US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns yesterday called on the United Nations to appoint a special envoy to Cyprus to mediate a fresh round of peace talks on the divided island. “Our government wants a new start with the government of Cyprus,” Burns said following talks in New York with Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos. Burns said he believed efforts to reach a settlement should not be postponed further. “The US would be very supportive of that and would be actively involved,” he said. Papadopoulos said his meeting with Burns had been “useful and constructive” but stressed “we will not sacrifice the essence just so we can have a procedure.”

The United Nations envoy appointed to mediate between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in a dispute regarding the latter’s official name said yesterday he would shortly summon diplomats from Athens and Skopje to discuss the matter. The envoy, Matthew Nimetz, said there was “a desire to resolve the issue” on both sides but conceded that “the situation has not changed.” Nimetz was cautious when questioned about the provocative tactics of FYROM’s representative to the UN, namely his repeated references to “the Republic of Macedonia.” “Anything that aggravates the climate does not help,” he said.

A psychiatrist from Thessaloniki yesterday received a suspended jail sentence for demanding an 80-euro bribe for issuing a written opinion for a patient who had been beaten so she could use it as evidence in her court case against her assailant. The unnamed doctor was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for three years, after being caught receiving the payment in marked notes. The unnamed psychiatrist said that he asked for the money to cover the expenses of issuing the document but the court was not convinced by his argument.

A shooting outside an apartment building in Nea Ionia, northern Athens, resulted in the death of one man and the serious injury of a second, police said yesterday. The attack took place at 11.15 p.m. when unknown assailants shot at the two Albanian nationals, aged 39 and 29. The 39-year-old man was being treated at the Aghia Olga hospital, police added. No further information was available.

Authorities in northern Greece have begun assessing the damage caused to an archaeological site in Pieria after a local priest began constructing a church on top of the ruins. It was not immediately clear how the 4th century BC site in Palaioi Poroi had been damaged.

The trial of former Competition Commission member Panayiotis Adamopoulos is scheduled to start on December 17, court sources said. Adamopoulos, along with wheat merchant Constantinos Constantinidis and customs official Panayiotis Anagnostopoulos, will face charges of extortion and bribery. Adamopoulos has been accused of colluding with two other men to receive a 2.5-million-euro bribe from dairy producer Mevgal so the watchdog would not fine the company. Adamopoulos has since initiated legal proceedings against two senior executives at Mevgal, accusing them of perjury, fraud and making false accusations against him.

Two slimming centers in Piraeus have been shut down for six months and ordered to pay fines totaling 60,000 euros, the local prefecture said yesterday. The centers, part of the Be Gym and Be Body group, did not have an operating license. “I find it inconceivable that companies such as slimming centers, which offer services that relate to public health, can operate illegally,” said Prefect Yiannis Michas.

Two Bulgarian nationals were yesterday remanded for trial in Thessaloniki for allegedly smuggling a shotgun into Greece and attempting to sell it to a 37-year-old Greek man. The two suspects, aged 23 and 18, also had 12 shotgun shells in their possession, police said.