Omonoia

The extension of the detention of Fredi Beleri, the recently elected ethnic Greece mayor of Himare in Albania, "is contrary to the common sense of justice and the European concept of the rule of law," the Greek Foreign Ministry underlined in a statement on Monday.

The controversy surrounding the closure of Athens' historic Ideal and Astor cinemas has reignited a larger debate on the often-miserable state of the city center, and particularly the area between Omonia and Syntagma squares.

The annual student parade commemorating the start of Greece's independence struggle from Ottoman rule took place in the center of Athens on Friday. Similar celebrations were held across the country. The armed forces will hold a parade on Saturday around Syntagma Square. It will be almost impossible to drive into the city center from 6 a.m.

Four people were arrested on January 1 in central Athens for possession of arms and a small quantity of drugs. 

Police said the suspects, two Iraqi men aged 40 and 36, a 17-year-old Afghan man and a 19-year-old Greek woman, attacked each other for a yet unspecified reason last Monday on Omonoia square.

The attack could have left him permanently brain-damaged. It could even have killed him. That said, the assault on the 52-year-old Athens metro station master at Omonia last Wednesday should not surprise us. Blind violence is no rarity anymore. Remember how many rude awakenings, how many times we struggled to understand acts of great brutality, much less digest them.

Two brothers, aged 15 and 17, were arrested on Friday night in connection with the violent beating of a metro station manager in central Athens on Wednesday, after he asked them to wear a mask in the train.

It is a "matter of time" to identify and arrest the two passengers who viciously attacked a metro station manager on Wednesday after he asked them to put on their mask, police sources said on Thursday.

According to the sources, their faces have been recorded clearly in the metro's CCTV cameras and officers are now focusing their investigation in the area of West Attica.

In a strongly worded press release, the Citizen's Protection Ministry pledged to bring to justice the two young men who punched and kicked a metro station manager in Athens on Wednesday after he asked them to wear their masks in the train, calling them "beasts."

A station manager of the Athens metro was beaten up by two men who refused to wear their mask on the train, the public company responsible for managing the metro, tram and electric railway, Urban Rail Transport (STASY), said on Wednesday.

Ranging from the changes being planned for Panepistimiou Street to the recent revamp of Omonia Square, my discussion with Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis was focused on his plans for the "Grand Walk," as he's dubbed an ambitious overhaul of the city center. The capital's new mayor, elected in May 2019, also responded to criticism over last week's unveiling of the new fountain in Omonia.