Inspections on two state hospitals in Attica uncovered hundreds of kilos of rotten meat and fish, prefectural officials said yesterday. The spoiled food - 91 kilos of raw beef at the Erythros Stavros Hospital and 258 kilos of frozen fish at the Aghia Olga Hospital - has been confiscated and an Athens prosecutor has been briefed, officials from the prefectural veterinarian department said. In both cases, the foodstuffs had not borne a label indicating their expiry date, they said.

Government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros yesterday evaded reporters' questions regarding the possibility of further tax hikes, stressing his conviction that this week's hikes would serve their purpose. «The government is convinced that if the measures in question are implemented as they should be, they will lead us to our final goal, which is clear.» Antonaros had been quizzed following Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis's assertion that «there are no final measures when it comes to taxation.»

Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish prefectural officials yesterday agreed on the need to implement a system to monitor the flow of water in the rivers the three countries share. The officials, meeting in Orestiada, agreed that a common system must be implemented as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos told Parliament that those who suffered losses in last month's Evros floods will be compensated within two months of the damage assessment.

The government yesterday said that it would be selling off further shares in the country's state-controlled gaming firm (OPAP), reducing its stake to 34 percent from its current 51 percent.

More OPAP privatization

Albanian judicial authorities do not have any evidence of Greek fugitive drug dealer Apostolos Vavilis having been involved in Albania's notorious pyramid scandal of 1996-1997, Albania's Prosecutor-General Theodhori Sollaku told Greece's Supreme Court prosecutor Dimitris Linos yesterday. Albania's biggest fraud case, the scandal brought the country's economy to its knees and robbed thousands of Albanian citizens of their savings.

A total of 18 Turkish military jets, including four photo-reconnaissance aircraft, yesterday violated Greek air space in the northern and central Aegean six times before being chased off by Greek fighters, military sources said.

The disgraced bishop of Attica, Panteleimon, yesterday appealed to the Council of State against his six-month suspension from the Church. The bishop was charged on Thursday with embezzling Church funds and has been implicated in a trial-fixing ring.

Nine conscripts sustained minor injuries yesterday when an army lorry in which they were traveling on the island of Kos veered off course and overturned, army sources said.

The 37-year-old owner of a plant nursery in the region of Spata was shot in the thigh yesterday as she tried to stop two armed robbers from fleeing with her takings, police said. The robbers had fired twice in the air to shock the storekeeper but one of the bullets ricocheted back, injuring the woman, according to police.

A group of around 40 youths caused damage to at least six stores in the central Athenian district of Exarchia yesterday evening when they started pelting the businesses with stones and other projectiles, police said. The vandals, who had initially targeted two bookstores on Solonos Street, all managed to evade arrest.

Director Pantelis Voulgaris was yesterday appointed president of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.