Athens - The Greek government ordered the freezing of all bank accounts of prison employees on Monday, after the embarrassment of seeing two of the country's most notorious criminals bust out of prison by helicopter - for a second time.

On Sunday kidnapper and armed robber Vassilis Palaiokostas and Albanian criminal Alket Rizal absconded from Athens' highest security jail by helicopter, in a repeat of an identical 2006 escape.

Athens - Greek truck drivers continued Saturday to block key ports and border crossings across Greece, demanding that authorities increase inspections on foreign trucks entering the country.

A key blockade was at the Promahon-Kulata crossing on the border with Bulgaria. The truckers permitted private cars and buses to pass, but stopped all lorries, state television reported.

The truckers also blocked the Evzones crossing on the border with Macedonia as well as the main port of Patras in western Greece and at Korinth.

Athens - The leftist Greek group Revolutionary Sect claimed Saturday responsibility for a gun attack on the country's fourth- largest television station earlier this week and threatened further suc

Athens - Hundreds of truck drivers blocked key ports and border crossings across Greece on Friday, demanding that authorities increase inspections on foreign trucks entering the country.

Angry truck drivers blocked the crossings of Evzones and Promachonas, at the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria, as well as the main port of Patras in western Greece.

The drivers say foreign trucks smuggle undocumented immigrants into the country.

"Greek trucks always get pulled over for inspections, but drivers bringing foreign goods into Greece cross the border without any checks," Apostolos Kenanidis, the head of the union representing the drivers, told the Greek daily Kathimerini in remarks published Friday.

Brussels - Italy, Spain and Greece are the worst countries in the European Union for breaking the bloc's laws on creating a single market, with Poland catching up fast, a study published by the European Commission in Brussels on Thursday showed.

Italy is currently facing legal action - known as "infringement proceedings" - from the commission in no fewer than 112 cases, the highest figure in the bloc, the EU executive's report said. Spain was second with 103 cases.

Greece came in third, with 91 cases, closely followed by Germany, with 90.

Athens  - Greek police defused a car bomb outside Citibank's headquarters in Athens on Wednesday, hours after gunmen shot at a private television station.

Reports said the stolen car was parked in the courtyard of Citibank's offices in the northern Athens suburb of Kifissia.

Ani-bomb forces defused the home-made device after a security guard called police after seeing three men leave the vehicle.