NEWS

In Brief

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE

Students clash with riot police outside college in central Athens Students clashed with riot police outside the Athens University of Economics and Business in the city center yesterday after the university dean tried to close the institution and place guards to monitor its entrance. The trouble started when police tried to stop around 20 students from entering the university. After the fracas, about 200 students gathered outside the building demanding that the dean return and reopen the university, which he did. No arrests were reported. LIVER TRANSPLANT Boy, 4, who ate poisonous mushrooms ‘stable’ after emergency operation A 4-year-old boy from northern Greece who was flown to Italy for a liver transplant on Sunday was in a serious but stable condition yesterday, hospital authorities said. The boy was flown from Thessaloniki to Palermo in Sicily after falling critically ill from eating mushrooms believed to be poisonous. ANIMAL FOSSILS Finds dated to 5 million years ago Roadwork in Dikaia, near Thessaloniki, has unearthed the fossils of animals which lived 5 million years ago, archaeologists said yesterday. The finds include fossils of large prehistoric mammals resembling the elephant, horse and gazelle. Otto stays German coach Otto Rehhagel said yesterday that he had decided to stay in charge of the Greek national soccer team and mount a defense of its European crown. The 66-year-old guided Greece to its greatest soccer achievement last year when the team won the European Championship. Despite failing to reach next’s year’s World Cup in Germany, the Greek Soccer Federation renewed Rehhagel’s contract for another two years. Tourism award Britain’s World Travel Awards has named Greece’s National Tourism Organization (GNTO) as Europe’s Leading Tourist and Convention Bureau. «For the first time in many years, we are working systematically and decisively,» said Tourism Development Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos. Shield recovered Volunteer scuba divers yesterday found one of the three shields stolen from the statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki last month. The shield was found in the sea near the statue. The shield was given to sculptor Evangelos Moustakas for repairs. Moustakas had already made a new shield for the statue earlier this month, but this is to be replaced by the original. Injured robber Police appealed yesterday to the friends and family of a 29-year-old Romanian robbery suspect to convince the man to give himself up after he was shot by an off-duty policeman in southern Athens on Saturday. The suspect held up a clothing store in Aghios Dimitrios with an accomplice but an off-duty officer, in the store at the time, opened fire on them. One of the men was arrested. The other man escaped but is thought to be in serious need of medical care. Fatal crashes Two people were killed and five injured in two car crashes in northern Greece yesterday. One person was killed and another injured when a car crashed into a truck on a country road near Kilkis, police said. A 44-year-old woman was killed and four people were injured when a truck crashed into another two vehicles on the national road between Kozani and Florina, officers said. Ferry delays Some 206 ferry passengers were delayed for nearly 24 hours on a trip from the eastern Aegean island of Samos to Athens late on Sunday night when the vessel on which they were traveling encountered technical problems. About 100 travelers on the Express Apollon refused to get off the boat after being informed that it needed to return to Athens for repair work without passengers. The passengers left the island for Athens yesterday aboard another ferry. Station survives The Council of State said yesterday that it has suspended a recent decision by the National Council for Radio and Television (ESR) ordering the closure of radio station Best 92.6. The court will make a final decision on the issue in an upcoming hearing.

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