NEWS

In Brief

University sit-in

One group leaves Aristotle campus after three weeks The protesters who have been occupying the main administrative building of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki for the last three weeks decided to end their sit-in protest after accepting the assurances given by the school’s senate about the employment of contract workers in the future. However, another group of protesters continues to occupy an old train carriage that is located on the university premises but rector Anastassios Manthos did not give any indication yesterday that academic authorities would be asking the police to remove these demonstrators. PARIS MATCH PM to meet Sarkozy tomorrow Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is due to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris tomorrow for talks that are expected to focus on the economic crisis as well as issues of particular Greek interest. Karamanlis will also meet with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. His next trip will be to Cyprus on April 22, followed by a visit to Tirana, Albania, on April 26. Exarchia unrest Unidentified arsonists hurled Molotov cocktail bombs late last night at police who had been trying to clear the road for a fire engine to access a building site where a fire had broken out. The cause of the blaze, which burnt some wooden scaffolding, was unclear. Palaiocostas term An appeals court in Thessaloniki yesterday upheld a nine-year jail sentence on serial robber Nikos Palaiocostas, the brother of Vassilis Palaiocostas who escaped from Korydallos Prison in February. Nikos Palaiocostas, currently serving time in a Patras jail, attended the hearing after being transported to the courtroom amid high security. He denied any part in the raid on a branch of the National Bank in Veria in October 2005 from which he is alleged to have escaped on a bicycle. Fatal plunge A 2-year-old girl was fatally injured yesterday after falling from the balcony of a fourth-floor apartment in the Aghios Dimitrios district of Thessaloniki. The girl was transferred to the hospital immediately but was pronounced dead on arrival. It was unclear how the girl had fallen. Train accident An elderly man was in the hospital in Pyrgos, western Greece, yesterday after being hit by a train en route to Olympia from the Peloponnesian town. The man had wandered onto the railway track, police said. The extent of the man’s injuries was unclear. Teen thieves Police in the northern prefecture of Imathia yesterday detained three minors, aged 12, 16 and 17, believed to be behind the theft of four cars from different parts of Imathia and Thessaloniki over the past three months. A 24-year-old man believed to have been involved in the thefts was also detained. Store raid A group of around 20 suspected anarchists entered a supermarket in the Athens suburb of Nea Philadelphia, filled up carts with food, stormed past the checkout registers and distributed the goods to passers-by. The robbers scattered leaflets saying, «We will share out your wealth» to local shoppers.

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