Police broke a child pornography ring and charged 21 people with possessing and trafficking hard-core material on the Internet, in the biggest case of its type in Greece. Police said they had detained 13 men and were searching for the rest, who are aged between 25 and 50. They include a doctor, a businessman, a therapist and a shepherd who had created a high-tech Internet corner in his sheep pen. A police operation, code-named Carousel, has been tracking the suspects over the last eight months.

An Athens taxi driver was yesterday in the hospital with stab wounds after being attacked by a young man who allegedly got into his cab, stabbed him and then dragged him out of the car before driving off. The car was allegedly hijacked near the Syngrou-Fix metro station and traced by police to the district of Kallithea.

A Trikala man was arrested yesterday after shooting at two children with an air gun, slightly injuring one of them in the head. The child was in stable condition in the hospital yesterday. The man, whose age was not determined, allegedly told police that he fired his gun at the children because they were making a lot of noise while playing.

Olympic Airlines domestic flights are set to return to normal today following three weeks of strike action by pilots that had provoked daily cancellations and delays. The pilots, who are in a dispute over their collective work contract, said they are suspending their action as an “act of good will” to passengers as the tourist season begins.

Authorities in Kavala, northeastern Greece, yesterday warned people to avoid consuming unpasteurized milk or dairy products after several residents of the nearby island of Thasos displayed symptoms of brucellosis, a serious bacterial disease that causes fever, joint pain and fatigue. It was unclear yesterday how many residents had actually contracted brucellosis. Checks were being carried out on local farm animals too.

A ferry carrying 206 passengers and 60 crew crashed into a pier on Patmos yesterday morning but no one was injured. The impact tore a 20-centimeter gash in the ship’s stern but there were no reports of any fuel leaks.

A 50-year-old man was killed yesterday after being hit by a train at Mezourlou, near central Greece’s Larissa, in an apparent suicide, police said. The man fell in front of the cargo train, traveling from Athens to Thessaloniki, at about 8.25 a.m. for no apparent reason, according to authorities. The station master notified police and ambulance workers, who confirmed the man’s death upon arrival.

Police arrested a 32-year-old woman and her 55-year-old male partner in Thessaloniki yesterday after allegedly kidnapping a Romanian woman and attempting to force her into prostitution. The couple had promised the 34-year-old woman a job as a housekeeper when the man starting beating and raping her over a three-month period. The victim informed authorities that she had been kidnapped by the 32-year-old woman when she went to the Romanian Consulate to renew her passport.

Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis signed a three-year cooperation agreement with his Moscow counterpart Yury Luzhkov in Russia yesterday. The 2008-2010 agreement will focus on the environment, culture, sport and mass media along with developing ties between small and medium-sized businesses in each city.