An anti-war rally, scheduled to begin at noon today at Syntagma Square, in central Athens, is expected to cause traffic problems. The country’s main labor unions and human rights groups are due to participate in the rally, which marks two years since the USA invaded Iraq. Popular singers are to perform at a concert in Syntagma Square before a scheduled march on the US Embassy by protesters. Similar rallies are due to take place in around 30 countries today.

A two-day nationwide strike by Greek airport workers, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, will cause flight disruptions if it goes ahead. Workers participating in the action, who do not include air-traffic controllers, are protesting against staff shortages. The Civil Aviation Authority is considering lodging a court appeal for the strike to be deemed illegal.

Greece yesterday boosted its contribution to relief aid for tsunami victims with 3.4 million euros in donations from schools across the country. Education Minister Marietta Giannakou presented Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis with a check for the amount donated by schoolchildren and teachers.

A former family friend of convicted Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA) member Angeletos Kanas yesterday told an Athens court that Kanas’s ex-wife Sofia Kyriakidou — the chief prosecution witness in the trial that convicted Kanas — allegedly had been seeking revenge against him since 1997. Rozana Logotheti told a court hearing the trial of six people allegedly involved in ELA bombings that Kyriakidou had proposed to her that they both seek revenge upon their former husbands.

President Karolos Papoulias yesterday received political, religious and military leaders at the Presidential Palace for the traditional acceptance of their congratulations on his new post. Well-wishers included Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou and Archbishop Christodoulos.

Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias yesterday told Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis that no more state funding could be allotted to rectify the rather unsuccessful renovation of Omonia Square prior to the Olympics. “We will fix up (the square) again when the economy recovers,” he told Bakoyannis.

Greek MPs who yesterday had been due to participate in a soccer tournament in the Turkish town of Antalya involving teams of deputies from several Balkan parliaments pulled out in protest at the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia team’s use of the name Macedonia.

Hundreds of people waited in line in central Athens yesterday to buy tickets for a World Cup qualifying match on Wednesday, March 30 in which the Greek national team is to face Albania at the Karaiskaki Stadium in Neo Faliron.

A group of five opposition PASOK deputies yesterday demanded an explanation from Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis for his intervention in the appointment of a top-ranking ministry official. The MPs charge that Kefaloyiannis wrongfully rejected a decision by a ministry board and obliged it to make a new appointment.

A small bomb damaged a tire shop in the central Athenian district of Patissia early yesterday morning but caused no injuries.