Traffic is due to be disrupted in Athens and along the marathon race route tomorrow as the 42nd annual peace marathon marking the assassination of left-wing member of Parliament and activist Grigoris Lambrakis gets under way. The event is to start at Marathon at 8 a.m. and is due to finish at around 7.30 p.m. at Syntagma Square in central Athens.

A group of around 70 youths hurled Molotov cocktails at a riot police bus parked in the central Athenian district of Exarchia late on Thursday night, but no injuries were reported. None of the homemade bombs struck their target but two garbage dumpsters were set alight, according to police who chased the youths. There were no reports of any arrests. An anonymous caller to Mega television channel shortly after the attack said it had been a reprisal for the injury of a 28-year-old man by police gunfire outside Athens Polytechnic early on Wednesday.

Coast guards on Lesvos yesterday detained a 26-year-old Turk who allegedly threw 14 would-be migrants off his smuggling vessel, causing an Indian national to drown. Deniz Atisi is believed to have disposed of his passengers a short distance from the island, after realizing he had been spotted by authorities, before heading back toward Turkey.

Greece’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 3.6 percent in the first quarter of this year as compared to the same period last year while investment dropped by 1 percent over the same period, the National Statistics Service said yesterday. GDP growth in the first quarter of 2004 was 4.3 percent.

Cyprus was the first country to make wine in the Mediterranean region, an Italian archaeologist declared in Nicosia yesterday. Maria-Rosaria Belgiorno said she uncovered evidence during excavation work near the southern coastal town of Limassol that Cypriots produced wine up to 6,000 years ago. She said she planned to reveal the evidence on Monday.

Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas and Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis yesterday traveled on the first seaplane flight from Faliro, southern Athens, to Lake Plastira in central Greece. Seaplanes will also begin regular services to Lake Smokovo, in northeastern Karditsa prefecture, following the extension of a government initiative to provide more frequent connections from Attica to remote islands.

Two men have been arrested for participating in illegal car races along the coastal road at Varkiza, southern Athens, and their vehicles impounded, police said yesterday. The men have been charged with violating the highway code and stripped of their licenses for 30 days.

The charred corpse of a 60-year-old woman was discovered on a mattress in a house in the Peloponnesian town of Argos on Thursday night, police said yesterday. The feet of the woman, identified as Sotiria Bellou, had been bound, according to police.

A 15-year-old Albanian believed to have burgled nine homes and two schools and raided three stores in Oropos, northern Attica, faced a youth prosecutor yesterday. The 15-year-old carried out the raids to get food with the help of a 14-year-old Albanian, according to police.