Suspected anarchists staged a second day of arson attacks in different parts of the capital yesterday, causing serious damage to stores, including a car dealership, and several vehicles but no injuries. A gas canister bomb caused significant damage when it went off outside a dealership of Skoda, which supplies the police force with vehicles. Similar devices damaged stores and vehicles in the districts of Sepolia, Palaio Faliron, Aghia Paraskevi and Kolonos.

The Thiseion station on the Piraeus-Kifissia urban electric railway (ISAP) opened yesterday after several months of being closed due to ongoing works to upgrade the ISAP route. The stations of Kato Patissia and Aghios Eleftherios are to remain shut for two months, an ISAP spokesperson said yesterday.

A police officer sustained minor injuries early yesterday after being attacked outside the premises of the old appeals court in central Athens by a group of around 30 youths who started throwing stones and bottles. Police had been called to the area to investigate reports of a mugging at knifepoint. According to the officer, and a colleague who had been in the patrol car with him at the time of the attack, the youths had been in the rear yard of the derelict appeals court building, currently under occupation by some 500 illegal immigrants, just before they launched their attack.

A team of 28 firefighters were battling to extinguish a blaze that broke out yesterday evening near Mount Athos, home to a large monastic community, after a bolt of lightning struck the slopes. Two aircraft were involved in efforts to extinguish the blaze which was not threatening any monasteries late yesterday.

A mild earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale was recorded near the Gulf of Corinth early yesterday but no damage or injuries were reported. The quake followed a slightly stronger tremor, measuring 4.5 Richter, which struck the same area Sunday lunchtime. Seismologists said there was no cause for concern.

The new president of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Gjorge Ivanov, yesterday said that he expected stalled talks between diplomats from Athens and Skopje on FYROM’s disputed name to continue after the June 7 European Parliament elections. Ivanov told a press conference that Skopje was looking forward to reaching “a reasonable compromise.”

Employment and Social Security Minister Fani Palli-Petralia yesterday told the mother of Constantina Kuneva, the leader of the Attica cleaners’ union, that the Workers’ Housing Organization (OEK) had approved an appeal for a home to be granted to the 44-year-old unionist who was left disfigured and with severe damage to her internal organs after being attacked last December by assailants who threw acid in her face. The 100-square-meter apartment is in the Athens district of Ano Petralona.