Five days after 17,000 homes and businesses in the Nafplion area were left without telephones due to a fire at the OTE Telecom building in the eastern Peloponnesian town, engineers were yesterday close to restoring full service, the company said. The blaze, which broke out on December 23, was probably caused by a short circuit, OTE officials said, and led to the main digital distribution center being seriously damaged. Since then, technicians worked round-the-clock to restore service to those affected. All 17,000 homes and businesses should be able to use their phones today, OTE said.

Nine formations of Turkish fighter jets flew over the Aegean yesterday without submitting flight plans and in 10 cases breached Greek national air space, Defense Ministry sources said. In all cases, the 18 Turkish jets were chased off by Greek fighters.

The Greek Orthodox bishop of San Francisco, California, Anthony (photo), died on Christmas Day aged 69, the Church said late on Boxing Day. The bishop had been suffering from a rare form of cancer, according to a medical statement. Anthony, who was born in Crete, was the first bishop of San Francisco, and was anointed in June 1979. Archbishop Demetrios of the United States said the Greek Orthodox Church was deeply saddened by the bishop’s sudden death. His funeral is to take place tomorrow at the Orthodox cathedral in Oakland, California.

Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas headed a meeting between government officials and representatives from Greece’s textile industry yesterday. Textile manufacturers warned last week that the lifting of restrictions on textile imports into the EU on January 1 could lead to as many as 10,000 local workers losing their jobs. The main decisions to come out of yesterday’s meeting were the setting up of a government task force to examine matters specifically related to the textile and clothing industry, and an increase in checks at customs houses and on street traders to combat illegal trade. All parties agreed to hold similar meetings every three months.

The municipalities of Piraeus and Ilioupolis are to have their own police forces, authorities said yesterday. Some 61 positions have been advertised, 51 of which are for officers in Piraeus. Candidates can pick up application forms from the offices of the Attica Prefecture or the two municipalities and must submit them by January 7.

Police arrested four people in Thessaloniki on suspicion of possessing and dealing in drugs, officers said yesterday, after finding 1.3 kilos of heroin in a house they searched in the city’s Dendropotamos district. Officers from the drug squad initially caught three people, two women and one man, at the house before arresting an unnamed 31-year-old foreigner. Police say that the other three suspects had named him as the person who supplied them with the drugs. Officers impounded his car and seized 1,600 euros in his possession. Meanwhile, in the town of Veria, some 80 kilometers west of Thessaloniki, officers said they arrested a 40-year-old Albanian national who had 1 kilo of heroin, $595 and 134 euros on him.

Lesvos coast guards have picked up nine illegal immigrants on the eastern Aegean island, the Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday. The arrests were made on Boxing Day and the immigrants, whose nationalities were not made known, are thought to have rowed to Lesvos from Turkish shores in two rubber dinghies which they destroyed upon their arrival.