Hundreds of farmers from all across the country could provoke traffic chaos in central Athens today when they converge at the Panathenaic Stadium at 12 noon for a rally demanding higher subsidies and state compensation for weather-damaged crops. The demonstration, which will end at the prime minister’s residence, will “surpass all others,” the president of the Federation of Democratic National Farmers’ Unions, Yiannis Pittas, said yesterday, without confirming whether protesters would bring their tractors.

Appeals by four archaeological, environmental and heritage groups against the construction of an Olympic rowing center on the site of the 490 BC battle of Marathon at Schinias, northeastern Attica, were quashed in a decision by the Council of State made public yesterday. The appeals had been submitted too late, said the court, which also made public its approval of the construction of an Olympic riding center and racecourse at Markopoulo in eastern Attica.

Olympic Airways (OA) flights will go ahead as scheduled today after two three-hour work stoppages planned by OA workers — at loggerheads with the government over the ailing state carrier’s imminent restructuring — were called off following yesterday’s court ruling which deemed them illegal. OA workers say they do not object to the restructuring of the firm in principle but want to keep their jobs. The government wants OA to shed 2,000 personnel.

Athens University professors, who begin a scheduled 48-hour strike today, are to visit the Education Ministry this morning to demand a deadline for the fulfillment of their demands. These include an increase of 587 euros in their annual salary and 492 euros in their pensions, unionists said yesterday. Protesters are to meet at the gates of the university — which will remain closed until Friday — at 11 a.m., from where they will march to the ministry.

Radio and TV stations will not be broadcasting news bulletins tomorrow and there will be no newspapers on Thursday as journalists from all media participate in a nationwide 24-hour strike starting at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Athens journalists will begin a rally on the pedestrian walkway of Voukourestiou Street at 1 p.m. Unionists want pay increases and the reinstatement of sacked colleagues.

Iranian President Mohammed Khatami will carry out an official visit to Greece next Tuesday in his first trip to the EU since his election last June.

Greece and Russia yesterday condemned ‘terrorism’ in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia following an ambush over the weekend which left seven people dead. Foreign Minister George Papandreou, meeting Russian special envoy for southeastern Europe Vladimir Shizhov in Athens to discuss how Greece and Russia could contribute to stability in the Balkans, said the attack had been carried out by “a group which could have had links with foreign terrorist centers.”

Border police near the northern town of Kastoria yesterday arrested a group of seven Albanian nationals smuggling 66 kilos of marijuana into Greece. The Albanians, who crossed the border on foot before being spotted in the village of Eptahori, told police they had been offered 440 euros each to take the drugs over the border and leave them in a field for an unknown middleman to pick up.

A state hospital in the northern town of Kavala yesterday appealed to legal and municipal authorities to help round up stray dogs, cats and even cows who have taken to wandering around one of the hospital’s outhouses, causing health risks and even occasional injuries.

Three Greek doctors and two nurses have been charged with homicidal negligence in connection with the death of a British holidaymaker in hospital on Rhodes two years ago, the BBC said yesterday. The family of Christopher Rochester, 24, said they had written confirmation from the Greek ambassador in London, Alexandros Sandis, informing them that five of the staff of Rhodes Town Hospital are to be tried over Rochester’s death, who fell from a balcony following a night out drinking with friends.