Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis yesterday reiterated Greece’s support for Serbia’s course toward EU membership following a ceremony in Belgrade during which Serbia’s new reformist President Boris Tadic officially assumed his duties. Molyviatis congratulated Tadic after the swearing-in ceremony and told him that Greece would continue to boost Serbia’s efforts to join the EU and NATO and to develop bilateral and regional cooperation. PASOK leader, former Foreign Minister George Papandreou, also attended the ceremony and met with officials of Tadic’s Democratic Party.

Package on market deregulation soon

Five people were killed yesterday after an Athens-bound car veered into the opposite lane of the Athens-Lamia national road, just outside Lamia, and crashed into another vehicle carrying a five-member family. The driver of the first car, 59-year-old Giorgos Sakkas, was killed instantly, as were Vassileios Zacharis, 54; his wife Eleni, 45; and their children Giorgos, 15, and Fotini, 16. Their third child Danae, whose age was not reported, was yesterday in critical condition. Three people in a third vehicle struck by the Zacharis’s car were slightly injured. It was unclear what provoked the accident.

Martial arts movie star Jackie Chan will be one of three Chinese nationals to participate in the final stages of the Olympic Torch Relay in Thessaloniki before it returns to Athens, Chinese state media confirmed yesterday. The two other torchbearers are Sun Wen, former captain of China’s women’s soccer team, and actor Pu Chunxi, according to media reports. The torch is due in Thessaloniki on July 23. It is currently on the island of Crete.

Hundreds of left-wing demonstrators on Saturday marched through central Athens and encircled the Acropolis as a symbolic protest against US and NATO involvement in security arrangements for next month’s Olympic Games. The protest ended peacefully.