Efimerida ton Syntakton

With his call for the next European and general elections to be overseen by international observers, the leader of the main opposition party is "consciously undermining the state, fifty years after the restoration of democracy," the government spokesman has said.

Pavlos Marinakis was reacting to an article by SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis in the Efimerida ton Syntakton daily.

Anti-terrorism police are investigating a bomb explosion near the Labor Ministry in downtown Stadiou Street in Athens that caused material damage to the building.

Police and firefighters had cordoned off the area when the device went off at 1.29 a.m.

Greece's Anti-Terror Service launched an investigation after an active bomb was found and defused on Kokkinopoulou Street, in the area of the Zografou University Campus, near the headquarters of the riot police on Monday.

The bomb disposal squad discovered and defused an explosive device near the headquarters of the riot police officers (MAT) in the district of Zografou in central Athens on Monday. 

Unidentified individuals had earlier sent an audio message to the Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper and the Zougla.gr news website, alerting them to the placement of a bomb near the building. 

Aristides Baltas, a former minister of culture, has announced his departure from the main opposition SYRIZA party. 

Baltas announced his decision in an op-ed published in Efimerida ton Syntakton on Wednesday in which he also accused new SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis of transforming the party into "a personal instrument of his unchecked ambition." 

SYRIZA MEP Petros Kokkalis has not ruled out the idea of establishing a new political party based on a "green" agenda.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities (KIS) in Greece issued a statement on Monday decrying a cartoon that appeared in Saturday's edition of Efimerida ton Syntakton, which depicts a gate resembling that of the Auschwitz death camp to make a comment on education reform.