In Brief
DEADLY CRASH
Five killed as truck hits car Five people were killed on the Antirio-Ioannina national road near Mesolongi early yesterday morning when a truck collided head on with a car. Dimitrios Bertsias, the 30-year-old truckdriver, Theodoros Fytropoulos, the 77-year old car driver, Fytropoulos’s 59-year-old wife Irene, his 39-year-old niece Irene and the latter’s 7-year-old son, were all killed instantly. Soccer violence A group of around 15 supporters of Olympiakos soccer team threw stones at an Athens blue bus carrying over a dozen Panathinaikos supporters yesterday evening, smashing the bus windows and slightly injuring the driver. The incident occurred at the junction of Liosion and Paioniou streets in central Athens at 7.30 p.m. after Olympiakos and Panathinaikos had finished playing matches against other teams. Dud checks A man and woman, aged 53 and 50, used dud checks to buy more than 1 million euros’ worth of agricultural equipment, fodder and medicines from suppliers, police in Attica said yesterday, following the arrest on Saturday of Constantinos Liakopoulos. In February, the couple allegedly used fake checks to import from Germany 300 calfs which they have since sold to farmers on the islands. They are now seeking Fotini Papatheodorou. Migrants detained A group of 21 illegal immigrants, dumped by smugglers on a rocky islet in the eastern Aegean on Saturday and stranded due to high winds, was transferred to Patmos yesterday evening, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. The migrants had been picked up from the islet of Agathonisi following their transfer there from the smaller rocky islet of Piato, the ministry said. Meanwhile, coast guards are searching off the southern Peloponnese for the vessel which left 120 immigrants on the island of Kythera on Friday. Fraudsters caught The Nigerian owner of an Internet cafe in central Athens and another four Nigerians have been charged with defrauding banks and an airline firm of around 27,000 euros, Attica police said yesterday after arresting the five men. The unnamed Internet cafe owner allegedly created an electronic database of credit card numbers, belonging to foreign nationals and issued by foreign banks, which he used to pay for international flights for his fellow countrymen, according to police. Fuel scam In a decision made public on Saturday, the Council of State has rejected an appeal by the Mamidoil-Jetoil fuel firm chairman, Kyriakos Mamidakis, against an lower court decision fining him 7.98 million euros for dodging taxes and duties.
