Kypseli

The Education Ministry is launching an inquiry into a downtown Athens school where a student and the principal were attacked on Tuesday by the brother of another pupil, state broadcaster ERT has reported.

Incoming Athens mayor Haris Doukas signaled a grass-roots approach to his role by pledging a "return to the neighborhoods" of the Greek capital at the swearing-in of the new municipal council, held in a former public market in the downtown district of Kypseli on Thursday.

Two officers of the DIAS motorcycle unit were injured during a car chase in central Athens early Thursday morning. 

Police said a patrol car crew spotted a vehicle moving on the wrong direction on Pipinou Street at around 2:15 in the morning, and signaled the driver to stop, but he sped off. A chase ensued, involving other police forces, including the DIAS team. 

Police are investigating an attack with a homemade explosive device made of a plastic container and flammable liquid outside an apartment building in the district of Kypseli, central Athens, early Saturday morning.

The device went off at 5.20 a.m. at the entrance of the building located on Patriarchou Ieremia Street, police said.

Police in Athens are investigating whether a spate of arson attacks on "establishment" targets and a fight involving members of a soccer fan club may be part of an effort by organized anarchist groups to establish new turf in other parts of the city center after being ousted from the downtown district of Exarchia.

Musicians Harris Lambrakis, Spyros Polychronopoulos and Vassilis Tzavaras will appear on stage at TV Control Center (KET) in the downtown district of Kypseli on Wednesday, January 22. Joining forces for the first time, the artists will present an improvised set with Lambrakis on the ney and keyboards, Polychronopoulos on laptop and Tzavaras on the guitar and keyboards.

Four people were arrested in Thessaloniki on Tuesday on charges of disturbing the peace, after they scattered fliers in support of hunger-striking terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas in the northern port city's main courthouse.

Police in Athens said on Friday that they are looking for members of anti-establishment groups that went on a rampage on Wednesday, damaging two butcher shops in the central district of Kypseli to protest against the slaughter of animals on the occasion of Tsiknopempti - the Thursday 11 days before the beginning of Lent when Greeks traditionally gather to eat grilled meat.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos voted in the upscale Psychiko district in north-central Athens considered the “diplomatic row” in the Greek capital.

Pavlopoulos, an attorney and veteran politician and minister from the conservative New Democracy party, urged unity in the country regardless of the referendum result.

By Sophie Makris

Far from the limelight of Cannes, Greece's last painter of film posters toils away in a little garden studio to deliver his latest commission.

Vassilis Dimitriou is 80 years old, works alone and knows his days on the job are numbered -- his left hand trembles from the early onset of Parkinson's disease.