Airline passengers scheduled to travel today are to face disruptions due to a planned four-hour work stoppage by air-traffic controllers from noon and a 24-hour strike by Olympic Airlines (OA) technicians. OA said yesterday it had canceled 15 flights - all domestic, except for one to Tirana - and changed the times of 26 departures. Aegean Airlines said it had canceled seven domestic flights and has shifted 19 departures. Passengers can call OA on 210.966.6666 and Aegean on 801.112.0000. OA's management yesterday appealed for the planned strike by its technicians to be declared illegal.

Public services across the country will be subject to disruption today as employees join a 24-hour strike by the main civil servant's union (ADEDY). Workers are to stage a rally in Korai Square, in central Athens, from 11 a.m. They are demanding a minimum wage of 1,200 euros, improved social security benefits for hazardous professions and collective labor contracts. Yesterday, the union representing state high school teachers (OLME) called upon its members to join the ADEDY strike. Teachers want a 25 percent wage increase.

Entry to state museums and archaeological sites is free today, in celebration of International Museum Day. However, a strike by state archaeologists, in combination with a 24-hour strike by civil servants, may cause disruptions at some sites. Prospective visitors should call individual sites for details.

A court decision, which found that the government's levying of a pensioner's social security contributions into the controversial LAFKA fund contravened the European Convention on Human Rights, was made public yesterday. The sum of 1,051 euros in contributions made to an Agricultural Bank pension fund between January 1998 and March 2001 should be paid back to the pensioner in question along with the interest accrued since March 2001, the court ruled.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas stand during a minute's silence observed in Parliament yesterday in memory of the millions who died in World War II, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the war's ending. «The study of war is the most effective battle against war,» Karamanlis said during a debate in Parliament attended by all the main party leaders.

A Corfu coast guard officer has been arrested for drug smuggling, along with two Greeks and an Albanian, authorities on the island said yesterday after confiscating 264 kilos of cannabis. The four allegedly had been loading the drugs into two cars on a remote beach when they were spotted. The drugs were brought to the island by speedboat from Albania, according to police.

There will be no taxis on the streets of Thessaloniki today as cabbies continue a 48-hour strike that concludes at 5 a.m. tomorrow.

Health inspectors in Piraeus have confiscated 25 tons of frozen chicken of Argentinean origin after learning that it was contaminated with a disease-causing bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes, prefectural authorities said yesterday. The poultry is to be buried in a landfill.

A 60-year-old Rhodes man was arrested yesterday for allegedly raping a 17-year-old retarded boy. The boy's mother told police the 60-year-old was a neighbor and had entered her home while she was out. The unnamed suspect denies the charges.