Athens's blue buses will operate normally after drivers called off the work stoppages they had planned for today and next week over a dispute about collective contracts. The workers at the Athens public bus company (ETHEL) decided to suspend their action after meeting with management yesterday.

The National Meteorological Service (EMY) issued a weather alert yesterday saying severe weather conditions were expected to hit northern Greece last night and spread across to other parts of the country today. Macedonia, Thessaly, the Peloponnese and northern parts of the Aegean are likely to be the hardest hit by the heavy showers and storms, EMY said. Conditions are expected to start improving by this afternoon.

Archimandrite Iakovos Yiossakis, the priest alleged to have been a middleman in a trial-fixing ring involving judges and lawyers, yesterday faced an appeals magistrate for questioning and denied any involvement in the alleged clique. Yiossakis also rejected charges that he was involved in the theft of antiquities from the island of Kythera. He was remanded in custody in high-security Korydallos Prison after questioning.

Appeals court prosecutor Kyriakos Karoutsos yesterday filed criminal charges against former judge Constantina Bourboulia for abuse of power. In June, Bourboulia was sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail after being found guilty of mishandling, between 2000 and 2002, a probe into stock market improprieties and of accepting bribes. Karoutsos also charged first instance judge Nektarios Vazeos for failing to step down in a trial during which his best man was the defense lawyer.

Greek archaeologists have discovered the «well-preserved» remains of a large Bronze Age town dating from at least 1,900 BC on the Cycladic island of Andros, the Culture Ministry said in a statement yesterday. Archaeologists found at least four «well-preserved» buildings - one of them retaining its ground floor walls - in the remains of a quarter, and a graded road believed to lead to a square. Researchers also found a number of rock drawings on the edge of the town, which lies on the southwestern Cape Plaka near the fortified site of Strofilas, a Neolithic settlement that dates from 4000 BC. (AFP)

A publisher in Hania, Crete, printed a two-meter-wide newspaper yesterday in a bid to make it the largest of its kind in the world and list it in the Guinness Book of World Records. The newspaper, called «Chillout,» is 2.1 meters wide and 2.95 meters tall. Its regular edition is distributed every Wednesday, and its stories include social and cultural issues.

The Association of German and French Teachers appealed to the European Commission yesterday against a decision made by the Education Ministry to reduce the time allocated to the teaching of second foreign languages. The ministry recently decided the teaching of second foreign languages in all high schools will be cut by one hour a week. The teachers have also taken the issue to the Council of State.

Less than 30 percent of Greek men who are more than 50 years old seek regular checkups for prostate cancer, compared to 90 percent of men in northern and central European countries, medical authorities said yesterday. On the occasion of today's European day dedicated to prostate awareness, doctors called on all men over the age of 50 to have regular checksups. There are 2,500 incidents of prostate cancer annually in Greece.

Police yesterday arrested a 46-year-old employee at the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in Kozani, northern Greece, suspected of extortion. Police said the man told a local contractor that he required a fee to help him secure the maintenance work of PPC equipment in the area.