NEWS

In Brief

ROAD ACCIDENTS

Five deaths, 2 injuries in three weekend collisions An Albanian immigrant couple and their 9-year-old son were crushed under a bus near the border on Saturday as they headed for Albania for a holiday, in one of three serious weekend road accidents. The car in which the couple, Dimiter Motro, 45, and his wife Lavdie, 40, were traveling in with their two children, Mario and Ornella, hit an oncoming bus when Motro tried to overtake other cars. Their daughter was seriously injured. No one in the bus was hurt. In Athens, Yiannis Mavrokefalidis, 24, and his passenger, Spaska Constantinova, 30, were killed when their car went out of control on Kifissou Avenue early yesterday and collided with another car driven by Dimitris Kapolis, 41, who was injured. In another accident yesterday, on the Sindos-Halastra road near Thessaloniki, 20-year-old Nikoleta Kotoula was killed when her car crashed into a tree. OLYMPIC WORKS Thrakomakedones residents lodge appeal against road project A lawyer representing 26 residents of Thrakomakedones in western Athens on Saturday lodged an appeal with the Council of State, demanding that government decisions on the construction of a road link between Kymis Avenue and the Thrakomakedones community be ruled in contravention of domestic and European legislation. Protesters claim that the decision to approve the final study for the project is illegal and harmful to the environment. The road is a vital link between the Olympic village that will house some 10,000 athletes and the main sports complex. NOVEMBER 17 Tzortzatos ruling today The court presiding over the trial of 19 suspected members of the November 17 terror group is today due to rule on an objection lodged on Friday by the lawyer of defendant Vassilis Tzortzatos that his client’s testimonies had been extracted using threats. Patroklos Tselentis, 43 – a shipping company employee who has admitted to participating in N17 activities during 1983 and 1988 – will become the fifth defendant to testify in the trial at Korydallos jail today. Olympic rowing A group of 25 young rowers yesterday had their first training session at the new Olympic Rowing Center at Schinias ahead of an Olympic test event starting on Wednesday in which they – and more than 500 other athletes from all over the world – are due to participate. Athens 2004 Organizing Committee President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki and International Olympic Committee Athens inspection chief Denis Oswald are due to attend an opening ceremony for the test event at the new rowing center this evening. Warehouse blast The 43-year-old owner of a furniture warehouse in the Athenian district of Peristeri was seriously injured following an explosion on the premises of his business about half an hour after midnight on Friday. The explosion occurred when Georgios Nikolousios lit a cigarette after walking into the warehouse, according to police, who said it was likely that flammable liquid had been spilt inside the warehouse. Nikolousios was on Saturday transferred from Nikaia’s general hospital to the intensive care department of Athens’s Aghios Savvas. The extent of his injuries was unclear yesterday. Swimming medals The Greek team left the European swimming championships in Glasgow yesterday with six medals, including the gold in the 200-meter butterfly race for 16-year-old Vassiliki Angelopoulou, who set a new European record. A total of 22 athletes who have won medals in World and European junior competitons are to be honored by Sports Minister Giorgos Lianis at the offices of the General Secretariat for Sport in Athens today. Aegean Regatta More than 90 vessels will be participating at the Aegean Ministry’s annual Aegean Regatta which starts today from the port of Myrina on Lemnos and will be culminating at Kamariotissa on Samothrace after completing the traditional route of 43.5 nautical miles. Rallying call Development Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos yesterday called for PASOK deputies «to rally together and exert their strength to the utmost» in response to a letter from PASOK MP for Hania, Sifis Valyrakis, calling for a session of PASOK’s parliamentary group to discuss what he called the «slackening of democratic functioning.» «We need to project a new strategy… for democratic development in the economy, society, the environment and quality of life,» Tsochadzopoulos said. Highspeed delay A high-speed ferry bringing 200 passengers back to Piraeus from Sifnos, Santorini and Paros sailed into the port at 5.15 a.m. yesterday following a delay of around 4.5 hours, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. Meningitis scare Around 150 children at a holiday camp in the coastal resort of Loutraki, near Corinth, were sent home on Friday after a 7-year-old resident was diagnosed with meningitis, reports said yesterday. Doctors said that the form of meningitis the boy was infected with was not contagious. In any case, the camp – set up for the children of local Agricultural Bank employees – was being disinfected over the weekend. The boy was treated at Athens’s Aghia Sophia Children’s hospital.

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