Greece has agreed for the first time to allow a Russian aircraft carrier to conduct military exercises in the southeast Aegean and within Greek air space this month, the Defense Ministry said yesterday. The carrier Kuznetsov will operate southeast of the Dodecanese island of Rhodes today, tomorrow and on January 8 and 10. It will also conduct exercises south of Crete on January 11. The ministry said that Russian Sukhoi 25 and Sukhoi 33 fighter aircraft and Kamov helicopters would take part in the operations. The Kuznetsov is currently on a mission in the Mediterranean with other ships in Russia’s northern fleet.

A national lottery ticket holder from Volos, central Greece, won 7 million euros in the tradition New Year’s draw. The winner, who had not claimed the winnings by Friday night, held ticket number 62770 from the 36th series. All the tickets with the same number but from other series win 25,000 euros. Numbers 62766, 62767, 62768 and 62769 from the 36th series each win 2 million euros. These numbers in other series win 15,000 euros each.

Culture Ministry officials have agreed to meet with 670 contract workers on Wednesday after a sit-in protest by the short-term employees at the ministry to protest their sacking. One worker had threatened to throw herself from the scaffolding on the Acropolis. The workers were told that they would be kept on for the time being.

The mayor of Myconos, Christos Veronis, resigned yesterday after serving 18 years at the island’s municipality. A short message announcing his resignation was posted on the local authority’s website but no reason was given for Veronis stepping down. Veronis also resigned from all the other public posts he held.

The residents of the Athens neighborhood of Ano Petralona are due to hold a protest in Mercouri Square at noon today in sympathy with cleaner and unionist Constantina Kuneva, who was attacked with acid on Christmas Eve. Kuneva is still in a serious condition in the Evangelismos Hospital. The vice president of the Attica Cleaners’ Union where Kuneva is general secretary, Vassiliki Tsouni, demanded yesterday a meeting with Employment Minister Fani Palli-Petralia to discuss cleaners’ rights.

Police were yesterday treating the fatal shooting of a 51-year-old man outside his home in the Athens district of Rizoupolis as a settling of scores. The victim, who was Greek, was not named but police said that he had been shot five times late on Thursday night.

Journalist and author Frida Bioubi died on January 1 at the age of 70, it was announced yesterday. Bioubi had worked at Kathimerini between 1974-76 and went on to edit the Greek version of Reader’s Digest. She also wrote several novels.