In Brief
KOURKOULOS DIES
Popular film and stage actor passes away at the age of 73 Film and stage actor Nikos Kourkoulos, who ran the National Theater for the past 13 years, died of cancer in Athens yesterday aged 73, hospital officials said. Kourkoulos was married to Marianna Latsis, daughter of shipping billionaire Yiannis Latsis. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis expressed his condolences to Kourkoulos’s family, describing the actor as «one of the country’s most important contemporary actors.» Kourkoulos made his stage debit in 1958 and became one of the country’s most popular leading men. He appeared in dozens of Greek films from the 1950s to the early 1980s, and a large number of stage productions. SERVICE INTERRUPTED University students disrupt church A small group of university students barged into a church in Zografou, eastern Athens, yesterday and attempted to halt the service by jeering at churchgoers and calling on the priest to leave the chapel. The students also vandalized the chapel by painting on its walls anti-church slogans. The service was being held on a campus site belonging to the National Technical University of Athens. Student groups condemned the act and described it as an isolated incident. Biscuit recall Supermarket chain AB Vassilopoulos said yesterday that it is pulling off its shelves the «365» chocolate cookies due to an incorrect description on the product wrapping. The biscuit label does not state that it contains soya-based lecithin. Crime probes Police in Igoumenitsa, northwestern Greece, yesterday confiscated six rucksacks containing more than 125 kilos of cannabis which had been hidden near a country road in Thesprotia. The police had been watching the spot since the weekend, when the drugs were discovered, in the hope that someone would come to collect the sacks but spotted no one. Also in Igoumenitsa yesterday, three Albanians faced a magistrate on charges of stealing a luxury car from a private home in Athens and trying to smuggle it across the Albanian border. The trio were stopped by police in the area of Thesprotia. Victim recovering A 27-year old woman who suffered burns to the eyes and face in Thessaloniki on Friday after being attacked with caustic acid was recovering but would need more time in hospital, doctors said yesterday. The woman was attacked when she resisted a mugger who took her bag while she stood at a bus stop. Police are continuing efforts to locate the assailant.
