NEWS

In Brief

VIOLENT ASSEMBLY

Seven injured at general meeting of Ioniki-Laiki pension fund Seven people were seriously injured on Saturday night at a general assembly of bank pension fund Ioniki-Laiki, police said. An argument over who will be in charge of the 400-million-euro fund prompted the outburst of violence, which saw chairs being flung across the meeting room, according to press reports. Fund officials blamed the trouble on a group of unknown people who took part in the meeting. WOMAN MISSING Rescue teams continue search Rescue teams continued yesterday to look for a 25-year-old Greek woman, Claudine Valkana, who went missing on Saturday after the sailing boat she was traveling on crashed into a yacht, off the coast of Voula, southeast of Athens. The Greek-flagged Sea Bird sank after colliding with the British-flagged Clats. The missing woman’s husband was picked up by coast guards. A Super Puma helicopter and coast guard vessels took part in the rescue operation. Heroin haul Undercover police in Thessaloniki arrested on Saturday a 20-year-old Albanian national who had in his possession 9.2 kilos of heroin. The officers from the narcotics squad were acting as interested buyers when they arranged to meet the alleged drug dealer at a train station in the northern Greek city. Fatal collisions Two people were killed and five others injured in four separate car accidents in Halkidiki, northern Greece, over the weekend, police said. In the worst accident, a 39-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman were killed when the car they were traveling in collided with an oncoming truck in the Aghio Ioanni region. Moderate quake An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale shook the island of Cephalonia early yesterday but there were no reports of injuries or damage, authorities said. The tremor, which struck at 5.49 a.m., had its epicenter in an undersea area some 13 kilometers off the western Greek island. Agency robbery Four unknown men held up a betting agency in Kallithea late on Saturday, police said, and made away with about 5,000 euros in cash. The men hit the agency owner, aged 56, over the head with the butt of gun and then escaped by car, police added. The owner has been hospitalized with a light concussion. Conscript age Defense Minister Evangelos Meimarakis said in an interview published in Adesmeftos Typos daily newspaper yesterday that the ministry is examining the possibility of recruiting conscripts at the age of 19. Meimarakis added that any changes would be aimed at helping improve the staffing needs of the defense forces, particularly along the country’s borders. Office bomb The offices of the ruling New Democracy party in Vyronas, east Athens, suffered minor damage early yesterday after a homemade explosive device went off. No one was hurt in the incident, police said. The bomb consisted of four gas canisters, authorities added. Suspicious death A 90-year-old man was found dead in his apartment in Thessaloniki on Saturday bound and gagged after apparently having been robbed, police said yesterday.

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