retailers using the discounts as an excuse to dump inferior-quality products.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis expressed his condolences yesterday to the people of Kosovo after the death of the UN-administered province’s president, Ibrahim Rugova, on Saturday. “His absence makes harder the already difficult and complicated effort to establish the future form of government in Kosovo,” Karamanlis said. Rugova died from lung cancer at the age of 61.

Kosovo mourns Rugova, searches for a successor...

The deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court Giorgos Sanidas visited Korydallos Prison on Saturday to question lawyers Sakis Kehayioglou and Giorgos Nikolakopoulos, who were remanded in custody last month in connection with an alleged trial-fixing ring. Kehayioglou is being represented by lawyer and former MP Dimitris Tsovolas, who said his client gave detailed answers.

A 57-year-old male teacher was charged on Saturday with raping and molesting a 15-year-old boy he had been tutoring, police said yesterday. The unnamed man was caught after the teenager’s father placed a secret camera in the boy’s room and allegedly recorded the suspect molesting his son. Officers said their investigation revealed that the teacher had been molesting the child since last October and had raped him last month.

A 40-year-old man was arrested in Peristeri, western Athens, yesterday, accused of torching 11 cars and beating up a 15-year-old girl. He is suspected of attacking the girl, his neighbor’s daughter, with a wooden club. The suspect told authorities he started burning the cars last March to get back at the owners who had testified against him about the attack against the girl.

A policeman in Corinth was arrested yesterday as he was accepting a 1,000-euro bribe from a homeowner so the officer would not press charges about an illegally built home, police said.