Residents of northeastern Attica are due to continue protests against a government decision to create landfills in the areas of Polydendri and Grammatiko by blocking the exit off the Athens-Lamia national road at Polydendri and Marathonos Ave at the Marathon Dam from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow. Protesters have not ruled out blocking the national road itself. Meanwhile, the municipality of Keratea, in southeastern Attica, is holding a rally-concert at 7 p.m. today — featuring rock singer Vassilis Papaconstantinou — on Lavriou Ave, at the junction with Kakia Thalassa, in protest at a decision to build landfills in the vicinity of Keratea and Koropi.

State museums and archaeological sites across the country will be closed tomorrow as guards stage a 24-hour strike. A similar strike was held last Sunday. The Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agents (HATTA) on Thursday appealed to the Economy Ministry to raise the guards’ salaries, expressing concern over the impact on Greece’s tourism of any extended strike.

Ferry passengers planning to travel from the port of Rafina this weekend should be aware that the road journey to the port will take longer than usual in view of ongoing roadworks on Marathonos Ave, the Rafina Port Authority said yesterday. Works are under way on the stretch of Marathonos Ave between Aghia Paraskevi and the Rafina intersection.

State Social Security Foundation (IKA) doctors are staging two 2.5-hour work stoppages — in the morning and afternoon — on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Doctors are demanding higher salaries and permanent status for colleagues on short-term contracts.

Arsonists used a Molotov cocktail to destroy a bank ATM outside Thessaloniki University’s Department of Physics and Mathematics early yesterday, causing 5,000 euros worth of damage, police said.. The ATM was out of order and did not contain any cash, according to police.

The Dallas Opera has selected Greek soprano Irini Tsikaridis as the recipient of the Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year award for 2002-2003, The Associated Press reported yesterday. Tsikaridis was selected by season subscribers for her performance in the title role of last season’s “Ermione,” AP said. Callas launched the inaugural season of the Dallas Opera with a 1957 recital.

A Xanthi court yesterday sentenced a 30-year-old man to eight years in prison for fatally injuring a 70-year-old man in November 2001 in the northern town of Drama. Dimitris Tsikelas said he struck Stylianos Dekaneas following an argument but had not intended to kill him. The quarrel began after Dekaneas made comments questioning his virility, Tsikelas said.

A raid on the Larissa homes of two 32-year-old men suspected of dealing in cannabis unearthed 5 kilos of the drug but also 120 fragments of ancient artifacts, police in the central city said yesterday. Both men, who were not named, were yesterday charged with illegally trading in antiquities.

Minister of Public Order Michalis Chrysochoidis and other government officials will attend a service today in memory of British military attache Brigadier Stephen Saunders who was assassinated by the November 17 terrorist group on June 8, 2000. The service is at 11 a.m. at St Paul’s Anglican Church on Filellinon St in central Athens.

A lone robber made off with 5,850 euros following an armed raid on a bank in Athens’s northern suburb of Lykovryssi just before 10 a.m. yesterday.

Laborer Constantinos Zervoudakis, 33, died yesterday after being electrocuted on the Attiki Odos construction site where he worked.