NEWS

In Brief

F16 FLIER CRITICAL

Pilot undergoes third operation after crash An F16 fighter jet pilot, who suffered serious injuries on Thursday when his aircraft collided with another jet during a training exercise south of Crete, was in critical condition yesterday but doctors said they believed he would pull through. Iosif Anastasakis, 35, was critical but stable after undergoing a third operation in a row, doctors said. Anastasios Balatsoukas, the 33-year-old pilot of the second plane, who was killed instantly in the collision, is to be buried today in his hometown of Arta, northwestern Greece. Anastasakis’s co-pilot, 25-year-old Pavlos Votzakis, was being treated for minor injuries in a military hospital in Athens yesterday. ABDUCTION RING Two Pakistanis arrested Two Pakistanis, aged 27 and 35, alleged to have been involved in the abduction on Thursday of an 18-year-old compatriot in Oinoi, north of Athens, were arrested on Evia yesterday. The pair, along with another three compatriots, are alleged to have threatened the 18-year-old – and two other Pakistanis, aged 39 and 40 – at the railway station in Oinoi on Thursday night. Brandishing broken bottles, the alleged aggressors managed to extract 1,030 euros from them, police said. The five are then alleged to have abducted the 18-year-old and called the other two men later, one of whom is the teenager’s father, to demand another 4,500 euros. The police were informed and managed to trace two of the five suspects. The other three were still at large late last night. Mosquito spraying Authorities in the northern Greek prefecture of Thessaloniki were to start spraying pesticides on the ground last night to repel mosquitoes carrying the potentially fatal West Nile virus. It is hoped that the ground-level crackdown, paired with aerial spraying, will help drive away the mosquitoes. The number of people who have contracted the virus yesterday rose to 134. Another eight people infected with the virus are in intensive-care units. The Health Ministry this month pledged more than half a million euros to local authorities seeking to curb the spread of the virus. Forged prescriptions Police in Veria, northern Greece, yesterday detained two Greek women, aged 31 and 50, on charges of fraud and forgery after catching them emerging from a pharmacy where they allegedly used a fake prescription to acquire a batch of medicines. A raid on the women’s home turned up equipment and materials that the pair are believed to have used to produce fake prescriptions and acquire expensive medicines. The search also turned of 39 boxes full of medicines. Toll protests Residents and members of local authority organizations in the Peloponnese are planning tomorrow to occupy the Nestani and Spathovouni toll booths, allowing motorists to pass through without charge. The planned action is to be acrried out in protest at a 60 percent increase in toll fees.

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