A total of 17 electronic surveillance cameras will be monitoring key roads in central Athens and the northern municipality of Halandri from today as part of a government crackdown on motorists who use bus lanes. Five of the cameras will be operating on Vassilisis Sofias Avenue, two on Mesogeion and two on Kifissias. Patission and Stadiou streets will have three cameras each and another two will be set up in Halandri, both on Mesogeion. Offenders will receive a court summons once identified. The fine is 78 euros.

The discovery of undersea oil reserves between Cyprus and Turkey boosts Turkey’s territorial claims to the island, according to a statement by Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash made public in the Turkish-Cypriot daily Kipris on Saturday. Ongoing negotiations to reunify Cyprus should be refocused to take into account the new “development,” the newspaper said. Denktash informed reporters of the alleged existence of the reserves on Friday.

Three people were killed and another three — including an 8-month-old baby — seriously injured in a car crash near Kyparissia in the western Peloponnese early yesterday morning. Firefighters recovered the bodies of Grigorios Vassilopoulos, 37, Fotios Vassilopoulos, 67, and Christina Stavropoulou, 26, from the burned wreckage. Dimitra Vassilopoulou, 64, and 8-month-old Fotios Vassilopoulos were extracted from the first car with serious injuries. The driver of the second car, Charalambos Kalogeropoulos, 30, was also seriously injured.

Conscripts in central Lesvos helped firefighters to extinguish a blaze which ravaged 15 hectares of forest land near their military base early on Sunday morning. According to an eyewitness, the fire was caused by a bag of inflammable liquid which was thrown at the base from a passing car. A team of 25 firefighters on eight fire engines, 30 ground workers, four water-carrying aircraft and three helicopters extinguished another forest fire on the island of Kythera, in the Peloponnese, early on Saturday morning, before it could cause major damage.

Bishop Chrysostomos of Edessa and Pella is to be buried at noon today following his death on Saturday morning at the age of 71. Born Christos Kakoulides, he was elected bishop of the central Macedonian prefecture of Pella, seated in the capital Pella, in 1984.

A fire which broke out on a car repair and spare parts site in Thessaloniki on Saturday caused 100,000 euros worth of damage before a team of 45 firefighters and 11 fire engines managed to extinguish it. It is unclear how the blaze started.