NEWS

In Brief

SWINE FLU

Diabetes sufferer in ICU after contracting H1N1 virus A 58-year-old woman suffering from diabetes and serious kidney problems was yesterday transfered to the intensive care unit of an Athens hospital after being diagnosed with swine flu. The woman is the eighth person to be admitted to an ICU after contracting the H1N1 virus. Last Sunday, a 23-year-old heart patient died of complications linked to swine flu. More than 1,800 cases of H1N1 have been recorded in Greece with around 60 percent of them visitors from abroad, according to the Health Ministry. PILOT FUNERAL Kotoulas buried in Papagou The 55-year-old pilot of a small water-dropping plane, killed on Thursday when his aircraft crashed on the Ionian island of Cephalonia during a firefighting operation, was buried yesterday in the cemetery of Papagou, northern Athens. Stergios Kotoulas, an experienced pilot and father of two, had been flying a 26-year-old Polish-made PZL M-18 Dromader aircraft. A preliminary assessment of the crash site indicated that the plane struck overhead power cables before hitting the ground. Europa League The two Greek teams that will compete in the group stage of soccer’s Europa League both received tough draws yesterday. Panathinaikos will face, amongst others, Turkish side Galatasaray, Dinamo Bucharest of Romania and Sturm Graz of Austria. AEK will take on Portuguese giants Benfica, Everton of the English Premier League and BATE Borisov of Bulgaria. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the next round, where they will be joined by the eight teams who finish third in their respective Champions League groups. Bishop robbed Bishop Anthimos of Alexandroupoli yesterday expressed his «deep concern» after discovering that a safe containing 15,000 euros and church documents had been stolen overnight from his offices in the northeastern port. The intruder or intruders are believed to have struck after midnight, smashing the glass and taking the safe from an office on the ground floor of the building, police said. The theft follows two raids on churches in the area in the past 10 days. Wanted man An Albanian man who is wanted for murder by authorities in his own country and by Greek authorities for other offenses has been arrested in the coastal resort of Loutraki, west of Athens. Police said they were acting on a tip-off when they raided the home in which the suspect was staying. Albania had issued an international arrest warrant for the unnamed man who was suspected of committing a murder but had also been convicted for the robbery of a savings bank, which earned him a six-year jail sentence. He had also been convicted in Greece for unlawfully carrying and using a weapon. Armed raids Two post offices in the Athens districts of Nea Smyrni and Kypseli were held up within minutes of each other yesterday by lone gunmen. The first raid occurred in Nea Smyrni at about 1.40 p.m. A masked man threatened employees with a handgun before making off with money from the cash registers. Minutes later, a hooded man raided the Kypseli post office. The amounts stolen were not immediately known.

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