In Brief
Reckless smuggler
Man with half a kilo of heroin in his stomach faints at customs A 44-year-old man who tried to smuggle half a kilo of heroin in his stomach into Greece from Lebanon fainted upon arrival at Athens International Airport yesterday and was transferred to a hospital where an operation was carried out to remove the drugs from his body. The man, a foreign national, had been on a flight from Beirut with his Greek wife. Having swallowed the drugs in 93 small packages, he was under armed guard in the hospital yesterday. The state of his health was unclear. Balcony plunge Boy, 10, critical after 3rd-floor fall A 10-year-old boy was in critical condition yesterday after falling from a third-floor balcony of an apartment in the Athens district of Neos Cosmos on Saturday morning. Police said the fall was probably an accident. Flight disruptions Several Olympic Airlines domestic flights were canceled and some international flights delayed over the weekend as pilots continued with protest action launched on Friday. The action is not an all-out strike but what is known as a «go slow,» when workers deliberately slow down operations. OA’s management has blamed the union representing the pilots of planes used for domestic flights – small twin-propeller aircraft – for the action. The pilots of the smaller planes reportedly disagree with the stance of another union – representing pilots of modern jet aircraft – in talks for a collective work contract. Ship collision Two cargo ships collided off the coast of Salamina on Saturday morning but there were no injuries or fuel leaks reported. It is unclear what caused the collision between the Greek cargo vessel Sea Star, which had been en route to Elefsina from Crete, and the Turkish Diana A, en route to Turkey from Aspropyrgos. Both ships sustained minor damage from the knock. Police sweeps A police sweep in Thessaloniki over the past week resulted in 1,110 people being detained temporarily and 230 arrested. Of the arrests, 132 were charged with gun possession, extortion, the smuggling of contraband cigarettes and fraud. Another 62 faced drug charges and 36 were awaiting court verdicts for previous charges. Meanwhile, in the Cretan prefecture of Iraklion, police detained dozens of locals for operating bars and other stores without licenses and violating health and safety regulations. Dozens more were detained for speeding and drunk driving.
