Authorities will be on standby in Athens today for people experiencing health problems due to the hot weather as the temperature is expected to hit 37C (99F). The Athens City Council will open its doors to the public at 25 air-conditioned municipal facilities around the city. More information is available by dialing 1539. Temperatures are expected to ease as of tomorrow.

The Education Ministry announced yesterday the names of 5,220 teachers that have been appointed to preschools and primary and secondary schools for the next academic year. The names of physical education and English-language teachers will be announced on Monday. The next ASEP (Supreme Council for Personnel Selection) exams for teachers are expected to be held in mid-December.

A fire that burned for more than a week at the Tagarades landfill in Thessaloniki did not have a lasting impact on air quality, the mayor of the northern city, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, said yesterday. During a press conference at which he presented the air-pollution readings from the last few days, Papageorgopoulos said that the levels of suspended particles in the air were below the permissible limit. Scientists suggested that the fire had released dangerous dioxins in the air.

A 55-year-old Greek man was arrested at Athens International Airport after attempting to board a flight to Vienna with two Iraqi women and a child who had forged Greek passports, airport police said yesterday. Officers believe the man was part of a ring which helped immigrants travel to Scandinavian countries. The women and the child had been due to travel to Sweden from Vienna.

The Veria Bar Association yesterday called all the lawyers involved in the Alex Meshivili case to a disciplinary hearing to decide whether they were in breach of the lawyers’ code of ethics. The lawyers have repeatedly appeared on television in recent weeks to discuss the case of the 11-year-old’s disappearance from the northern city in February.

Two boys, aged 11 and 14, were arrested yesterday on suspicion of robbing a taxi driver, police said. Four boys allegedly threatened a cabbie with a screwdriver after he had taken them to Ano Liosia, northwestern Athens. The children beat the driver and stole 120 euros and his mobile phone, officers said. The boys had allegedly stolen 115 euros from a taxi driver a few days earlier. Police said they are looking for the two other boys who were in the cab at the time of the attack.

Police said yesterday that the roommate of a 35-year-old Pakistani man found murdered on Wednesday in his apartment in Peristeri, western Athens, had confessed to killing the victim. The two men had been sharing the apartment for six years but became embroiled in an argument over personal differences, police said.

A 56-year-old man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of selling drugs to addicts in Omonia Square, central Athens, police said. The unnamed suspect had 41 grams of heroin, 96 grams of methadone, 12 grams of cannabis and a weighing scale in his possession when he was caught, officers said.

A 14-year-old suspected thief who escaped from police custody in Athens on Thursday morning was recaptured in central Greece yesterday, officers said. The boy had escaped from police headquarters in central Athens as he was being taken to face a prosecutor. He was caught in the village of Avlaki in Stylida.