Striking workers from the Ano Liosia landfill are due to meet today to decide whether to continue protest action aimed at improving their working conditions. Tons of rubbish have been piling up on Athenian streets over the last eight days after workers shut the landfill because they said the treated sewage dumped there is creating hazardous labor conditions. Meanwhile, workers have allowed rubbish from schools and hospitals to be dumped at the site.

ADEDY, the civil servants’ union group, disagreed yesterday with a recent government proposal to shift the opening hours of state services by one hour, saying the change will not benefit the broader public or the workers. But the union group added that it is willing to take a closer look at the proposed hours and the conditions under which they could be applied.

The state broadcasting watchdog yesterday decided to send a “recommendation” to all television channels to boost their coverage of the activities of the smaller political parties. The National Radio and Television Council (ESR) decided to take action after analysis of the programs of all channels during the period between June and August showed a significant difference between their coverage — on news bulletins and other informative programs — of ruling New Democracy and PASOK as compared to the Communist Party (KKE) and Synaspismos Left Coalition.

Prefectural officials in Thessaloniki yesterday confiscated and destroyed 75 kilos of expired delicatessen meat which was deemed unfit for human consumption from the city’s Giorgos Gennimatas hospital canteen. Inspectors also seized 30 samples of food from the city’s state hospitals which have been sent to the General State Laboratories for tests. Checks have also been conducted on Thessaloniki school canteens but no violations were detected, inspectors said. Meanwhile, prefectural officials in Piraeus confiscated 500 kilos of an unnamed white cheese whose packaging did not bear production and expiry dates.

A 31-year-old fisherman who had set off on a fishing trip on September 28 and had been missing since was found dead yesterday in the sea off Pieria in northern Greece. The cause of his death was being investigated.

The number of newly registered cars on the country’s roads fell unexpectedly by 3.8 percent on an annual basis in the January-September period, the National Statistics Service said yesterday. The number of new and used cars that hit the country’s streets in the nine-month period was 287,938.

A 32-year-old man was imprisoned in Thessaloniki yesterday after being charged with the murder of a teenage girl last year. Police said the 15-year-old girl went missing last July and her body was found three days later in a ravine by a shepherd, the man charged with the murder.

In two separate incidents, coast guards picked up 15 illegal immigrants off the eastern Aegean island of Samos yesterday as they tried to sail to Greece from Turkey, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. Four immigrants were found on the east coast and the other 11 were found in a boat north of the island.

A small private airplane that disappeared from airport radars on its way to Crete early yesterday flew back to the Megara airport, west of Athens, in the afternoon with all its passengers safe. The pilot said he could not communicate with airport tower officials due to a technical problem with the radio transmitter and flew the plane at a lower altitude so he could reach the tower by cell phone.

Confectioners in Iraklion, Crete, said yesterday they will be giving away sweets in the city’s Eleftherias Square on Sunday as part of a celebration called “Iraklion, the sweetest city.”