There will be strict traffic restrictions in central Athens from 8.30 a.m. until 2.30 p.m. tomorrow as the Athens Classic Marathon and a 10,000-meter run from the Panathenaic Stadium to the northern suburbs get under way. Traffic will be banned on Mesogeion Avenue between Ethniki Amyna metro station and the Athens Tower in Ambelokipi, as well as on much of Vas. Sofias, Vas. Constantinou, Ardittou and Vas. Olgas. Traffic on Marathonos Avenue will be banned from the race’s starting point in Marathon to Stavros in Aghia Paraskevi. Parking will be forbidden on all these roads from midnight tonight until 2.30 p.m. tomorrow.

A memorandum of cooperation for the long-delayed project to build an oil pipeline linking the Black Sea port of Burgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis was initialed in Athens yesterday by Greek, Bulgarian and Russian representatives. Ministers from the three countries are due to sign the memorandum in a few weeks time. Shortly afterward, proposals will be submitted for the composition of the consortium of firms which will realize the project, expected to cost more than 700 million euros. In the photo, Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas (2nd r) and Deputy Development Minister Giorgos Salagoudis (2nd l) look on as Russian representative Anatoly Yanovsky (l) and Bulgarian delegation head Kalin Rogachev shake hands.

A 13-year-old Albanian boy, who was poisoned after eating wild mushrooms, yesterday underwent a liver transplant at Thessaloniki’s Ippokrateio hospital while his parents, who suffered similar poisoning, were in a critical condition in the city’s Papageorgiou hospital. The next two days will be crucial to the boy’s recovery, according to doctors, who said the boy had also suffered serious damage to his kidneys. The family had eaten mushrooms gathered from a farm in the village of Skalochori near Kozani last Sunday.

Six formations of Turkish fighter jets yesterday violated Greek national air space 16 times in the central Aegean. The 12 Turkish jets were chased off by Greek aircraft and there were four simulated dogfights. It was the fourth in a series of violations this week.

The capital’s only landfill in the district of Ano Liosia was yesterday operating as normal despite Thursday’s assertion by the local mayor, Nikos Papadimas, that the dump would close for three days as radioactive material had been allegedly buried there. Tests on underground samples at the site — of up to 20 meters in depth — did not reveal high levels of radiation, representatives of the Greek Atomic Energy Commission said yesterday.

Hellenic Food Authority (EFET) officials were yesterday conducting tests on Dutch milk and powdered milk products as the Dutch government informed fellow European Union countries that it expected the results from its laboratory tests on homegrown products by the middle of next week. The tests were launched following the discovery of cancer-causing dioxins in milk from two Dutch farms.

Doctors at Athens’s Attiko hospital are to begin a series of daily two-hour work stoppages from noon on Tuesday.

An elderly Cretan man yesterday faced an Iraklion prosecutor on charges of illegally trading in antiquities after police confiscated from his store dozens of coins set in gold dating to various historical eras. Officers confiscated a total of 91 coins, including 24 ancient coins, 16 of which had been converted into medallions and eight of which formed part of a necklace. They also found three religious icons.