NEWS

In Brief

ARSON DEATH

Man charged with starting blaze in his brother’s house A man was charged yesterday with murder, attempted murder and arson after being arrested for setting fire last Friday to the house in which his brother and sister-in-law were sleeping with their three young children. Officers apprehended Constantinos Karalis, 50, as he was trying to hang himself after the attack, in the village of Lappa in the northwestern Peloponnese, which led to the death of his sister-in-law, Mavra Karali. Karalis’s brother, Athanassios is in critical condition. The couple’s three children escaped with minor burns, having pulled their parents out of the burning house. FIRE WARNING Heat, winds heighten risk in southern Greece, islands With high temperatures and strong winds expected, much of southern Greece and several of the Aegean Islands are at considerable risk of fire today, the Interior Ministry warned yesterday. The areas designated as under the highest threat were Attica, the Argolid, Evia, the Cyclades, Icaria and Samos, as well as the prefectures of Corinth, Hania, Lasithi and Rethymnon. Yesterday, fires broke out on the island of Skyros and off the national road near Nemea in the northeastern Peloponnese but were soon brought under control. CYPRUS SETTLERS European court to hear suit The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to hear a suit by a Turkish-Cypriot opposition party against the participation of Turkish settlers in the electoral process to be held in December in the Turkish-occupied northern section of Cyprus, according to an Athens News Agency report from Nicosia yesterday. The court’s decision, in response to a petition by the Patriotic Unity Movement, was welcomed yesterday by Cypriot Foreign Minister Giorgos Iacovou. According to Council of Europe estimates released in late June, the current number of settlers stands at 115,000, while the Turkish-Cypriot population stood at 87,600 in 2001 – down from 118,000 in 1974, when Turkey invaded the island. Faliraki murder A British tourist, Peter Mark Navarro, was ordered remanded in custody yesterday pending trial for the murder of a 17-year-old UK national last Tuesday in a nightclub at a seaside resort on Rhodes. Navarro, 21, allegedly slashed Paddy Doran’s throat with a broken bottle during a drunken brawl at Faliraki, a popular destination among young Britons. Another five UK nationals charged with complicity in the murder were released on bail of 4,000 euros. All charges were dropped against two more Britons arrested after the killing, Thomas Delangy, 27, and Brian Malais, 25. Hotel assault A worker at a hotel on Rhodes was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting an 11-year-old British girl in her room, The Associated Press reported. The 66-year-old man’s name was not released. The attack took place at the resort of Faliraki. Rescue A lifeguard at a cafeteria in Alimos, a coastal suburb of Athens, rescued a young girl who hit her head and lost consciousness while playing in the cafeteria’s swimming pool yesterday evening. The woman lifeguard immediately pulled the child out of the water and performed first aid. The girl, whose age was not given, was being treated at the Aghia Sofia Children’s Hospital last night and was reported to be out of danger. Stations out Pefkakia and Perissos will tomorrow join the list of stations which will be out of service due to refurbishment being carried out along the Piraeus-Kifissia electric railway line. Passengers will have to use temporary platforms that have been set up between the two stations. The ISAP railway’s management did not say how long the disruption will last. University scam Two former employees at the Athens Panteion University have been charged with illegally enrolling in 1998 and 1999 at least 16 students who lacked the necessary credentials, according to a report in yesterday’s Ta Nea daily.

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