The trial of three of the five people arrested during a protest in Nikaia, near Piraeus, last Saturday for wearing hoods, was delayed yesterday while the other two were released on bail. The five had been taking part in a protest over the death of a Pakistani man shortly after being released from police custody. The suspects’ lawyer Costas Diakos called for the government to repeal a law passed by New Democracy earlier this year which criminalizes the wearing of hoods during rallies. There was also a sit-in protest in the rector’s office at the University of Athens yesterday by youths calling for the release of the five suspects.

Police said yesterday that they have arrested two men suspected of being involved in a fight near Omonia Square that led to four people being injured. Officers said that the two suspects are a 34-year-old Iranian and a 27-year-old Palestinian. Two people were shot and another two were stabbed during the fight, the cause of which was not clear.

A 10-year-old Roma child was in critical condition last night after being hit in a shootout between members of his family and another Roma family in Zefyri, northwestern Athens. According to police, the child was seriously injured when the rival family turned up outside his home and started firing. The child’s family returned fire from the windows and the child was hit in the thigh.

Authorities at primary schools in Metamorphosi, northern Athens, and the Thessaloniki district of Panorama decided to suspend lessons and clear the premises for disinfection after several children tested positive for the swine flu virus. Earlier this month another two schools were closed in the Cretan prefecture of Hania after several pupils tested positive for H1N1. This followed the closure of four schools in Attica, two state institutions and two private ones.

Eight immigrants who had hidden in the back of a truck on a 20-hour ferry trip to the Italian port of Ancona from Patra were detained yesterday, along with their suspected smugglers, coast guard officials said. Ferry workers released the migrants, who claimed to be Afghans, after hearing them banging on the sides of the truck as they were having trouble breathing.

Police on Crete yesterday were investigating the death of a 79-year-old man whose body was found in his home at Tsivara, in the prefecture of Hania, with 24 stab wounds to his neck. The victim, found on Monday by his niece, is believed to have died on Sunday.

An armed robber held up a branch of ProBank in Aghios Dimitrios, southern Athens, yesterday. The robber walked into the bank at 12.40 p.m. with a gun, forced employees to hand over the cash and fled. Meanwhile, thieves were unsuccessful in their attempt to steal an ATM from a bank in Oraiokastro, Thessaloniki. The assailants smashed the window of a bank and tried to yank the cash machine from its base but were unable to dislodge it.