A high-speed car chase in central Greece last night ended after police shot dead one man. Police in Almyros, near Volos, had tried to stop the car, in which three men were traveling toward Athens, for a check, but the driver accelerated and the chase began. According to news reports, the police saw what they thought was the flash of a gun from the vehicle during the chase and fired back, resulting in the death of one man. The other two men escaped. All three are believed to be foreigners. A search of the car revealed 20 kilos of cannabis.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has reinstated a rebel New Democracy MP who had been dismissed from ND’s parliamentary group for criticizing several senior government aides, it was revealed late on Tuesday. The official reinstatement of Stavros Dailakis, confirmed by Karamanlis in a letter to Parliament, consolidated ND’s 152-seat majority in the 300-seat Parliament, which had fallen to 151.

An unidentified 38-year-old man was shot in the shoulder by a neighbor in the mountain village of Zoniana, Crete, yesterday over a property dispute. Police are searching for a 35-year-old man in connection to the shooting. An attempted police raid on suspected drug dealers in the mountain village last November resulted in the injury of three officers.

Nine children were taken to the hospital for observation after the school bus in which they were traveling was involved in an accident with a car in Argyroupolis, eastern Athens, yesterday. There were no reports of any serious injuries.

Pupils in some 20 state senior high schools in Attica, Thessaloniki, Tripoli and Corinth have begun holding sit-ins to protest against conditions in the school buildings, as well as the work load.

Taxi drivers and owners in Hania, Crete, are to be given training seminars this month in an attempt to improve services. The seminars, organized by the Tourism Development Ministry, are part of a countrywide effort that will cover 2,400 drivers, 800 of these on Crete.

The capital has acquired a new, three-story underground parking garage with a capacity for 750 vehicles next to the Athens Concert Hall. Open daily as of October 12, motorists will be charged 7 euros for the first three hours and 1 euro for each additional hour. Holders of tickets for events at the Concert Hall will pay 7 euros for the entire performance, for parking time beginning one hour before the show and up to 1 hour after.

Armed robbers netted a total of 24,269 euros in two raids within half an hour in Thessaloniki yesterday morning. Two masked men armed with handguns held up a branch of Piraeus Bank at 10.15 a.m. and escaped by motorcyle with just over 17,000 euros. Thirty minutes later, a branch of Hellenic Postbank was robbed, again by two masked, armed men who fled on a motorbike after grabbing 7,000 euros.