NEWS

In Brief

STRIKE CANCELED

Business as usual on Metro today The Athens Metro will operate normally today after its workers called off two four-hour work stoppages as employees called for a new collective wage agreement. The workers decided to cancel the strike after reaching an initial wage agreement with management. DEADLY DIVE Pool accident kills girl, another critical One Gypsy girl drowned and another was fighting for her life in hospital yesterday after the pair, along with another friend, sneaked into the backyard of a house in the northwestern Athenian suburb of Ano Liosia to use its swimming pool, police said. The third girl raised the alarm when the two girls, both aged around 10, began drowning, but one was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. The other was resuscitated but in critical condition last night. Bureaucracy buster Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos sent a circular to all ministries, regional authorities and citizens’ information and service centers (KEPs) outlining measures to speed up the process of dealing with citizens’ paperwork. One of the changes means that the relevant authorities and KEPs will be able to verify an applicant’s signature, whereas only police had the power to do this up to now. Deadly bus One person was killed and another seriously injured in the early hours of yesterday morning when the car in which they were traveling was hit by a public bus which had veered off course in Aegaleo, western Athens, police said. The man killed was driving the car and his passenger was injured. Officers launched an investigation into what caused the bus to swerve into oncoming traffic. Exploding oven An electric oven and grill sold by the Lidl supermarket chain has been withdrawn from the market after a customer complained that the glass oven door had overheated during use and exploded, sending shards of glass flying, authorities said yesterday. Some 3,000 Chinese-made Bifinett KH 1138 ovens have been sold and should be returned, the general consumer secretariat said. Mountain rescue An intensive rescue operation in northern Greece entered its second night yesterday to find a 45-year-old mountain climber declared missing on Sunday. Teams of mountain climbers, 17 rescue operators and a helicopter were involved in the operation, which was combing through the Ioannina-Grevena region. Authorities said that the vegetation in the area was dense, making the rescue operation more difficult. Green buses The Transport Ministry increased its fleet of natural gas-powered buses by 121 yesterday, bringing the total size to 416, the largest number in any European capital. The new buses will be used on routes in eastern Athens. Transport Minister Michalis Liapis said that he expected another 520 vehicles to be delivered in the near future Driver killed An 18-year-old driving without a license was killed in a car crash in Ioannina, northwestern Greece, yesterday after his vehicle ran off the side of the road. The cause of the accident is not yet known. Pensioner attack A 73-year-old woman was taken to hospital in Athens yesterday morning after being hit on the head by a robber in her Kypseli apartment, police said. The thief attacked the pensioner when she was returning from the bank, making off with cash she had just withdrawn. Officers said the woman was in stable condition. Bank robbery With the help of a sledgehammer, two youths pounded their way into a branch of Emporiki Bank in Alimos, southeastern Athens, yesterday and disappeared with the safe’s contents, authorities said.

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