In Brief
WEST NILE
Third elderly person dies after contracting virus A third person has died after contracting the West Nile virus, which is carried by mosquitoes, authorities said yesterday. The 80-year-old man was being treated in a Thessaloniki hospital and had been suffering from a number of other ailments. The two other people who died this month, both in northern Greece, after being diagnosed with West Nile virus were both in their seventies. Doctors said that there are another eight people who have the virus and are being treated at the hospital, including a 12-year-old girl, but they are all in stable condition. Another 12 people are also being treated in a hospital in Veria. WILDFIRES Blazes on Kythera, Zakynthos Firefighters had to contend with several wildfires around Greece over the weekend. They were attempting last night to get the third and final front of a blaze on the island Kythera under control. The fire had been burning in the area of Aghia Moni. There was also a blaze in the Lagopodo area of Zakynthos, which firefighters were still battling yesterday afternoon. Fires in Parga, northwestern Greece, and in Ierapetra, southeastern Crete, had been put out. Kimolos drought Water deliveries to the tiny Cycladic island of Kimolos resumed yesterday after it ran dry a day earlier. The head of the local community, Theodoros Maganiotis, told Skai Radio that the government department in charge of island policy had delayed sending water, which is shipped to Kimolos by sea. The island has a population of less than 1,000 but Maganiotis said that there are currently 4,000 visitors on Kimolos. Player killed Second-division soccer player Panayiotis Bahramis was killed on Saturday after being hit by a speedboat while he was underwater fishing in Kyparissia, in the western Peloponnese. Bahramis, an attacking midfielder with Veria in the B Ethniki, suffered fatal injuries in the incident. One person has been arrested. The 34-year-old had also played for Apollon Kalamarias, Iraklis and Larissa during his career. He also represented Greece at the U21 level. Double drug bust Police in Hania, Crete, arrested a mother, aged 40, and her 22-year-old daughter on charges of possession and trafficking of drugs on Saturday. A search of the woman’s home revealed 220 grams of heroin, 35 grams of cocaine, drug-related paraphernalia and evidence that the daughter was also involved in trafficking. In Thessaloniki, meanwhile, drug enforcement officers on Saturday arrested two men, aged 41 and 23, on similar charges. Illegal migrants Migration officers in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, found 11 illegal migrants, among them two minors, hiding in a secret compartment of a tour bus bearing foreign license plates on Friday. Officers were told by a source that tour buses were being used by human traffickiers to bring illegal migrants from Georgia. The buses allegedly drop them off at a rest area on the Thessaloniki-Kilkis highway and then transfer them onto a second tour bus headed for Athens. Three of the drivers of the two buses will face a prosecutor.
