Greece has qualified for the European soccer championships after beating Turkey 1-0 in Istanbul. Striker Yiannis Amanatidis scored the only goal of last night’s game in the 79th minute. The win means European champion Greece will be able to defend next year in Austria and Switzerland the title it won so improbably three years ago in Portugal.

Greece gets to Euro finals with ...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would conduct an official visit to Greece during the first half of 2008, accepting an invitation by his visiting Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias. In talks at the Elysee Palace, the two men discussed EU defense issues, the European Reform Treaty and bilateral ties, which Sarkozy described as “exceptional.” Papoulias, due to travel to Lisbon today for a European Council meeting, was expected to seek Sarkozy’s support on Greece’s dispute with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) later yesterday.

A total of 13 people were slightly injured in two bus crashes in Athens yesterday. The first accident occurred in Voula, southern Athens, when a bus collided with a cement-mixing truck. Six passengers and the bus driver were taken to the hospital for first-aid treatment. Six people were also injured when a bus collided with a taxi on Patission Street in the city center. Meanwhile, two people were injured in Hania, Crete, when a car crashed into a school bus that was not carrying any passengers.

The roof of the building housing the branch of the intercity bus company (KTEL) in the Peloponnesian town of Nafplion yesterday collapsed while renovation work was under way but no one was injured. The collapse of the roof also brought down part of the building’s external wall, prompting officials to cordon off the “problem area.” There were people both inside and outside the KTEL branch when the collapse occurred.

Judge Evangelos Kaloussis, who is standing trial on corruption charges, was yesterday accused of asking for a 30,000-euro bribe to rule in favor of a man claiming custody of a child that he had adopted from Bulgaria. The accuser, Costas Fragakis, alleged that he refused to pay Kaloussis the money and the judge ruled in favor of the child’s mother. Kaloussis denies the charges.

Police are looking for two foreign nationals who yesterday robbed a taxi driver at gunpoint near Larissis Station, near central Athens. The robbers caught the cab in Peristeri, western Athens, and pulled a handgun on the driver when they arrived at their destination. They took 60 euros in cash from the cabbie and then fired a shot at his windscreen before fleeing. The taxi driver, who was not named, was not injured.

A 20-year-old amateur boxer was arrested in Thessaloniki yesterday accused of nine counts of theft at service stations and kiosks around the city, police said. The suspect, a Georgian national, is believed to have robbed his victims of some 9,000 euros over the last seven months. Police said they launched a manhunt for three more men believed to have participated in the robberies with him.

A worker was fatally injured yesterday while helping to construct a canal in the area of Lagada, Thessaloniki, authorities said. The worker, aged 44, was crushed to death when struck by a cement chute, police said. There was no information given regarding the cause of the accident.

Greece’s Ombudsman yesterday called for the swift demolition of a cafe that is alleged to have been built illegally in a EU-protected area on the banks of Lake Kerkini in Serres, northern Greece. According to a report by the watchdog, local authorities built the two-floor building on a piece of public land, illegally, before leasing it to an individual who has allegedly been running a cafe there. Authorities are alleged to have ignored a series of rulings and the mayor of Kerkini, Iakovos Iakovidis, has been indicted to appear before a disciplinary committee.