A murder investigation has been launched in northern Greece after the body of a woman who had been badly beaten was found by a passer-by in the area of Olynthos in Halkidiki, police said yesterday. An initial coroner’s report said the woman was 31 years old, probably a foreign national, and had been struck on the head, face and neck.

There will be no trams between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. today due to a work stoppage by employees. The action will mean that trams will be taken out of service from 11.30 a.m. and full service will not resume until 6.15 p.m.

A 36-year-old man was caught red-handed while trying to steal money from a church collection box in the Thessaloniki neighborhood of Toumba on Saturday. The man was using a device he had put together himself, made of fishing line with a phone card wrapped in sticky tape on the end of it, so he could pull out banknotes from the box.

A 31-year-old man has been arrested in Thessaloniki on suspicion of downloading and distributing child pornography after a six-month operation by electronics crime squad officers, it was revealed late on Friday. Officers raided the man’s home and found indecent images and videos of children as young as 5 years old on his computer. Police said that they traced 69 Greeks who used an Internet site based in Brazil to download indecent images. It was not clear if officers are planning to make more arrests.

Three former employees of Trikala’s Transport Department have been given jail sentences of between 24 and 48 months for illegally issuing driving licenses to three people, court sources said yesterday. The three former officials appealed their sentences and were released.