Water levels in the Evros River have been dropping for the last 48 hours, officials said yesterday. The level of the water at Pythio was only 7 centimeters above the emergency limit. Despite the falling river level, engineers from the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry confirmed that some 24,000 hectares had been submerged. As of yesterday, water had begun receding from the flooded areas. The cost of the damage has not yet been officially estimated.

A 21-year-old boxer was rushed to a hospital in Patras yesterday after collapsing following a match at a local sports hall. Doctors at the University Hospital in Patras, who treated Dimitris Livadas, said he suffered brain swelling and hemorrhaging. They did not give any more information about his condition. Another boxer, Thanassis Biliordos, died after a boxing match at the same sports hall in September 2000.

“Thirty-Nine Pounds of Love” by Dani Menkin of the USA and “Sugar Town – The Bridegrooms” by Greece’s Kimon Tsakiris walked off with the audience award and a cash prize of 3,000 euros in the international and Greek competition respectively of the 8th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which concluded yesterday. The FIPRESCI international film critics’ union gave its award to “Yiannis Moralis” by Stelios Haralambopoulos (Greece) and “Iraq in Fragments” by James Longley (USA).

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The new bishop of Piraeus, Seraphim, was ordained yesterday and shunned traditional gifts from worshippers, saying he had never desired “earthly pleasures.” Seraphim, who replaced the aging and ill Kallinikos, said he would strive to be “a father to everyone” and promised that his door would always be open to his faithful.

The central political committee of Synaspismos Left Coalition said the party is committed to bringing about full and stable employment after a meeting in Athens over the weekend. It suggested that any firms which make profits and employ more than 20 people should be made to hire unemployed workers under the age of 30 to make up at least 4 percent of their work force or be taxed an extra 5 percent on their profits. Synaspismos said this would create 90,000 jobs.

Three armed men held up a gas station on the Athens-Corinth national road yesterday morning. The hooded men forced the 45-year-old employee to hand over 700 euros and then locked him in the toilet.