There will be no trams between noon and 4 p.m. due to a work stoppage by employees who are protesting the sacking of two colleagues earlier this year. It is the third such stoppage in recent months.

The Greek Ambassador in Washington, Alexandros Mallias, has written to The New York Times to complain that “Greece was unfairly criticized by some editorial writers, The New York Times included, when it raised the issue of nationalism and violent rhetoric incompatible with NATO and European Union standards in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.” Mallias continued: “Greece did not respond to often extremely nationalistic and irredentist statements adopted by our neighboring country during the pre-election period.” He concluded by saying that Greece awaits the continuation of the negotiation process.

Two suspected people smugglers who were transporting nine illegal immigrants in two vehicles were arrested near Greece’s border with Turkey late on Friday night. The drivers failed to stop when requested to do so by border guards and a chase ensued. Although one car was halted almost immediately, it took officers more than an hour to track down the second vehicle and its occupants.

A coast guard patrol boat was able to find a fisherman near the small Cycladic island of Anafi yesterday after the 22-year-old had contacted relatives to tell them that he was feeling unwell. The fisherman was taken to a hospital on Santorini.

Greece won a gold and two bronze medals over the weekend at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Barcelona. Lefteris Kosmidis finished first in the men’s floor exercise final after scoring a total of 15,450 points on Saturday, while Dimosthenis Tambakos was third in the rings’ final with 15,700 points. Yesterday Vlassis Maras won bronze in the horizontal bar, with 15,350 points. Stephanie Bisbikou could only manage fourth in the women’s uneven bars with 13,450 points.