In Brief
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Coast guard detains migrants off the island of Lesvos The Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday that 18 illegal immigrants, including eight children, were detained off the island of Lesvos. The coast guard intercepted the immigrants, who were traveling in an inflatable dinghy, 1 nautical mile off the Aegean island. Separately, five illegal immigrants, all minors, were detained on Patmos. The immigrants told authorities that they had reached the island from Turkey aboard a small boat rowboat which they then destroyed. TEENAGERS KILLED Motorbike runs into railing A teenage couple was killed yesterday when the motorbike on which they were riding veered out of control and ran into a roadside guard rail on Marathonos Road in Pallini, east of Athens, police said. The 19-year-old motorcycle driver and his 17-year-old female passenger were pronounced dead shortly after being taken to hospital. Police have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident. Bronze medal Constantinos Douvalidis won a bronze medal in Beijing yesterday at the World Junior Championships 110-meter hurdles event. With a time of 13.39 seconds, Douvalidis was beaten by Poland’s Artur Noga, who set a tournament record-breaking time of 13.23, and Samuel Coco-Viloin of France (13.35). Douvalidis’s time is a junior national record and earned Greece its first medal of the tournament. Lebanon force Defense Minister Evangelos Meimarakis said in an interview published yesterday that Greece is likely to accept a request to contribute troops to a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. «We are leaning toward the possibility of participating in a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Of course, we will first wait for the demands and other parameters of the mission to come into detail,» he told the daily Eleftheros Typos. Fan club fire The entrance to a building in Petralona, southern Athens, which houses a Panathinaikos supporters’ club was set on fire early on Saturday, police said. No one was hurt in the incident. The fire broke out at about 3.55 a.m. and is the second attack on the building in the last few months. Kiosk theft Two armed men held up a roadside kiosk in Maroussi, northern Athens, on Saturday, police said. The person working the kiosk told police that the men were wielding a handgun and made away with 300 euros in cash and about 400 euros’ worth of phone cards. Police attacked A group of unknown men threw firebombs at a police station in Zografou, eastern Athens, early on Saturday, according to authorities. The fire was extinguished before it caused any damage to the building. Police said that the culprits then escaped into the nearby university grounds. Motorcyclists killed Two men were killed within the space of a few hours in Halkidiki, northern Greece, on Saturday in separate traffic accidents, police said. A 67-year-old man was killed when his motorcycle smashed into a car in the Paliouro area. In the second incident, a 39-year-old motorcycle rider was killed when he lost control of his bike and ran into an oncoming truck near Kallitreia.
