An 8-month-old boy injured in a train crash outside Thessaloniki on Thursday remained in critical but stable condition yesterday, doctors said. Another 10 of the 18 passengers injured when the intercity train derailed also remained in hospital for precautionary reasons. None of their injuries were considered life-threatening by doctors.

New drivers make up a fifth of the people who die on Greek roads each year, according to data made public at an international conference in Halkidiki yesterday by transport experts Athanassios Tsioutras and Evangelos Bekiaris of the Hellenic Transport Institute. According to their figures, about six people in Greece are killed daily in the 20,000 road accidents that occur annually.

Greece will play its first international rugby match today. The hastily assembled Greek national team, coached by Englishman Kevin Green, will take on Austria in Vienna in a match sanctioned by the European Rugby Union (FIRA). Newcomer Greece will be taking on the more experienced Austrians as their original opponents, Slovakia, were not ready for the game. A return match in Athens will be scheduled as a precursor to the start of a domestic league in Greece.

None of the primary school pupils or teachers in the Peloponnesian village of Koutsoheras was injured after a fire broke out yesterday morning following a gas heater explosion in the building. The blast, which occurred during a break when all pupils were in the schoolyard, destroyed desks, chairs and books, according to the fire service. The school is expected to reopen on Monday when fresh supplies are due to arrive.

A 60-year-old woman was arrested yesterday after leaving a box of sweets with a check inside on the desk of an adviser to Deputy Labor Minister Gerasimos Giakoumatos. On opening the box, the official found a 5,000-euro check and informed authorities. The woman was arrested for alleged bribery.

A gang of Albanian nationals suspected of holding up several gas stations as well as dealing in drugs has been broken up, police said yesterday. Officers arrested two men, aged 26 and 33, and a 26-year-old woman in Ilion, western Athens, on Thursday morning. Police found some 41 kilos of cannabis, a gun and 73 bullets in their possession.

Students scuffled with police officers and damaged their patrol car at the Athens University campus in Zografou yesterday, authorities said. Police were called to the campus after a staff member reported that computers had been stolen from one of the departments. A mob of students attacked the police car but the officers were allowed to leave on foot after university authorities intervened. Under Greek law, police need permission from the dean to enter the grounds of a university.

A 30-year-old Pakistani man has admitted to killing a 25-year-old compatriot in the Athenian suburb of Aspropyrgos last month for 150 euros, police said yesterday. The unnamed man allegedly told a prosecutor that he killed the 25-year-old for his 150-euro paycheck but did not describe how he did it. The victim’s body was found on September 12 in the basement of the plastics factory where he had worked.

Police yesterday morning caught 15 Georgian illegal immigrants at the Kipoi border crossing in Evros after stopping a coach in which the migrants had been hidden. The two suspected smugglers, a Greek and a Georgian, slipped away during the search, police said. The migrants had been concealed in specially made compartments within the truck.

A 68-year-old man made a miraculous escape late Thursday night after his car plunged into the sea at the port on the Ionian island of Corfu, the coast guard said. The pensioner swam to safety and was taken to a local hospital for observation.