In Brief
URBAN RAILWAY
Service on Piraeus-Kifissia route will stop about an hour earlier tomorrow The last trains serving the Kifissia-to-Piraeus urban electric railway will depart about an hour earlier tomorrow to allow workers to join Easter celebrations. The last trains from Piraeus to Kifissia and from Kifissia to Piraeus will depart at 10.15 p.m. and 10.45 p.m. respectively. The last trains from Omonia to Kifissia and from Omonia to Piraeus will depart at 10.33 p.m. and 11.15 p.m. Meanwhile, Neo Iraklion station is to reopen on Wednesday as is the Piraeus-bound platform of Victoria station, although its Kifissia-bound platform will close for renovation. The Kifissia-bound platform of Kato Patissia station will also close on Wednesday. ATHOS FIRE Ministers discuss repairs to badly damaged Helandari monastery Minister for Macedonia and Thrace Nikos Tsiartsionis and Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis on Wednesday met with representatives of the Mount Athos monastic community to discuss repairs to the local Helandari Monastery which was severely damaged in a blaze last month. Tsiartsionis visited the 800-year-old monastery, which is run by Serb Orthodox monks, to survey the extent of the damage wreaked by the fire which destroyed at least half of the walled complex. CONSTANTINOS KALLIAS Former minister dies aged 103 Former minister, New Democracy MP and Euro MP Constantinos Kallias died on Wednesday at the age of 103. Kallias had served as telecommunications minister in 1945, as deputy economy minister in 1947, as education minister from 1952 to 1954 and as justice minister from 1958 to 1961. He was also ND’s vice president from 1975 to 1976. Cham riot A demonstrator was injured in Tirana yesterday when police fired on a group protesting at Parliament’s refusal to back a resolution by a small right-wing party seeking support for the Cham Albanians – who were expelled from Greece at the end of World War II for collaborating with occupation forces. Bujar Asllani, representing the Association of Chams, said Parliament had been influenced by «pressure by the Greek government, which has threatened to expel 300,000 Albanians in Greece.» Easter bread Bakeries will be selling bread tomorrow but not on Sunday, when they will be open from 8 a.m. until early afternoon but only to bake Easter dinners brought in by customers. They will be closed on Easter Monday and will reopen on Tuesday. Roadwork Traffic around the Metamorphosis-Varibobi junction on the Athens-Lamia national road will be disrupted from next Wednesday until May 20 as work gets under way to resurface the road, the Public Works Ministry said yesterday. Lamia-bound traffic will be affected first, with works beginning next Sunday (April 18) on the Athens-bound stretch of road, the ministry said. Bank heist Unidentified intruders dug a hole into the back of a bank branch in the Peloponnesian town of Akrata and made off with 136,000 euros in the early hours of yesterday morning, police said. Extortion Two men and two women have been arrested in Thessaloniki for allegedly blackmailing a 67-year-old businessman who had ostensibly broken building laws in a Halkidiki housing development where the four had bought property, police said yesterday. Correction A Greek Cup soccer semifinal between Panathinaikos and AEK on Wednesday, which Panathinaikos won 1-0 away, was a second-leg match, not first-leg, as we incorrectly stated on Thursday. Panathinaikos made the final with a 3-2 aggregate score.
