Maria Kalouta, one of Greece’s most renowned comic theater actresses, died of natural causes in Athens yesterday at the age of 85. Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis expressed his condolences, saying that Kalouta was closely linked to the development of a theatrical genre. Kalouta made her first appearance on stage in 1926 with her sister Anna. Maria Kalouta’s funeral is due to take place at the First Cemetery in Athens at 2 p.m. today.

The coast guard has arrested six seamen aboard a North Korean-registered ship off the northeastern Aegean island of Lesvos after finding 500,000 packets of contraband cigarettes on the vessel, the Merchant Marine Ministry said yesterday. The cigarettes were found loaded on two trucks with Bulgarian license plates when the ship was intercepted on Saturday. All six crew members are Ukrainian, the ministry said.

Police arrested three Iraqi men in central Athens on Saturday after they allegedly mugged two men at knifepoint, police said. The three unnamed men are said to have punched two 20-year-old Albanian men on Athinas Street and stolen 100 euros in cash from them. One of their victims was taken to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Arsonists threw a Molotov cocktail at a branch of the National Bank in Exarchia, central Athens, early yesterday morning, police said. Nobody was injured in the incident but the building sustained minor damage.

Four men were arrested on Mesogeion Avenue, northern Athens, yesterday after after they tried to avoid a police check by speeding off. Police said the men, traveling in a car full of stolen household items, ran through five sets of red lights before crashing into a pole. Police said they later confessed to having earlier obtained the stolen goods by breaking into a nearby home.