A mild quake, measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale, struck Mount Parnitha, north of Athens, shortly after 3.30 a.m. yesterday. There were no reports of damage. Seismologists said the tremor was an “isolated phenomenon,” stressing that its epicenter was not exactly the same as the strong September 1999 quake which shook Athens. Yesterday’s quake struck at the foot of Mount Parnitha, some 16 kilometers north of Athens.

The United Nations mediator between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM,) Matthew Nimetz, is due in Athens today to continue negotiations aimed at resolving the Macedonia name dispute. Sources have told Kathimerini that Greek diplomats are likely to reject Nimetz’s proposals and veto FYROM’s bid to join NATO if necessary.

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Evi Tsekou, the 35-year-old former Culture Ministry employee, who is alleged to have had an affair with and then attempted to blackmail the ministry’s former general secretary Christos Zachopoulos, is to testify before an investigating magistrate today. Tsekou is expected to admit to having had a relationship with Zachopoulos and to shed light on allegations that she filmed their sexual encounters before trying to blackmail him.

Police patrolling the border with Turkey on Saturday detained six would-be migrants after spotting them getting into a car with false number plates. The driver of the car stopped the vehicle and fled on foot after police signalled for him to stop. The migrants said they had paid traffickers 3,000 euros each to cross the Evros River in a plastic rowboat. Also yesterday, port authority officials detained four illegal immigrants in Patras as well as their two suspected smugglers. The migrants were found hidden in a vehicle that had been about to drive onto a ferry for Italy.

Courts will remain closed in several prefectures today due to the severe weather conditions that have hampered transport across the country, the Justice Ministry said yesterday. Courts will be closed in Athens, Piraeus, eastern and western Attica, Viotia, Evia, Fthiotida, Evritania, Arcadia and Laconia.

One person was killed and two injured yesterday morning when two cars collided on the national highway near Kastoria in northern Greece. The collision, which killed the passenger of one car and injured both drivers, is believed to have been caused by the slippery road surface.