In Brief
Child migrants
Minors disappearing from Patras camp, local aid workers claim Police yesterday continued transferring immigrant adolescents from a makeshift camp in Patras to a holding center in Athens but aid organizations said that many younger children remain unaccounted for. According to Hellenic Red Cross staff who visited the Patras camp yesterday, half of the children they had counted during an earlier visit to the camp had disappeared. Aid workers say the unaccompanied children, mostly Afghans, are falling victim to human traffickers and have called for the intervention of authorities to protect them. They say a Patras prosecutor has yet to respond to their appeal for help. Toddler recovering British girl who was served toxic drink in Cyprus is getting better, doctors say A 2-year-old British girl who suffered internal burns after drinking a corrosive detergent mixed with orange juice at a luxury hotel is getting better, doctors in Cyprus said yesterday. Medical experts said Annabelle Rhodes was «very stable» at the Makarios children’s hospital in the capital Nicosia after drinking the potentially lethal detergent at a four-star hotel on Saturday. She suffered internal burns to her mouth, throat and upper respiratory organs. Police said a waiter had mistaken the odorless and colorless detergent for water because someone had stored it in a plastic water bottle in the bar area. BURUMA INTERVIEW Author speaks on Islam and Europe Muslims living in Europe are flexible enough to abide by the norms and habits of secular democracies, distinguished author and academic Ian Buruma has told Kathimerini English Edition in an interview. «Islam is not something which is unchangeable or that has never changed… There are many different kinds of Islam and I don’t see any reason why the Muslims in Europe can’t be flexible,» he said. Referring to the most contentious item of clothing in Europe, the Islamic headscarf, Buruma said although he opposes a ban on principle, people must above all respect the law. «Whatever one’s religion is in a liberal democracy, they have to abide by the laws of the land.» Store suit The owners of stores in central Athens that were damaged during Saturday’s violence filed a suit yesterday against those responsible for causing the havoc. The head of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Constantinos Michalos, filed the suit, requesting that the perpetrators face charges of damaging property and disturbing the peace. The violence broke out when groups of demonstrators from the extreme right and left clashed. Dwellings demolished Regional authorities in Achaia, northern Peloponnese, knocked down two illegally built homes in the regions of Rio and Vrachneika yesterday as part of a plan to deal with some 80 illegally built dwellings in the beachside district. Authorities said they will continue demolishing houses in Vrachneika today after having received legal clearance to knock down a further 21 dwellings. Mine detonated Bomb experts destroyed a submerged sea mine off the coast of Epanomi near Thessaloniki yesterday in a controlled explosion. The World War II mine was discovered about 150 meters off the coast last week after a cargo ship ran aground near it. The Panama-flagged vessel was towed to safety earlier this week. Bad hangover A gang that imported thousands of liters of low-quality alcohol from Bulgaria – often sold as the real thing in bars and clubs of Greece – has been broken up, police in Attica said yesterday. Two suspects were charged after police searched a truck parked near Mount Kithairona in central Greece and discovered thousands of liters of the low-grade alcohol. Separately, police in Thessaloniki seized from a local warehouse thousands of labels for pharmaceutical products – used to show that medicines are authentic. Bank robbery An armed robber yesterday held up a branch of Probank in Larissa, fleeing with 10,000 euros. The suspect is believed to be a foreigner, according to bank clerks who said he spoke broken Greek.
