In Brief
RAILWAY DISRUPTION
Kifissia-to-Piraeus service to go no further than Attiki Most of the Kifissia-to-Piraeus Athens electric railway will not be functioning today and tomorrow due to works on the track. Trains will only serve the Kifissia-to-Attiki stretch, and will not be running from Attiki to Piraeus and back although the Omonia and Monastiraki metro stations will still be operating. [The measures did not apply as of yesterday, as we erroneously reported.] PLAN ONLINE Full Annan blueprint posted in English on internet site The text of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s proposed plan for a Cyprus solution, which was made public last Monday, and the text of the revised plan, unveiled two days later, can both be found on the website www.cna.org.cy/data/var/annan/, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Greek translations of these texts will be made public as soon as they have been completed, the ministry said. SANTORINI SITE Prehistoric city to open for Olympics The prehistoric city of Akrotiri on Santorini will be open to tourists during the Olympics despite ongoing works to build a protective roof, Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis said yesterday after visiting the site. Tatoulis asked Professor Christos Doumas, who has been in charge of excavations at Akrotiri for the last 40 years, to ensure that the site is accessible within the next 15 days and to admit visitors without charge. Tatoulis is the first minister to visit the site in 40 years, Doumas remarked. Event delayed Athens’s jinxed Olympic swimming pool hit more trouble yesterday when a proposed test event, scheduled for next weekend, was called off. An organizing committee source told Agence France-Presse that the April 9-12 event will now take place in June due to ongoing problems with the construction of the pool. «The decision was taken in consultation with the International Swimming Federation (FINA),» said the source. Last month, organizers were forced to scrap plans to put a roof over the swimming stadium. (AFP) Salonica sniper A 26-year-old Thessaloniki man who allegedly used an airgun to shoot pedestrians from the roof of his apartment block in the northern city has been charged with illegal gun ownership and grievous bodily harm, police said yesterday following the man’s arrest. The unnamed sniper lightly injured a 34-year-old woman in the left knee and a 31-year-old man in the stomach, according to police. Taxi tip As of yesterday, taxi fares will include an Easter bonus of 0.80 euros for drivers until April 14, Transport Minister Michalis Liapis said. Car crash Two people were killed and three seriously injured yesterday when a jeep collided with a truck near the Kakavia border crossing into Albania, the Athens News Agency reported. The ANA said Gjirokaster (Argyrokastro) regional governor Vassilis Bitsis, who was driving the jeep, was killed instantly after crashing into a truck being driven by Stavros Potsis, who also died. Pedion tou Areos Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias and Athens-Piraeus Prefect Fofi Yennimata yesterday signed an agreement allocating 585,000 euros to the regeneration of the Pedion tou Areos park in central Athens. Yennimata, who had originally signed the contract with the previous PASOK government, asked Souflias to push for the release of the funds – to go toward the first phase of regeneration – and appealed for another 1.5 million euros for the completion of the project. Migrants intercepted Alexandroupolis coast guards yesterday intercepted six Turkish immigrants off the coast of Evros. The migrants, aged between 21 and 33, told officials they had left the Turkish coast on Thursday morning. They claimed to be related and said they had fled their country due to a vendetta. Water shortages Parts of Piraeus will experience water shortages between midnight tonight and Sunday morning due to works on the central water mains network. The districts of Kastella, Profitis Ilias, Kallipolis and the municipality of Piraeus will be affected.
