In Brief
FAGE RECALL
Pieces of glass may have fallen into pots of Junior yogurt Dairy company FAGE said yesterday that it is recalling its Junior yogurt products due to the risk of broken glass being found in the pots. FAGE said that a protective glass barrier smashed on one of its production lines and parts of it may have fallen into yogurt containers. Consumers can call the company on 800.11.28000 to replace the products. The Hellenic Food Authority (EFET) said that there are currently some 300,000 pots of Junior yogurt in the market. The watchdog advised people not to consume the product if they have bought it. CRETAN SHOOTING Teenager in hospital after friend shoots him in stomach by mistake A 16-year-old boy was in stable condition in the hospital in Hania, Crete, yesterday after being shot in the stomach while he was firing a shotgun with two friends, authorities said. The teenager took the shotgun from his home and the three friends were shooting at plastic bottles near the village of Horafakia when the accident occurred. Police said it appeared that one of the teenager’s friends shot him by mistake. A passing driver took the 16-year-old to the hospital where surgeons operated on his stomach. DIABETES DAY Special kiosks to give free blood tests Nine special kiosks offering free blood-sugar tests and advice about diabetes will be open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today in various parts of Athens, including in Syntagma and Omonia squares, on the occasion of World Diabetes Day. Doctors will be on hand to answer questions at the booths, which have been set up by the Health Ministry. Baby traders A prosecutor in Ioannina, northwestern Greece, yesterday charged five Roma with attempting to illegally sell a child into adoption. The five – three men and two women – were arrested last week after they allegedly tried to sell a three-year-old boy to undercover police officers. The child was allegedly smuggled into Greece from Albania. The boy’s mother, who allegedly sold the child for 1,000 euros, has been arrested in Albania. Loaded balls Prison guards at a jail in Ioannina, northwestern Greece, have discovered attempts to sneak drugs, hidden in tennis balls, into the building, authorities said yesterday. Two tennis balls containing almost 70 grams of heroin were lobbed over the prison wall and landed in the exercise yard, officers said. Guards spotted two suspicious men outside the prison and officers from the Ioannina drug squad are investigating the matter. Fatal dispute A Thessaloniki appeals court yesterday upheld a life sentence meted out to a 47-year-old man who beat his 67-year-old aunt to death over a property dispute in July 2002. The unnamed man, from the village of Ammoudia in Serres, northern Greece, savagely beat his aunt after she refused to cede him ownership of the family home. Smokers’ cough What we casually call «smokers’ cough» is actually a serious disease affecting one in 10 Greek men and one in 20 Greek women, lung experts told a press conference yesterday. The problem is that only a quarter of those suffering from this disease are aware of it, the medics warned ahead of tomorrow’s World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Day. Kiosks giving out leaflets with information about COPD are to be operating in Athens’s Syntagma Square tomorrow as well as in other major cities. Illegal immigrants Coast guard officials detained 10 illegal immigrants on the Aegean island of Lesvos, the Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday. The immigrants told authorities that they had crossed over from Turkey on board an inflatable boat which they then destroyed. No details were released concerning their identity. Hunger strike Members of the Union of Cypriot Students in Thessaloniki went on a three-day hunger strike yesterday in an anniversary protest against the decision by politicians in the Turkish-occupied part of the island to declare themselves a breakaway state on November 15, 1983.
