In Brief
WEST NILE
Deaths rise to seven as virus claims three elderly people Another three elderly people died in northern Greece yesterday after contracting the West Nile virus, taking the total number of fatalities from the disease to seven. Authorities said that all three were suffering from other ailments as well. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) said that, as of yesterday, 77 people had been diagnosed with the virus. KEELPNO said that it expects the mosquitoes that carry the disease to remain in northern Greece, where most cases have been diagnosed, until the middle of next month. INTERNET CAFES Proposals for limiting access The Ombudsman yesterday submitted to Parliament the findings of its study on how Greece should regulate Internet cafes in terms of the access that children have to them. After consultation with parents, children and other groups, the watchdog recommended that the government should not ban under-18s from using them. Instead, it was proposed that some tighter regulations, such as youngsters requiring written approval from their parents to use terminals at an Internet cafe or placing limits on the number of hours that minors are allowed to use the computers, should be introduced. Arson suspect A 38-year-old man has been arrested on Zakynthos for allegedly starting two wildfires on the Ionian island this week. He has been charged with starting the blazes intentionally. Meanwhile, firefighters in Attica were called to two brushfires, one in Thimari, southeast of Athens, and the other near Keratea, also southeast of the capital. Both blazes were brought under control. LAOS warning The ultranationalist Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) warned yesterday that the tension between Albanians and ethnic Greeks in Himara, where a man of Greek origin was killed last week, threatens to affect relations between Greeks and Albanian immigrants in Greece. «As long as the Albanian government does not take drastic steps to support the rights of ethnic Greeks who have lived in the area for 3,000 years, it is putting at risk the social stability between Albanians, who have been living in Greece for the last 20 years, and the Greek people,» said party spokesman Costas Aivaliotis. Exploited A 63-year-old Romanian man and a 41-year-old Bulgarian woman have been arrested in Thessaloniki on suspicion of forcing a disabled man to beg on the city streets. Police said that the 29-year-old victim, also a Romanian, was lured to Thessaloniki by the promise of farming work by his countryman. Instead, he was forced to live in an abandoned building in the city and to beg on the streets. The couple would take any money that the 29-year-old was given by passers-by. Suicide foiled Police revealed yesterday that they recently worked with a nongovernmental organization to prevent a 38-year-old from Patra from committing suicide. The man had posted a message on the Internet saying that he was going to take his own life under the burden of family problems. He is now seeing a psychologist.
