Police were yesterday seeking the perpetrators of the Mafia-style execution of a 56-year-old man who was shot 17 times outside a cafe in the district of Nea Pendeli, northern Athens. According to police, the man – a known fraudster – had visited the cafe on Friday night after receiving a telephone call from an acquaintance who had asked for his help in a matter relating to a common friend. After visiting the cafe, the acquaintance is believed to have asked the 56-year-old to step outside for a private conversation, at which point a motorcycle pulled up and an assailant sitting on the back shot him 17 times at close range. Two patrons of the cafe sustained minor injuries from ricocheting bullets, police said.

Greek diplomats expressed concern over the weekend following the news that the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) will be funding the union representing citizens of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) living abroad, the so-called United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD). The TCA has pledged to donate 150,000 dollars to the UMD over the next three years to allow the the union of FYROM citizens abroad to “expand its work dramatically,” according to a joint statement by the two groups.

A 23-year-old man died on Saturday after falling onto tracks at the Ano Patissia railway station while painting graffiti on the wall along the tracks. According to police, the man was trying to flee station guards when he slipped and fell onto the tracks and suffered electrocution.

A group of Greek computer programmers managed to hack into the much-vaunted security system of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) which is conducting the Big Bang experiment in Geneva, it was revealed on Saturday. The hackers, calling themselves the Greek Security Team, said they had not wanted to disturb the experiment but simply to expose the system’s lax security. The Greek hackers reportedly described the CERN computer technicians as “useless” and “a bunch of schoolchildren.”

A group of around 15 masked assailants hurled Molotov cocktail bombs and stones at a police station in Thessaloniki on Saturday, damaging two patrol cars and some parked vehicles. There were no reports of any injuries. An unknown group called the press later on Saturday to say it had carried out the attack to protest the arrest of two anarchists last month on suspicion of involvement in the abduction of businessman Giorgos Mylonas.