The parents of an 18-year-old girl from Drama in northern Greece who died late on Thursday said yesterday they were planning to sue the hospital they claim failed to diagnose the student's case of appendicitis. The parents of the unnamed girl said they first took her to the hospital in Drama on Sunday and then again on Wednesday as she complained of stomach pains. She was taken to a hospital in Kavala for an operation on Thursday but suffered three heart attacks and died. Hospital authorities refused to comment on the incident and a sworn investigation has been ordered.

The number of foreigners living in Greece rose sharply from 1990-2004, according to Eurostat, which said yesterday that 8.1 percent of the population are non-Greeks. The figure in 1990 stood at 1.4 percent. The majority of new residents come from Albania, the EU statistics bureau added, as Greece recorded one of the highest population increases of foreigners in the EU.

Residents in Rizoupolis said yesterday that they are appealing to the Council of State to stop the demolition of the Columbia records building on the grounds that it is a historic monument. Demolition teams have begun pulling down the Columbia complex of buildings, apart from the entrance and the main dwelling which have been classified as being of historic interest.

Police said yesterday that a 25-year-old man has confessed to the murder of artist Panayiotis Korovesis. Korovesis was found dead after being stabbed 32 times in his studio in Kolonaki in early April. The suspect said that he had argued with the artist and was threatened at gunpoint by Korovesis when he stabbed him in self defense.

An armed man held up a Wackenhut security guard who was about to refill an ATM machine with 20,000 euros in cash in Kolonos, police said yesterday. The suspect, wearing a hat and sunglasses, made off with a case containing the cash. Separately, two men held up a branch of Greek Postal Service (ELTA) in central Athens and took an unknown amount of cash.

Ballot boxes were prepared in Nicosia yesterday for tomorrow's parliamentary elections in Cyprus when some 500,000 registered voters will decide which parties will be represented in the 56-seat Parliament. President Tassos Papadopoulos's DIKO party was ahead in the most recent poll. Some 270 Turkish Cypriots have registered to vote and a Turkish-Cypriot woman is running with the United Democrats Party (EDI), which currently has one seat in Parliament.

Two men have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery at an Athens brothel and the kidnap of a 27-year-old prostitute, police said yesterday. The suspects, aged 25 and 40, allegedly held up the brothel around a month ago, stealing some 1,000 euros in cash and forcing a Russian woman who was working there to leave with them. The men are said to have raped the woman and tried to sell her to another group of men for 4,000 euros. The 27-year-old, however, managed to escape and report the matter to the police.

The German School of Athens is celebrating 110 years since it was founded with an event at the Athens Concert Hall tomorrow. The school, located in Maroussi, was founded in 1896 by the well-known architect and archeologist Wilhelm Doerpfeld.