Athens - Hundreds of demonstrators battled rain on Thursday to march through the Greek capital and cities across the country against the conservative government's reforms and the recent police shooting of a teenager.

All flights to and from Athens' International Airport were halted for several hours due to a strike by air traffic controllers demanding a pay rise and greater job protection.

Airport employees were joined by civil service trade unions and students who rallied through Athens.

Athens - Protesters in Athens hung two giant banners from the ancient Acropolis on Wednesday with the words "resistance" in five different languages, calling for mass demonstrations after days of Greece's worst riots in decades.

Dozens of protesters could be seen holding the banners over the ancient walls of the Acropolis. On one of the banners, the word "resistance" is written in Greek, Italian, Spanish, German and English.

The other banner calls for demonstrations to march across Greece on Thursday.

Athens/Nicosia - Leaders seeking a solution to reunify the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus tackled "thorny" issues on Tuesday in the latest round of UN-sponsored peace talks, officials said.

"The talks took place in a positive climate but focused on a number of thorny issues," said Alexander Downer, a former Australian foreign minister and UN special envoy to the talks.

He said the 13th meeting between Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mehmet Ali Talat would take place on December 22.

Athens - Days after the worst riots in decades, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said on Tuesday he underestimated the magnitude of the problems plaguing his country just as students firebombed Athens' police headquarters.

"I underestimated the scandals of the past few years. This was my mistake," Karamanlis said, addressing his ruling conservative party's parliamentary group.

While Karamanlis admitted negligence and wrongdoing on behalf of his government and promised more reforms, masked youths continued their attack on riot police for a second straight week, attacking capital's police headquarters.

Athens

Athens - More than 4,000 students hurled eggs, oranges and flour at police outside Athens' main police headquarters Monday in a second week of anti-government protests, sparked by the police shooting of a teenager.

The students, yelling "You have got old, fat and have forgotten," blocked one of the Greek capital's main avenues and threw projectiles at riot police, who eventually responded with teargas.

Protesters also hurled eggs at police outside the main courthouse on the other side of town, where hearings went ahead involving dozens of people arrested during the country's worst riots in decades.