Nine primary schoolchildren were slightly injured at 8.45 a.m. yesterday when their bus was involved in a crash with an SUV in Glyfada, southern Athens. Police said that it was not immediately clear how the accident occurred but the bus was knocked onto its side as a result of the impact. All the children were wearing seat belts and escaped any serious injury.

A shelter to provide food and protection for wild horses in the mountainous Souli region of Epirus will be ready this winter, the Public Works and Environment Ministry said yesterday. Plans for the shelter have been drawn up, the ministry said, and the refuge will be built at a cost of some 80,000 euros. It is thought that at least 100 wild horses starved to death in the area early last year after getting trapped in snowdrifts during the particularly harsh winter.

Two New Democracy party offices in Thessaloniki were damaged early yesterday morning by homemade explosive devices, police said. There were no injuries or arrests. The first device went off at 2.10 a.m. outside an ND office in Toumba, smashing the windows. Another device made from gas canisters went off 15 minutes later outside an ND office in Sykies, damaging the main door and the windows, officers said. Meanwhile, two similar attacks in Athens early yesterday morning resulted in an Emporiki Bank cash machine in Palaio Faliron, southern Athens, being destroyed, and a sex shop in Ambelokipi, central Athens, suffering minor damage.

A 32-year-old unemployed woman was arrested in Thessaloniki yesterday after she allegedly tried to blackmail her married lover, police said. The woman had demanded from her male partner, aged 49, 500 euros per week to keep their relationship a secret from his wife. The victim reported the incident to police, who arrested the suspect after she accepted the money.

A foreign national who has been jailed for theft and damaging property is the chief suspect in the murder last year of a 79-year-old man in northern Greece, police said yesterday. The unnamed man was jailed for eight months last Thursday. He is serving his sentence in Diavata jail and officers said that after questioning, he admitted that he had entered the pensioner's house with another man while the pair were drunk. The suspect said that they struck the victim over the head with a metal pipe and stole 190 euros, officers said.

A student in Thessaloniki yesterday spray painted the floor at one of the entrances to the city's Aristotle University as voting began to elect a new university council. Voting is taking place at eight universities around Greece, including Athens University where some 4,500 lecturers, students and administrative staff are set to cast their ballots.

The City of Athens said that registration for the Athens fun run scheduled for June 4 started yesterday. Interested participants can register at citizens' information and service centers (KEP) around the city. More information is available on www.ona.gr.

The first citizens' information and service center (KEP) to open on the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railway was inaugurated yesterday at the Neo Faliron station. Some 60,000 people per day are estimated to visit KEPs across the country.