Terrorism in Greece

The state security agency is carrying out an investigation into Thursday's attack by anti-establishment activists on the downtown Athens office of conservative lawmaker Militiadis Varvitsiotis.

Greece's conservative opposition hammered the leftist-led government on Thursday after an attack by self-styled anarchists on the office of New Democracy MP Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.

"What more, one wonders, needs to happen for the government to realize its obvious responsibilities?" the party said in a statement.

The staff of the US Embassy in Athens on Friday observed a minute's silence for members of the US Foreign Service killed by the now defunct Greek domestic terrorist group November 17.

They did so on the occasion of Foreign Affairs Day, an annual commemoration of those who lost their lives serving the US overseas.

A three-judge criminal court in Athens on Wednesday passed down a 16-year suspended prison sentence to Greek arms dealer Thomas Liakounakos, a senior executive of his company SONAK and two former defense ministry officials in connection with an electronic defense system which SONAK was commissioned to provide for the Greek army but which it failed to deliver.

Some 20 members of the Rouvikonas anti-establishment group barged into the offices of a company in Kallithea near central Athens to protest against what they claimed was the sacking of a pregnant woman.

Greece's Ministry for Citizens' Protection has announced it will add 200 police officers for patrol duty in Athens as anarchist groups continue a campaign of attacks in support of a jailed bombing suspect accused of wounding former Prime Minister Lucas Papademos.

The 70-year-old Papademos was seriously injured last year after opening a parcel bomb in his car.

A group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Struggles has claimed responsibility for a grenade attack a police station in the Athens suburb of Kaisariani in the early hours of Monday, in which a bystander was lightly injured.

Dimitris Koufodinas, a leading member of November 17, Greece's most deadly guerrilla group, emerged from Attica's maximum-security Korydallos Prison at 9 a.m. on Friday on a two-day leave, just three months after a previous furlough, against a strong reaction by opposition politicians and the US government.

A leading member of November 17, Greece's most deadly guerrilla group, has been granted another two-day leave from prison.

Dimitris Koufodinas is expected to leave the maximum security prison of Korydallos in Athens on Friday at 9 a.m.

A small far-left group in Greece has claimed responsibility for a Dec. 22 bombing at an Athens courthouse that caused extensive damage but no injuries.