Six smart trolley bus stops are set to be unveiled today and will be able to inform waiting commuters how long it will take for the next two trolley buses to arrive and how long their journey will take, officials said yesterday. Transport Minister Michalis Liapis is due to inaugurate the high-tech stop at Klafthmonos Square today but other smart stops in Plastiras and Syntagma squares, Ano Kypseli and two in Piraeus are also due to start operating.

The coast guard detained yesterday 43 illegal immigrants off the island of Evia, central Greece, and arrested two men, aged 35 and 44, suspected of running the people-smuggling operation, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. The illegal travelers, including three children, were taken to a reception center for immigrants. Authorities said that they confiscated the 13-meter Ukraine-flagged yacht on which they were traveling.

Drivers of the ETHEL bus company in Athens are due to hold a five-hour work stoppage tomorrow, meaning that the city will be without blue buses from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Meanwhile, the bus workers’ union will meet to discuss the sacking of 38 members who it wants management to reinstate.

Workers from OTE telecom held a 24-hour strike yesterday in protest at government plans to reduce its 38 percent holding in the former monopoly. The strike affected maintenance and other services but not the phone system directly. The workers’ group OME-OTE was expected to meet late yesterday to decide its next protest action.

OTE union claims strike success...

A policeman from Katerini in northern Greece was given an eight-month suspended jail sentence for his part in a scam which led to a woman losing some 18,000 euros. The unnamed 46-year-old was found guilty of confirming that the woman had signed papers in his presence which requested that money be transferred to the bank account of the owner of a stock brokerage. The victim, a Greek who lives abroad, told the court that she had never signed any such a document.

Four men accused of taking part in clashes with police during the Thessaloniki International Fair earlier this month were each handed a two-year-and-three-month jail sentence yesterday. Two other men received 13-month prison sentences. Court officials said the penalties were suspended as none of the defendants had a criminal record.

Police arrested two off-duty coast guard officers in Acharnes, northern Athens, for possession of drugs, the Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday. The pair had 8 grams of heroin in their possession.

Two Iranian immigrants were injured as they tried to cross a minefield in Evros, northeastern Greece, the army said late on Monday. The men had strayed into the minefield at about noon but were later rescued by mine-clearing soldiers and taken to the hospital. Details of their condition were not made public. Two migrants were killed by mines in the area earlier this month.

Coast guard officers arrested two suspects after a chase at sea, off the coast of Chios, and then on land, the Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday. The coast guard spotted the men in two speedboats late on Monday but the subjects refused to stop for a check. They tried to escape in one of the speedboats but left the vessel in the Emporeios area of the eastern Aegean island and tried to get away on foot but were arrested soon afterward. The ministry said both suspects were foreigners who had sailed from Turkey.

A mild earthquake measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale occurred west of Mount Pendeli shortly after 1.30 a.m. yesterday morning. Seismologists said the tremor was an “isolated occurrence” and did not expect any noticeable aftershocks.