Athens and Piraeus Prefect Fofi Yennimata yesterday called on Athenians to join an anti-war protest at noon today in Syntagma Square being organized by political parties’ youth branches and leftist groups. Also today, activists plan to drape a huge banner bearing an anti-war message from the peak of Mount Olympus, Greece’s highest mountain. The preparation of a humanitarian aid package for Iraqi citizens begins at Syntagma Square on Monday, Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni said yesterday. Citizens are being asked to contribute food (flour, rice, sunflower oil, sugar, etc.) and medical supplies, as well as blankets and mattresses.

Criminal proceedings have been launched against five senior officials of a Public Power Corporation plant in Megalopolis where one worker died and two were critically injured in an accident last September, following the completion of a preliminary investigation into workplace fatalities, Supreme Court officials said yesterday. The plant’s director and four senior officials face charges of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. The director is also charged with violating labor legislation. The Supreme Court’s prosecutor ordered a general investigation last fall following the deaths of the PPC worker, three Attica refinery workers and four Olympic Village laborers.

Clocks go forward one hour — from 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. — tomorrow as official summer time begins.

A Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Ankara was hijacked late yesterday, the Anatolia news agency reported. The plane was hijacked after takeoff from Istanbul and was heading toward Greece, private NTV television reported.

Two frigates carrying 75 French and German navy cadets are to anchor at the Salamina naval base on Monday after the Piraeus Port Authority yesterday refused to let the vessels dock at Piraeus. The authority claimed that there was not enough space for the French and German frigates — La Fayette and Bremen — and a torpedo boat to anchor at Piraeus. The purpose of the cadets’ five-day visit is to boost relations between the Greek, French and German navy cadet schools and to exchange training techniques, a navy statement said yesterday.

Seven formations of Turkish fighter jets yesterday violated the Athens Flight Information Region seven times and Greek national air space twice in the central Aegean and east of Rhodes, Greek military officials said. In all cases, the Turkish jets were chased off by Greek aircraft, resulting in simulated dogfights six times. There were similar incidents on Thursday.

Anti-flood works along the Kifissos River, in Faliron and other flood-prone parts of Attica will have been completed by summer 2004, Deputy Public Works Minister Yiannis Tsaklidis told Parliament yesterday. In October, Public Works Minister Vasso Papandreou said works — which include rebuilding some bridges from scratch — would be finished by next April. Tsaklidis, who was answering a question posed by an opposition deputy, added that his ministry would soon table legislation in Parliament for improving the preparation of studies for public works.

The Foreign Ministry, in its role as European Union president, yesterday condemned last week’s crackdown on hundreds of supporters of Zimbabwe’s opposition party and called on the country’s president, Robert Mugabe, to “immediately cease (his government’s) campaign of violent repression.”