Foreign Affairs Minister Dora Bakoyannis met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels yesterday where the two discussed issues relating to terrorism, sources said. The Greek minister also raised the issue of lifting a visa requirement imposed on Greeks visiting the USA. Sources said there were no decisions made on the request Greece has made repeatedly.

The terrorist squad yesterday questioned a 54-year-old man in Kirra, in central Greece’s Fokida area, after finding in his home detonators, fuses and 1,960 meters of cable. The suspect told police that he had stolen the items form a quarry that he worked at shortly before retiring recently. Authorities also said that they found 136 grams of cannabis in his home.

Heirlooms once owned by the former Greek royal family sold for 9.3 million pounds (14.2 million euros), Christie’s said at the end of the two-day auction, Associated Press reported. The sale took place despite protests from Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, who urged the auction house at the last minute not to sell the artifacts, saying that they may have been illegally exported. The most expensive items in the auction was a pair of massive Victorian pilgrim flasks, which sold for 878,000 euros.

A homemade explosive device that had been placed in a diplomatic car belonging to a Swede working for a Balkans reconstruction organization went off on Thursday night in Thessaloniki, damaging the vehicle’s interior. Police said it was the second time the man’s car was targeted. No details concerning his identity were released.

An armed man held up a branch of Piraeus Bank in Thessaloniki yesterday and made away with about 15,000 euros in cash, police said. The assailant escaped the scene on a stolen motorcycle, police added. There were no reports of injuries.