New legislation foreseeing a swifter process for issuing divorces and the simplification of the state adoption system was submitted in Parliament yesterday by Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis. If the bill is approved, married couples who file for divorce will have to wait only two years for the decision to be made final, compared to four years now. The bill also includes a controversial cohabitation provision that would grant heterosexual couples living together the same rights as married couples.

The board of the State High School Teachers Federation (OLME) yesterday recommended to its members that they vote in favor of holding five-day rolling strikes starting on December 1 to press for higher wages and their demand to retire on a full pension after 30 years of work. Representatives of local OLME chapters are due to vote on the motion on October 25. High school teachers also plan to take part in the general strike that has been planned for October 21.

Police were yesterday questioning a 31-year-old Albanian employee of a car wash in Thessaloniki after discovering 7 kilos of hashish, 1 kilo of heroin and nearly a kilo of cocaine hidden on the premises. Officers, who also discovered a set of scales at the man’s workplace and 5,000 euros in cash at his home, believe he had been dealing in the broader Thessaloniki area.

Pupils yesterday staged sit-ins at 46 state senior high schools in Thessaloniki, calling for additional state funding to finance the improvement of infrastructure including the creation of extra laboratories, gymnasiums and classrooms. Similar sit-ins have been staged in Attica, Tripoli and Corinth this week. Meanwhile in Athens primary school teachers staged work stoppages and held a rally in the city center, calling for an improvement in the quality of training.

A 36-year-old Cyprus national who allegedly secured two 25,000-euro loans from banks in central Athens by posing as a Cyprus Navy officer working with Greek authorities was arrested in the act of receiving the loan funds, police said yesterday. The man is alleged to have used forged documents to secure approval of the two loans as well as three credit cards. Police were yesterday seeking to determine whether the suspect is implicated in other incidents of fraud.

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios is today to preside over the launch of a summit of Orthodox Church leaders, including Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece and Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus, at the Istanbul-based Patriarchate. It is the first time in decades that a Cypriot archbishop has been permitted by Turkish authorities to visit Istanbul. Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia is to join the three-day gathering tomorrow.