NEWS

In Brief

MALIA ACCIDENT

Second child succumbs in hospital after being hit by car at Cretan resort A 9-year-old Briton identified by police as Nikhill Ponja died in hospital yesterday in the northern Cretan city of Iraklion, one day after being hit by a car while trying to cross a major road at night with a group of British tourists trying to reach their hotel at the Malia resort. A second boy, 10-year-old Amar Phyll, was killed on the spot while a third British national, identified as Dean Ferrar, 27, was seriously hurt. Another three people were hospitalized with less serious injuries. The group of tourists had just got off a coach which left them on the busy highway. Meanwhile yesterday, seven German teenagers were lightly injured yesterday when the two coaches their group was traveling was involved in a pile-up outside the northwestern Peloponnesian city of Patras. ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISPLAYS Delphi, Kerameikos museums reopen after lengthy refurbishment The Delphi Archaeological Museum, which hosts one of the country’s most significant collections of ancient art, officially opened to the public again yesterday following months of refurbishment work. On Monday, Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis is due to inaugurate the Kerameikos Archaeological Museum inside the most important cemetery of ancient Athens. The museum was closed down a year and a half ago for renovation. The exhibition will include finds from excavations carried out in the area in the 1990s during construction work for the Athens metro. EXTRA TUITION Private schools can offer classes Education Minister Marietta Giannakou yesterday adopted a ruling by the Council of State allowing private schools to operate cramming centers (known as frontistiria). The highest court recently overruled a decision by former Education Minister Petros Efthymiou. Until now, private schools could only operate frontistiria during the summer holidays. Ssome 36,000 pupils attend private schools and 250,000 frontistiria. Bridge opening Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis will not attend the official inauguration of the new Rio-Antirio road bridge on the eve of the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games, acting government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said yesterday. He did not elaborate. The bridge, which links central Greece with the Peloponnese, was one of the major public works started by the previous, PASOK government which was ousted in the March 7 national elections. Holiday flight Defense Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos yesterday defended Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis’s use of a military helicopter to fly in for a holiday on the island of Ios last month. Responding to a question by opposition PASOK MPs in Parliament, Spiliotopoulos said PASOK itself had passed a decision allowing the use of military aircraft by the prime minister and the president. He added that Karamanlis had taken the additional step of paying for the use of the helicopter with party funds. Cruise blues Thirty passengers and two crew members of the R-6 cruise ship came down with gastroenteritis on a trip from Venice to Dubrovnik, Corfu and the port of Katakolo in the northwestern Peloponnese, the Athens News Agency reported yesterday. The ship is carrying 785 passengers and 388 crew members. The 32 affected people were suffering from diarrhea and fever. Doctors from Patras and Pyrgos boarded the ship to examine them, the agency said. Murders solved A 20-year-old Albanian man has been arrested for two murders committed a year ago, Athens police said yesterday. Eddie Trifti is accused of shooting dead an Albanian man identified as Roberto Doragaz, 38, and injuring another two as they sat in a coffee shop in Piraeus on July 16, 2003. A month later, Trifti allegedly shot and killed Andreas Alafouzos, 38, outside the latter’s apartment building in Alimos, eastern Athens. A police investigation led to an arrest warrant and Trifti was arrested on the corner of Acharnon and Niovis streets in central Athens on Wednesday. Police say he was identified by witnesses and has confessed to killing Alafouzos, saying they had fallen out over a cocaine deal. Two women were arrested for hiding Trifti.

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