The Citizens’ Protection Ministry’s plan to curb crime in the capital by deploying neighborhood police officers began yesterday as 114 officers were dispatched to 18 precincts across Attica to start work. The officers, who are to conduct patrols on motorcycles, will be on duty night and day. Another 104 officers are being deployed in patrols in Thessaloniki and other cities.

A strong earthquake, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, struck Efpalio in the central prefecture of Fokida shortly before 6 p.m., causing minor damage but no injuries. The quake shook nearby Patra and Nafpaktos while it was also felt in Attica.

More than 1,000 drivers were given parking tickets and 10 parking attendants were arrested following a large operation by traffic police this weekend. The parking attendants were taken into custody on suspicion of using public property to park the vehicles of nightclub customers. Police issued 1,239 drivers with parking tickets and removed the license plates from 221 cars.

The Hellenic Red Cross yesterday appealed for public donations to boost its efforts to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The relief organization said it had donated 50,000 euros but that much more is needed. Deposits can be made into the HRC’s Alpha Bank Account – the number of which is 101-00-2002-005560 – and should be marked “Humanitarian Aid for Haiti.” Last week the Interior Ministry set up a bank account for Haiti donations at the Bank of Greece. The account number is 2341131478 and the IBAN number GR8701000230000002341131478.

The security firm that had employed a 45-year-old man shot dead by would-be robbers outside a toy store in Vari, southeastern Athens, on Saturday night, yesterday offered a reward of 300,000 euros to anyone who comes forward with information leading to the perpetrators’ arrest. The father of two died late on Saturday after a bullet fired from a Kalashnikov by one of the four assailants pierced the van he had been in and hit him in the head.

A call claiming that a bomb had been placed yesterday at the headquarters of the ESIEA journalists’ union in central Athens turned out to be a hoax. Police evacuated the building and closed Academias Street for a few minutes as they searched for the device at around 2 p.m. in what was the latest in a series of bomb hoaxes in Athens over the past couple of weeks.

A monument to teacher Nikos Temponeras, a teacher who was murdered in 1991 in Patra during protests against an education bill, has been vandalized, authorities said yesterday. Vandals daubed slogans and threw dirt on the monument, which is located in a Patra school complex. January 8 marked the 19th anniversary of Temponeras’s death.