In Brief
AMBULANCE CRASH
Paraplegic dies after collision with bus A paraplegic being rushed to a central Athens hospital on Saturday was fatally injured when the ambulance transporting him collided with a tourist coach at a traffic junction. Firemen removed Antonis Karaiskos, 23, from the ambulance that had overturned at the junction of Vassilisis Sofias and Mesogeion avenues after striking the coach, which had not stopped despite the approaching ambulance – and siren. Coach driver Leonidas Moraitis was arrested. Karaiskos was being taken to the KAT hospital after undergoing surgery aimed at helping him walk one day. CYPRIOT ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos fractures head after falling down stairs Cypriot Archbishop Chrysostomos was in a stable condition yesterday after sustaining minor fractures to his head and four vertebrae following a fall on the stairs of the archbishopric on Saturday, according to doctors at Nicosia’s general hospital and a Greek neurosurgeon called to Nicosia to examine Chrysostomos. The archbishop’s injuries were slight and did not necessitate an operation, said neurosurgeon Spyros Tzannis. But Nicosia surgeons said the head fracture will be monitored for a few days in case of complications. MURDER MYSTERY Girl dead, father missing A teenage girl found in a pool of blood at her home in Pelasgia on Saturday night, near the northern town of Lamia, was probably killed on Thursday – the same day her father disappeared from home, police said yesterday. Vasso Voulgaraki, 13, was found by a friend of her mother’s – who had left the girl’s father eight years ago – after the mother asked her to visit the child whose health she claimed to be worried about. The girl was last seen on Tuesday. Police said the attack was not sexually motivated. Mountain deaths Two men were killed on Sunday after their jeep plunged into an 80-meter ravine near a monastery on Mount Athos. The bodies of Chrysostomos Simeonidis, 55, and Avraam Petanidis, 56, were retrieved by rescue workers. Easter exodus As the first major wave of the Easter exodus began on Saturday, traffic police were on standby at key junctions of the national road network to prevent major traffic jams. Ferries, trains and coaches have included extra trips to cope with increased passenger demand. Olympic Airways also added some flights to its schedule. Embezzlement trial The former managing director of a publishing company will be tried on charges of embezzling 8.8 million euros from the firm after the Supreme Court upheld a court decision to reject an appeal, court sources said yesterday. Ekaterini Vellidi is charged with siphoning funds from «Ioannis Vellidis-Northern Greek Journalists Organization» – the former publisher of newspapers Thessaloniki and Makedonia – prior to the firm’s liquidation. Vellidi has been in hiding for the past few years. Toxic soda A multinational soft drinks manufacturer must pay 58,694 euros in compensation to a young woman who has suffered health problems and was forced to give up work after drinking a bottle of Seven Up which contained caustic soda and caustic potassium carbonate 10 years ago, the Supreme Court has ruled, it was announced yesterday.
