NEWS

In Brief

ARSON ATTACK

Incendiary device explodes at office of deputy education minister An explosive device containing cooking gas canisters went off outside the personal office of Deputy Education Minister Andreas Lykourentzos in central Athens on Saturday night, slightly injuring a person in the neighboring apartment, police said. The explosion occurred at about 10.20 p.m. outside the office on the second floor of a building on Solonos Street. The neighbor suffered minor injuries while trying to put out the fire that was caused by the device, police said. Some 20 minutes earlier some 15 people wearing motorcycle helmets damaged the exterior of a building housing the municipal police in Palaio Faliron, southern Athens. No arrests were made following either incident. JANITOR CAUGHT Man allegedly sold drugs to students A school janitor has been arrested on the Dodecanese island of Rhodes on suspicion of supplying teenage students with drugs, police said yesterday. The unnamed 36-year-old was taken into custody after a 17-year-old student told authorities about his alleged drug dealing. Officers found 13.5 grams of cannabis at the janitor’s home as well as some cannabis seeds. They also found a precision scale in his desk drawer at work. Two other suspects, who allegedly supplied the 36-year-old with drugs, have also been arrested. Bomb scare A charter flight from Kos to Amsterdam carrying 288 passengers was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Athens International Airport late yesterday after a bomb threat, authorities said. The TUI Netherlands flight touched down in Athens at 9.30 p.m. after an anonymous caller said there was a bomb on board. The passengers evacuated the plane as bomb experts and sniffer dogs searched for an explosive device. Tambourine man A 68-year-old musician and father of 11 children has been arrested in a village near Serres, northern Greece, on suspicion of maintaining a drug laboratory in the basement of his house. Officers said on Saturday that they found 38 cannabis plants on the property, which the suspect was allegedly cultivating and using to supply customers with drugs. Barred Two bar owners in Pieria, northern Greece, have been arrested on suspicion of procuring one of their waitresses, a 33-year-old foreign woman, police said on Saturday. The two men, aged 52 and 65, allegedly charged customers at their bar 100 euros each to have sex with the waitress. Rape averted A 32-year-old man was caught red-handed in the northern city of Serres early Saturday while attempting to rape a local woman, officers said. Residents called the police after hearing the 26-year-old woman cry for help at about 5.30 a.m. Two officers arrived on the scene and caught the suspect, who tried to fight them off. One of the policemen broke his arm during the arrest. Police said that the 32-year-old has previously been arrested for attempted rape and drug use.

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