In Brief
OLYMPUS DEATH
Boy dies after falling down ravine whilst climbing with his father A 14-year-old boy was killed on Saturday after he fell into a 300-meter ravine while climbing Mount Olympus in central Greece with his father. The unnamed teenager had been part of a climbing group from Patras which had been ascending the Loukia area of the mountain in bad weather, authorities said. Rescue workers needed six hours to recover the boy’s body from the ravine. FIRE ESCAPE Two women pulled from burning car An off-duty policeman helped two women escape from a car moments before it burst into flames in central Greece yesterday. The two women were trapped in the vehicle after it spun off the road between Lamia and Domokos, landing in a ditch. Passers-by said that smoke immediately began rising from the car. The officer, who serves at the Acropolis police station in Athens, helped the women out of the car seconds before the fire, which spread to a nearby forest, broke out. Firefighters put out the blaze and the two women were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Thessaloniki crackdown Police in Thessaloniki said on Saturday that they had arrested 73 people during a crime crackdown 24 hours earlier. More than 2,000 people were checked during the operation on Friday. Police said that five of those arrested had outstanding jail sentences to serve. Some 290 traffic violations and 232 other offenses, including possession of drugs and breaking health regulations, were also recorded during the crackdown, officers said. Cyprus stabbing Cyprus police said yesterday they had arrested a 24-year-old Chinese man after the body of a compatriot, thought to have been stabbed to death, was found near a nightclub. The 32-year-old victim was discovered close to midnight in the capital Nicosia on Saturday, said police who are treating the case as «premeditated murder.» They said an eyewitness had linked two men to the murder, and a 24-year-old student was later arrested. A second suspect of about the same age is now being sought. (AFP) Patras arrests Port authorities in Patras, western Greece arrested a 29-year-old truckdriver on Saturday night after three people without travel documents were found in his vehicle, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. The driver’s name and nationality were not made public but the ministry said that he was intending to board a ferry for Italy. Meanwhile, authorities also arrested two men on a vessel at the port after they arrived in Patras with forged travel documents. Iceland trip President Karolos Papoulias returned on Saturday from an official visit to Iceland, saying that he was happy with the outcome of his trip which saw him sign an agreement to avoid double taxation. Papoulias said that Iceland was interested in using Greece as a base to export its goods to the Balkans. The president said that Greece could benefit from having a closer relationship with a small country like Iceland, which is technologically advanced in the area of research.
