Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday dined with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the sidelines of a summit of the European People’s Party in Brussels. Karamanlis was expected to broach the subjects of Cyprus and the increase in Turkish violations of Greek air space. Meanwhile, military sources in Athens reported 36 violations of Greek air space by 37 Turkish jets, including four photo-reconnaissance aircraft. It was believed to be the largest series of transgressions in the past eight months.

Greek airport workers yesterday called off a two-day strike due to have started today. Workers, who had been protesting staff shortages, canceled the planned action following talks with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Meanwhile, military aircraft and helicopters due to participate in a display as part of Friday’s War of Independence celebrations will not disrupt passenger flights to and from Athens International Airport, the CAA said yesterday.

Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis yesterday visited Tempe and Thermopylae to inaugurate two of 12 new traffic police stations which will be responsible for patrolling problematic spots on the nation’s highways. The number of fatalities on Greek roads last year fell by 26.4 percent, compared to the year 2000, Voulgarakis said.

An Athens municipal police officer removes the license plates from an illegally parked car on Panormou Street yesterday. Sixteen teams, comprising a traffic police officer and two municipal policemen, took to the streets yesterday, removing license plates from all vehicles illegally parked in bus lanes, in front of ramps for the disabled and other sensitive areas. The crackdown is to continue across the capital, with offenders having their plates removed for 10 to 20 days and facing a fine of 34.50 to 65.50 euros.

A 26-year-old inmate of Alikarnassos prison on Crete, who was found dead in his cell yesterday morning, probably overdosed on drugs, a coroner said. Manolis Kteniadakis had probably taken drugs with fellow inmates, police said. A Thessaloniki coroner yesterday attributed the death of a 25-year-old inmate of Diavata jail to a stroke and acute lung infection. Tests are to reveal whether his death was drug-related.

There will be no intercity coaches serving the country on Thursday as drivers stage a 24-hour strike. Unionists object to new draft legislation that foresees changes to general staff regulations.

The far-right publisher Grigoris Michalopoulos, who allegedly warned top public figures that they were November 17 targets and demanded large sums to have them removed from the terror group’s hit list, yesterday faced an Athens court on blackmail charges. Several of Michalopoulos’s alleged victims, including top businessman Theodoros Angelopoulos and Chrysostomos, Bishop of Zakynthos, were in court.

A teenage girl from Canada has been arrested after allegedly attempting to steal a piece of marble from the Acropolis on Sunday, police in Athens said yesterday.

The trial of six people charged in connection with the April 2003 bus crash in the Vale of Tempe that killed 21 schoolchildren opened in a Volos court yesterday.