A truck driver was killed and a second hospitalized in serious condition yesterday after they came to blows in the area of Elefsina, western Attica, over a work-related matter. The truckers had reportedly been sending offensive text messages to each other by mobile phone on Sunday night before the dispute escalated. According to police, the dead man had been stabbed while the second trucker had sustained a serious injury inflicted by a wooden club.

An additional barrier is to be erected around the site of Athens’s main landfill, surrounding an existing brick wall and barbed wire fence, to keep out scavenging residents from a neighboring Roma settlement, Deputy Interior Minister Thanassis Nakos has told Skai radio and television. This additional barrier will help keep intruders out and avert the accidents being caused by the presence of the scavengers, Nakos said.

Six road accidents yesterday in the northern region of Epirus – all involving motorcycles – resulted in the death of four people and the serious injury of two. A 33-year-old fireman driving toward Ioannina was killed when the motorcycle he had been driving hit a passenger car. Another motorcyclist, aged 52, was killed when his bike collided with a motorbike near Arta. A 78-year-old motorcyclist was killed near Preveza when his bike ran into a truck. Also near Preveza, a 27-year-old was killed when his bike came off the road. Two other motorcyclists were seriously injured – a 25-year-old near Arta and an 80-year-old near Ioannina – in collisions with cars.

Dozens of trucks are dumping tons of trash into a makeshift landfill on the fringes of a quarry at Markopoulo, southeast of Athens, Skai television reporters discovered following a late-night visit to the site. The trucks seen by Skai reporters deposited their loads – mostly household waste – before a bulldozer on the site covered the refuse with a layer of earth. There was no police intervention, even though a patrol car was parked near the entrance to the site, a Skai reporter said.

Thousands of aspiring university and college students across the country will receive the results of their entrance examinations today. The results, which are expected to be of an overall higher standard this year, will be displayed at the Education Ministry’s site, www.ypepth.gr.

Port Authority officials on the islands of Kos, Agathonisi and Lesvos yesterday detained a total of 69 illegal immigrants, including nine children. The would-be migrants had been trying to reach Greece from neighboring Turkey in rowboats which they destroyed on being spotted by officials.

Twelve firemen manning five fire engines were yesterday battling to extinguish a large blaze that broke out at a wood processing factory in Kissamos, northwestern Crete. It was unclear what provoked the blaze which did not cause any injuries.