The state-run National Book Center of Greece (EKEBI) has run up debts of 3 million euros, Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis said yesterday. Partly to blame for the bill is Greece’s participation in the 2001 Frankfurt Book Fair at a cost of 10 million euros — of which EKEBI still owes 600,000 euros, Tatoulis said. The minister was speaking at a press conference EKEBI had called to present a review of the recent Thessaloniki Book Fair.

A group of youths hurled Molotov cocktail bombs at offices of the ruling New Democracy party in the southern coastal suburb of Alimos early yesterday, police said. There was minor damage to the premises but no injuries were reported. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sfakianakis, Suzuki’s representative in Greece, has advised all owners of the firm’s four-wheel drive Wagon R+ and Ignis models to return their vehicles for a free inspection amid concerns about possible gear-box problems, the Development Ministry said yesterday. Owners of the above models can telephone Sfakianakis’s technical department on 210.349.9850 on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. for further details.

Sports fans interested in following the Panhellenic Athletics Championship at the main Olympic complex in Maroussi (OAKA) can benefit from free afternoon transport to the venue today and tomorrow, the Athens Urban Transport Organization said yesterday. Travel will be free between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the X14 Syntagma-OAKA bus route and on the Athens-Piraeus urban electric railway.

Two new modern trains that will begin serving the Thessaloniki-Sofia route from June 17 will slash the journey time to five hours and 45 minutes from the current seven hours and 36 minutes, the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) said yesterday. There will be daily departures from Thessaloniki at 7 a.m. and 5.40 p.m. and from Sofia at 7 a.m. and 5.30 p.m., OSE said.

The president of the European People’s Party (EPP), Hans Gert Petering, yesterday told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that EU candidate Turkey must recognize the Republic of Cyprus. Turkey is obliged to recognize Nicosia since it cannot begin negotiations with a country whose validity it does not acknowledge, Petering said. He added that the option of a “privileged partnership” between the EU and Turkey should also be examined.

Farmers from Tymbaki, on the southern coast of Crete, yesterday staged a demonstration at the port of Iraklion, demanding the payment of compensation for crop damage they suffered in hail storms in December 2002. Regional officials told protesters that they would brief them on the matter on June 27.

Two foreigners have been arrested after about 25 ancient amphorae were confiscated from an Albanian-flagged boat which docked at the port of Hania on Wednesday night, Cretan coast guard officials said yesterday. The captain of the El Duraki, a 54-year-old Albanian, and its owner, a foreigner whose origin was not determined, claimed to have found the antiquities while fishing between the Adriatic and the Ionian Gulf. According to archaeologists, the amphorae date to the fifth century BC.