Athens Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis said yesterday that authorities are considering making a section of the Proastiakos suburban railway extension to Piraeus go underground. Kaklamanis met with Transport Minister Michalis Liapis yesterday to discuss the project, which could see the Sepolia stretch of the line from Treis Gefyres to Piraeus, which is under construction, being built below ground due to complaints from residents.

Greece is the 13th best country in which to raise children out of 21 wealthy countries surveyed by UNICEF. The report, which was made public yesterday, ranked the Netherlands as the best country for a child’s well-being and the UK as the worst. The USA ranked 20th out of 21 developed countries which were rated according to material well-being, education, peer and family relationships, health and safety, behaviors and risks and young people’s sense of well-being.

Three Greek men were arrested yesterday on board a Spanish yacht near the mid-Atlantic islands of Madeira after 1.5 tons of cocaine was found on the vessel, Portuguese police said. Officers said they had been monitoring the yacht since last November and it had been involved in several drug-smuggling operations. The three unnamed Greeks are alleged to be part of a international drug ring based in Spain.

The civil servants’ union (ADEDY) said yesterday that it is joining the umbrella union GSEE in calling a work stoppage for its members across Greece on February 22. The action is being held so that civil servants can take part in education rallies on that day, ADEDY said. It did not say which hours the work stoppage will be held. The union said that it will also hold a 24-hour strike by March 22 but did not set a date.

Three Bulgarian nationals accused of torturing and abusing a 27-year-old woman they allegedly helped to smuggle into Greece have been remanded in custody, police said yesterday. The man and two women, charged with abduction, sexual assault, aggravated assault and blackmail, are said to have kept the Bulgarian woman hostage while demanding a 3,500-euro fee from her husband in Bulgaria for helping her sneak into Greece.

A night watchman at the Public Power Corporation’s (PPC) facility in Koropi, eastern Attica, was beaten and bound by a group of four men that filled a truck with equipment stolen from the plant before fleeing. Police said that the guard, a Pakistan national, was attacked at around 2 a.m. by a group of Roma men.

Authorities arrested a 30-year-old Greek close to Xanthi, in northeastern Greece, yesterday after he allegedly transported into the country four illegal immigrants. A border patrol detained the four illegal immigrants and confiscated the suspect’s car.