In Brief
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION
Stoppages on trolley buses and buses today and tomorrow There will be no buses or trolley buses operating today and tomorrow between 11 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. as transport workers protesting the government’s plans to streamline their services continue their action. Meanwhile a 48-hour strike by train drivers employed by the debt-ridden Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) will halt all services nationwide today and tomorrow. PHARMACIES SHUT Lawyers also on strike till Friday Pharmacies across Greece will be closed from today until the end of the week in protest at the government’s plans to liberalize the sector. The pharmacists called the three-day strike after Health Minister Andreas Loverdos rejected their calls to change some of the measures in the draft legislation he has prepared. Pharmacies will also be closed Wednesday through Friday next week. During those days, only a handful of pharmacies will be open in each major city for emergencies. Details are available by calling 14944. Lawyers will also be on strike from today until the end of the week in protest at the measures drawn up by the government to open up their profession to more competition. Road deaths Almost 200 fewer people died on Greece’s roads last year compared to 2009, according to figures made public yesterday by the traffic police. A total of 1,280 people died in 2010 compared to 1,463 in the previous year. The single most common cause of accidents was excessive speed. The Citizens’ Protection Ministry said that its target over the next five years is to reduce the number of people who die in accidents by 100 every year. Double drowning Rescue workers yesterday recovered the bodies of a 35-year-old woman and her 10-year-old son from the Lithaios River which runs through Trikala in central Greece. The woman had been tied to her son with a length of rope, according to officers of the Trikala police department who said they suspected suicide even though the water in the river where the bodies were found was only 50 centimeters deep. The woman’s husband died recently in a car crash, police said. Keratea opposition The Association of Greek Archaeologists issued a statement yesterday opposing the government’s plans to create a rubbish dump in Keratea, southeast of Athens. The archaeologists said the area where the waste processing center will be built is too close to the Ovriokastro archaeological site, an ancient Greek mining facility, which was declared a protected site in 1980. Keratea residents have fiercely opposed efforts to begin construction of the dump and are awaiting the result of a court appeal. Tomb raiders A monk from the Kykkos Monastery in Nicosia is one of three suspects believed to be behind the theft of the remains of an unidentified woman from a tomb in a cemetery in Nikaia, near Piraeus, police in Cyprus said yesterday. According to Cypriot police spokesman, Michalis Katsounatos, the head of the Kykkos Monastery confirmed that a 42-year-old man arrested in Athens on Monday is a resident monk. Unconfirmed press reports said the remains were those of a Cypriot nun. The 42-year-old, and two suspected accomplices, were arrested at Athens International Airport after authorities discovered the remains.
