Six formations of Turkish fighter jets yesterday entered the Athens Flight Information Region six times and violated Greek national air space near Samothrace and Lemnos, as well as northwest of Lesvos, seven times, military officials said. The 12 Turkish jets were chased off by as many Greek aircraft and there were four simulated dogfights, the officials said. Also yesterday, Cyprus’s representative to the United Nations, Andreas Hadzichrysanthou, lodged a complaint with the UN over 11 violations of Cypriot national air space by Turkish military jets in July and August.

The Attica mayors whose municipalities contain Olympic venues yesterday proposed that they should form a central administrative body to manage and maintain the sites. The mayors stressed the need to fence off the venues after the Paralympics at the end of September, to ensure that they are protected from damage. Many asked for studies to be conducted to determine the cost of maintaining the sites. They did not rule out leasing the venues to private firms.

A 60-year-old man died shortly after 8 a.m. yesterday after being hit by an Athens tram on a pedestrian crossing in Nea Smyrni. The tram driver saw the man step onto the crossing, sounded his horn, but was not able to brake in time, according to reports. The victim’s identity was not immediately known. A 33-year-old Korean tram worker was killed in the middle of last month as he tried to cross tram lines at the junction of coastal Poseidonos Avenue and Averoff Street.

One in four Greek firms is violating tax laws, with the highest rate of transgression seen in Attica, according to inspections which were conducted last July by the government’s Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) officials and whose results were made public yesterday. A total of 5,647 violations were recorded following 4,271 spot checks on 1,131 businesses across the country, according to officials. The highest rate of transgression (42 percent) was recorded in Attica, with a 39 percent rate in mainland Greece and 38 percent in the Ionian.

Local authorities were on standby yesterday after the General Secretariat for Civil Defense warned that winds would reach up to 9 Beaufort over the weekend. Today, winds are forecast to reach 7 Beaufort in eastern Greece, and up to 8 Beaufort in the central and southern Aegean. Conditions are set to deteriorate tomorrow when winds are expected to reach up to 9 Beaufort on the eastern mainland, the Cyclades, Samos, Icaria, northern Crete and the Dodecanese.

More than 200 television networks offered coverage of last month’s Olympic Games, providing a total of 3,800 hours of live broadcasts, as compared to 3,200 at the Sydney Games in 2000, according to Athens 2004 Organizing Committee data made public yesterday. US broadcasting giant NBC, which had majority rights for the Games, scheduled 806 hours of television coverage compared to 403 hours for the Sydney Games.

Hundreds of members of leftist groups and labor unions staged a protest in central Athens yesterday, objecting to plans for the continued use of surveillance cameras installed as part of security measures for the Olympics. Protesters gathered in 13 spots where cameras are located and in one case spray-painted a camera with black paint. There were no reports of violence.

Economy Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis yesterday rebutted reports that there would be an increase in the tax on residential heating fuel.

A Greek man has been arrested with over 6 kilos of heroin, police in the northern prefecture of Pella said yesterday. The man, who was not identified, had tried to sell 500 grams of the drug to a policeman posing as a customer, but surrendered another 5.6 kilos when he realized he had been caught red-handed, police said.