In Brief
FATAL SQUABBLE
Technical college student killed after argument over his hometown A fight between two students from a technical college in Peristeri, western Athens, led to one of the pair being stabbed and killed, police said yesterday. The two men, both Albanian nationals, had an argument at the college, allegedly about the respective beauty of their hometowns, and arranged to meet later at a square in Kolonos on Monday night. Both of the students brought friends and relatives to the meeting. A fight broke out and one of the students, 22-year-old Albanian national Gazmet Bega, was stabbed in the stomach and died by the time he was taken to the hospital. Police have arrested four men aged between 18 and 21 in connection to the incident. ROAD TAX Drivers can buy 2008 sticker at banks and post offices from November 1 Drivers will be able to buy their 2008 road tax stickers from November 1 at banks and post offices, the government said yesterday. Vehicle owners will have until the end of the year to pay their road tax. Anyone who has not received a reminder will have to go to his or her local tax office to pay for and pick up a sticker. Owners of cars or motorcycles with a 300cc to 1.3-liter engine will have to pay 93 euros. For 1.3 to 1.9-liter engines the charge will be 168 euros, 1.9 to 2.3-liter will be 372 euros and above 2.3 liters will cost 483 euros. Owners of motorcycles with engines under 300cc will have to pay 15 euros. MIGRANTS RESCUED All 20 safe after dinghy engine fails Two migrants who went missing after a dinghy carrying another 18 was cast adrift off Chios yesterday were found on a remote beach on the Aegean island. The coast guard rescued the 11 migrants after the motor on their dinghy gave out before the vessel reached the island. Another seven swam to safety and were collected from a beach. They informed rescuers that another two people were missing and a search for the migrants was launched. They were found soon afterward on another beach. School theft A 17-year-old boy, a Greek national, was arrested in Athens yesterday accused of stealing mobile phones from secondary school students in the southeastern suburbs, police said. The suspect, along with two other youths who police are searching for, are believed to have approached students as they left school grounds and demanded their mobile phones before escaping by motorbike. Police said the gang was armed with knives and would threaten to physically harm students that did not comply. Bomb hoax A bomb hoax led to the evacuation of the offices of the General Secretariat for Civil Protection in central Athens yesterday morning but order was restored after police failed to find any suspect device. The alarm was raised when an unidentified person called the telephone switchboard at 11.05 a.m.and warned that a bomb would go off in the building at 11.30 a.m. Parnitha quake An earthquake measuring 3.3 Richter whose epicenter was in the southwestern foothills of Mount Parnitha near Athens was felt in parts of the city yesterday. But seismologists said the tremor was no cause for concern and that it was quite common for earthquakes to be recorded on the mountain. Palaiocostas A court in Ioannina yesterday passed down a 16-year prison sentence on bank robber Nikos Palaiocostas – one of a series of sentences the former fugitive has collected in the past weeks from courts across the country. Yesterday’s verdict was for Palaiocostas’s participation in a Ioannina bank robbery in 2006 when 18,200 euros was netted. He got an additional two years for stealing a getaway car in the nearby town of Arta. Earlier this month Palaiocostas received a life sentence and a 62-year jail term. Bus violations Just over 400 police safety inspections of buses used to carry children to school in Thessaloniki since the start of the year uncovered 37 violations, mostly relating to the lack of seat belts. Police said 16 violations related to seat belts not being used by students, while other offenses included drivers failing to abide by traffic rules, such as speeding.
