In Brief
SWINE FLU
Minister calls for caution after cases in Greece rise to 12 Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos yesterday said that an awareness campaign about the risks of swine flu would be intensified after the number of cases in Greece rose to 12. On Thursday night, a 37-year-old Canadian woman was found to have symptoms of the H1N1 virus and yesterday four tourists from the USA were also diagnosed. Of the four, three are reportedly members of a band from Kansas. The fourth is a 15-year-old American girl from Washington. Avramopoulos called on citizens to pay particular attention to personal hygiene but said «people should feel safe.» POLICE TRIAL Two indicted over teen shooting The two police special guards who were involved in the incident that led to the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos last December, yesterday were indicted to stand trial on murder charges. Epaminondas Korkoneas, who shot the teenager, faces charges of murder with malice aforethought. He claims the bullet that killed the teenager was fired as a warning and ricocheted. Vassilis Saraliotis, who had been on duty with Korkoneas, is charged with being an accomplice to murder. No trial date was announced. Factory accident Six people were in the hospital with breathing problems yesterday after inhaling the toxic fumes released during an ammonia leak at a refrigerator factory in Rendi, western Athens. Four of the factory workers were transferred to the Geniko Kratiko Hospital in Nikaia and two of the fire service workers to a military hospital. Firemen used special equipment to absorb the toxic liquid, which is believed to have leaked from two tanks in the factory’s basement. Arson charge A 14-year-old boy yesterday was charged with starting a fire that broke out at the foot of Mount Parnitha on Thursday afternoon. The boy allegedly told police that he threw a lit firecracker into a patch of dry brush. Firefighters extinguished the blaze before it could spread to the national park. Late yesterday afternoon, firefighters were struggling to put out another blaze that broke out on the Dodecanese island of Karpathos. More than 50 fires were reported across the country in the past two days. Child mutilated A 5-year-old boy was in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Larissa, central Greece, yesterday after losing his right hand in an accident involving a firecracker. The boy reportedly found the firework in his father’s car and ignited it with a cigarette lighter. The child’s father was detained.
