Britain has returned to Greece a 14th-century icon stolen from a Greek Orthodox monastery 30 years ago and found in the hands of a London-based collector, the Greek culture minstry said on Wednesday.

The religious painting of Christ`s Deposition from the Cross had been stolen from the monastery of St John the Baptist in Serres, northern Greece in 1978.

Nana Mouskouri likes to email with fellow music legends but complains that Bob Dylan is a poor cyber-penpal in a German magazine interview published Wednesday.

The 74-year-old Greek star said she and Leonard Cohen fire quick little notes at each other constantly from their computers and complimented Quincy Jones as another loyal electronic correspondent.

Nana Mouskouri likes to email with fellow music legends but complains that Bob Dylan is a poor cyber-penpal in a German magazine interview published Wednesday.

The 74-year-old Greek star said she and Leonard Cohen fire quick little notes at each other constantly from their computers and complimented Quincy Jones as another loyal electronic correspondent.

Alpha Bank, Greek`s second largest bank, will accept help from a 28-billion-euro (35-million-dollar) support scheme to help banks thrugh the financial crisis, its chairman said on Sunday.

`Our bank will join the plan, making use of all the measures made available by the Greek state,` Alpha Bank chairman Yiannis Costopoulos told Kathimerini daily in an interview.

ATHENS, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Heavy rains on Saturday led authorities in northeastern Greece to evacuate two flooded villages while several other communities in the south of the country were threatened by rising river levels, officials and media said.

State television NET reported that several homes in northeastern Rodopi prefecture and the local capital of Komotini were flooded after a day of strong rainfall, leading to precautionary evacuations.

ATHENS, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Several thousand Greeks marched in Athens Saturday to commemorate the 1973 student uprising against the country's US-backed former military regime that claimed at least 44 lives.

Bearing banners against NATO and the US and chanting anti-American slogans, over 5,000 people including university students, labour unionists and left-wing youth members participated in the annual demonstration towards the US embassy.

'Long live the Iraqi resistance, and may the (American) conquerors see coffins every day,' one block of demonstrators chanted.

ATHENS, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Thousands of police were deployed around central Athens on Saturday ahead of a march commemorating the 1973 student uprising against the country's former military regime, police said.

Over 8,000 officers have been mobilised to guard against violence that routinely erupts during the annual demonstration, which crosses the city centre and culminates at the US embassy.

Over 4,000 police have been assigned to guard embassies, foreign companies and banks that are often targeted with firebombs and paint during the march.

ATHENS, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Greek truckers on Friday called off a strike that had threatened to disrupt the distribution of heating fuel to thousands of households.

The truck drivers union was protesting against moves by fuel oil distributors to remove an existing cap on the number of permits the Greek government provides for truck drivers.

Distributors said they were abandoning plans to open up the sector by hiring their own trucks, Net state television reported.

The strike disrupted traffic on Thursday as dozens of trucks blocked a ring road around Athens.

ATHENS, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - The Greek government on Friday said it would bolster inspections and penalties for environment polluters amid growing public indignation following several recent cases of water and air contamination.

A government spokesman announced plans to boost a team of roaming environment inspectors from 19 to 45, and to quadruple the maximum pollution fine from 500,000 euros (713,000 dollars) to two million.

SALONIKA, GREECE, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A Greek police officer was caught Friday trying to rob a bank cash depot in the northern port city of Salonika as his accomplices made off with an estimated three million euros (4.3 million dollars), local police sources said.

The officer, a traffic policeman in the neighbouring city of Verria, was assisted by two accomplices who managed to escape from the Alpha Bank cash centre.

'They were carrying two travel bags packed with money,' a local store employee told reporters.