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/ 29 October 2004
A bomb attack in Athens on two buses carrying riot police caused no injuries early on Friday, but sparked fears of a reinvigorated leftist radical scene after a pre-Olympics crackdown. The remote-controlled bomb was placed at the railings by the side of a road and went off just after 7am local time when the buses drove by.
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/ 19 October 2004
A fisherman found a 2 400-year-old bronze statue in his net near the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos, the Culture Ministry said on Tuesday. The statue — missing a head, arm and leg — measures 1,43m and weighs nearly 70kg. Fisherman Costas Spyrakis handed the statue over to a mainland port authority.
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/ 21 September 2004
Athens is currently hosting the world’s second-largest sporting event, the Paralympics, but moving about in Athens on a daily basis requires efforts of Olympian proportions from the disabled. Nearly 10% of the Greek population has some form of disability, but you are not likely to meet many on the streets of Athens.
A Greek taxi driver was hailed as a hero in Athens on Wednesday after returning an Olympic silver medal left in the back of his cab by a Dutch rower. The driver is to be honoured by Athens Olympic Games organisers for swiftly handing back the medal after it was mislaid by a member of The Netherlands’ men’s eight rowing team.
Olympic city Athens was jolted by a small earthquake on Tuesday but there were no reports of any damage. The tremor was measured at 4,5 on the Richter scale. Two brief jolts were felt at 3.38pm local time, with an epicentre about 70km north of the Greek capital. Greece is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.
The Nobel Peace Prize nominee Leyla Zana, who has championed Kurdish causes in Turkey from a prison cell for the past 10 years, was released last week with three fellow ex-MPs. At the same time, Turkey has allowed Kurdish language programmes to be broadcast for the first time.
A Greek extremist group claimed responsibility on Thursday for bomb attacks in the run-up to the Olympic Games and issued a veiled threat against visitors to the sporting extravaganza. The warning came after makeshift bombs exploded at a Greek bank in Athens early on Thursday and another device was found at a nearby British bank.
Three bombs exploded next to a police station in Athens early on Wednesday, police said, causing no injuries but further raising security fears just 100 days before the Greek capital hosts the 2004 Olympic Games. Athens is struggling to finalise preparations for the Olympic Games, scheduled to run from August 13 to 29.
Can the Greeks pull it off?
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/ 10 December 2003
Twenty-seven people were injured, including four seriously, when the train they were on derailed on Wednesday in southern Greece, hospital sources said. Thirty-seven people were on the train when two of its coaches derailed near the town of Megalopolis under circumstances that are under investigation.
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/ 14 November 2003
Five homemade explosive devices were set off overnight in Athens in front of Greek banks and the offices of the conservative party, causing damage, police said on Friday. Investigators suspect ”anarchists” to be behind the violence following their calls for the release of seven anti-globalistation activists arrested in June.
A German transport plane that crashed into the Mediterranean sea during World War II has been brought to the surface by Greek armed forces. A human skeleton was found in the plane that lay 40m deep about 500m off the Aegean island of Leros, a Greek air force spokesperson said.
The Athens lawyers’ association said on Friday it plans to sue Britain at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Iraq war.
Nearly 30 years after the leaders of Greece’s hated military dictatorship were tried in the same bunker-like chamber, the trial of November 17 — the Marxist-Leninist terrorist group born out of the resistance movement — had finally begun.
Greek Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos has lashed out at British Museum director Neil McGregor over the latter’s alleged claim that the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon should remain in London because they could never be reunited properly with the renowned Athens monument, news reports said on Saturday.
It was a good day for Greek salad. Makers of its key ingredient — feta cheese — on Tuesday hailed a European Union decision giving them exclusive rights to make the tangy white product made of goats’ and sheep’s milk.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela cancelled all engagements in Greece on Thursday because of a mild stomach ailment.
A motorist on the Greek island of Lesvos got a rare glimpse of the positive side of Greek bureaucracy after receiving half a traffic ticket over a parking violation, a report said on Thursday. Motorist Petros Kakasavelis had illegally double-parked his car at a busy spot near the island’s harbour, but was saved by a jurisdiction conflict between the Greek traffic police and the port police.