Transport Minister Michalis Liapis yesterday inaugurated a new suburban rail route between Athens and Corinth and announced that the service would be free of charge to the public for the next week. Following the trial period, tickets will cost 6 euros between Athens and Corinth (from the Nerantziotissa station or Doukissis Plakentias metro station) and 8 euros between Corinth and Athens airport. The Athens-Corinth journey takes about an hour. The 88-kilometer route is to be extended from Halkida to Kiato within the next two years, Liapis said.

Police appear to have smashed an illegal immigrant-smuggling operation following the arrest of three Albanian nationals in Thessaloniki yesterday. Police said the three men, aged 23, 27 and 24, allegedly helped 31 illegal immigrants, including five children, come to Greece from Albania via the border shared with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). All the illegal immigrants had been supplied with fake documents. After searching the home of one of the men arrested yesterday, police found forged documents, bullets, rubber stamps belonging to police officials and cash deposits.

The Ano Liosia landfill will shut down as of today for an indefinite period after its workers went on strike yesterday due to hazardous conditions at the dumping ground. The workers said yesterday that the conditions at Ano Liosia are unbearable and are also a threat to their health. They have asked the Environment Ministry that the sewage currently being dumped there be taken to another area.

Former court of first instance judge Leonidas Stathis has been ordered to stand trial on bribery and money-laundering charges. It is the first trial to be set following a probe into trial fixing and corruption in the judiciary. According to the charges, Stathis had demanded 54 million drachmas (158,000 euros) from 11 lawyers in order to deliver favorable verdicts. Ten of the 11 lawyers will also stand trial with him.

A homemade explosive device containing a small amount of dynamite exploded outside an apartment building in Kifissia, northern Athens, early yesterday, police said. Someone in a car driving past the premises threw the explosive device at the entrance, causing minor damages. The building is the home of Georgios Motzoukos, the owner of the Miss Raxevsky stores, and of Spyros Kordalis, the owner of a construction company.

An Athens prosecutor yesterday ordered a preliminary investigation into whether the local pharmaceuticals market is experiencing shortages. The investigation comes in response to an article published by a local daily which claimed that drug companies have been exporting their products, creating shortages on the market.

An explosive device made of two gas canisters went off at the offices of New Democracy’s youth organization (ONNED) in Athens yesterday afternoon, police said. No one was injured.

Car insurance costs are set to increase gradually from 2007 and will have doubled by 2012, it was revealed yesterday. The rise was decided upon as the capital insured for civil liability is to double according to a new European Union directive.

British Airways will launch an air link between Thessaloniki and New York from the end of October. The flight will be scheduled five times a week and will have a stopover in London.

Two workers in Athens sustained minor injuries after the metal roof they had been working on collapsed under them, police said. The workers had climbed onto the roof, outside the Evrokliniki clinic in the district of Ambelokipi, in order to carry out some repairs.