Plane overshoots runway

An Astra Airlines passenger plane went off the runway at Thessaloniki’s Macedonia Airport on Saturday but there were no injuries. The airplane, which was arriving following a flight from Russia, overshot the runway. It was not clear what had caused this to happen. None of the 160 passengers on board was injured. Astra Airlines began operations in July 2008. It flies to a number of Greek islands from Thessaloniki.

High school exams.

Pupils at senior high schools began university entrance exams in so-called “special subjects” on Saturday. The first test was in English. This final phase of the exam period will end on June 22 with the final special subject, which will be in music listening.

Huub of activity.

Former PSV Eindhoven and Schalke 04 coach Huub Stevens has agreed to take over as the new manager at Greece’s PAOK, the Thessaloniki club announced on Friday. PAOK, who finished second in the Super League and clinched a spot in the Champions League via a playoff system, said that the deal with Stevens would be finalized in the next few days and the 60-year-old Dutchman would be officially unveiled. “We are very satisfied that a coach of Huub Stevens’s stature has agreed to lead PAOK to a better future,” the club’s president Zisis Vryzas told PAOK’s website. “He believes in hard work and discipline and has many successes in top leagues to show for.” Stevens has won several titles in his coaching career, which began in 1993. He claimed the UEFA Cup in 1997 with German outfit Schalke, with whom he also won two German Cups in 2001 and 2002. More recently, he led PSV Eindhoven to the Dutch Super Cup in 2009 and Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg to the championship in 2010. “PAOK are a club representing hard work and I always felt at home in such clubs,” Stevens told the club’s website. “I love working and our goal is to help PAOK step toward the future.”