Modern regions of Greece

Three youths attacked University of Macedonia professor Nikos Marantzidis in Thessaloniki on Tuesday.

Marantzidis, also an author, was with a student at a local cafe when three young men approached him and voiced their objections to the professor writing articles criticizing the left.

An appeals court in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, on Monday upheld a ruling for three Financial Crime Squad (SDOE) officers to be sentenced to five years each in prison for demanding a bribe from a local business owner in exchange for writing off a fine.

A 58-year-old man is due to face a prosecutor on Monday after being accused of starting a brush fire in Oropos, north of Athens.

The man, who has not been named, was arrested on suspicion of starting a fire in a wooded area on purpose at around 1 a.m.

The fire service has been placed on high alert due to the very hot weather over the past few days.

Police in Ancient Olympia, in the Peloponnese, were hunting a gang of armed robbers who stole goods of unspecified value as well as 1,000 euros in cash from a jewelry store on Saturday.

The four men, who wore masks and bullet-proof vests, made their escape in a car that was later found burnt in the area’s Foloi forest.

An old hand grenade was discovered in the courtyard of a high school in Siatista, in Kozani, northern Greece, late on Monday.

A team of military bomb disposal experts were dispatched to the scene and subsequently detonated the weapon.

Reports suggested the grenade dated from World War II.

Five Bulgarian nationals, including a six-year old girl, have been injured in a deadly car crash in Greece.

The car crash occurred on the road from Patras to Pyrgos.

The injured were taken to hospital.

A 22-year-old man alleged to have confessed to killing a 41-year-old homeless woman in Glyfada, southern Athens, as a “sacrifice to Satan” on Easter Sunday was to be transferred to the psychiatric unit of Attica’s high-security Korydallos Prison on Thursday after testifying before a prosecutor and an investigating magistrate.

A large fire that broke out near Mytilene Airport on Lesvos Wednesday was brought under partial control on Thursday.

The blaze on the northeastern Aegean island was reportedly caused by a spark from farming machinery.

Convicted November 17 terrorist Savvas Xeros was briefly transferred on Tuesday from the high-security Korydallos Prison, where he is serving five life sentences, to a Piraeus court, where he lodged an appeal to continue his punishment under house arrest due to worsening health problems. The court is to issue its decision on June 26.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

State bailout fund TAIPED is moving ahead with its plans for the utilization of three major state properties, the Olympic facilities at Galatsi and Markopoulo and the Sambariza property at Ermioni, all in Attica.