Athens - More than 200 workers at Greek state carrier Olympic Airlines blocked the taxiway at Athens International Airport for more than 20 minutes Thursday over plans to shut down and privatise the airline.

The demonstration ended up blocking the runway but did not affect any flights, officials at the airport said.

Athens - With its beautiful beaches, quaint fishing villages and historical sites such as the Cave of Apocalyse where Saint John is said to have received his revelation, the island of Patmos has long been a popular tourist destination.

But recently the tiny Aegean island has drawn a new type of visitor to its sandy shores - a visitor island residents insist they can do without.

Municipal authorities on the island have said they will block their ports to would-be immigrants arriving from neighboring Turkey, arguing that the unwanted visitors have exceeded the number of permanent residents on the island.

Athens, Nicosia - Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders focused peace negotiations Thursday on governance and power sharing in an effort to find a formula to reunite the divided Mediterranean island.

It was the third meeting between Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehemt Ali Talat since they launched a new round of peace talks on September 3.

"We will meet again on October 8 to discuss the shape the future federal government should take," said Christofias.

Athens  - Greek coast guard officials detained 92 illegal immigrants on Tuesday after crossing the Aegean in inflatable rafts from neighboring Turkey, report said.

More than 25 illegal immigrants were picked up alive by rescue crews after they were found swimming near the island of Symi, along the Greek-Turkish sea border.

The immigrants decided to destroy their raft and jump into the water in order to avoid being detected by coast guard officials.

Coast guard vessels also detected a boatload of 29 illegal immigrants near the island of Patmos and two more boats with a total of 33 immigrants neat the island of Lesbos.

Officials also arrested four illegal immigrants on Samos after arriving on the island from nearby Turkey.

Athens  - The Greek government on Tuesday was waiting for the green light by the European Commission to replace its debt-ridden state airline, Olympic Airlines, with a new carrier under the name Pantheon Airways.

Under the consolidation plan submitted by Greece, Olympic Airlines will be replaced by Pantheon Airways, which will take part in an international privatization tender.

According to state television NET, the new company will keep running all domestic flights, but will drastically reduce its international routes.

The European Commission on Wednesday had asked the European Union's highest court to impose daily fines on Greece for failing to recover illegal state aid given to Olympic Airways.

Athens/Rome  - DNA tests erased all hopes Friday that a little girl found on a Greek island could be an Italian child who went missing four years ago from her home in Sicily.

Greek police said DNA tests conducted on the 8-year-old girl discovered on the Aegean island of Kos showed that her mother is an Albanian Roma woman who was accompanying the child.

Authorities and the media in Greece went wild with the news that the little girl discovered by an Italian tourist last month on Kos could be the missing Denise Pipitone.