NEWS

In Brief

PUBLIC WORKS

Law changing way projects are assigned to be ready ‘by year-end’ New legislation, changing the way that public projects are assigned, will have been tabled in Parliament by the end of the year, Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias said yesterday. Souflias said that the current system of assigning projects – based on a «mathematical formula» designed to prevent excessive discounts during bidding – could not remain as it was. He also stressed that a current priority was to accelerate the pace of works which have been held up due to legal action. He noted that the Marathon Route, along which the Olympic marathon race will be run, will be ready by July 10. CONTRACT WORKERS Euro MP asks EC to ensure Greece adopts ‘non-discrimination’ rules Synaspismos Left Coalition Euro MP Nikos Hountis yesterday asked the European Commission to clarify which measures it would take to ensure that legislation governing contract workers applies the principle of non-discrimination enshrined in European legislation. Contract workers in certain sectors have complained that they will not benefit from permanency that other workers are due to receive under new legislation. URBAN RAILWAY Disruptions on Monday, Thursday There will be no service on the Piraeus-Kifissia urban electric railway (ISAP) from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m. on Monday and from noon until 5 p.m. on Thursday due to work stoppages, ISAP said yesterday. Workers are protesting against the failure of ISAP managers to sign a collective labor contract. Roadworks Othonos Street on central Syntagma Square will be shut off from Monday as works get under way to create a bus lane linking the road with Amalias Avenue. The works will continue until the end of June. Also, road resurfacing will disrupt traffic on the section of Liosion Avenue between Stratigou Kallari Street and Vathis Square in central Athens between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. daily for the next 10 days. And works will cause disruptions to Athens-bound traffic on the section of Kifissou Avenue between Moudrou and Icarias streets between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. tomorrow. Bomb hoax A passenger ferry which left Patras bound for Ancona in Italy at 2.30 p.m. yesterday returned to the Greek port a couple of hours later following an anonymous call to a daily newspaper warning of a bomb aboard the ferry. However, authorities who inspected the ship, after evacuating the 285 passengers and 100 crew aboard, failed to find any suspect device. The ferry finally set sail for Ancona shortly after 7 p.m. Tax blunder The delivery of an online tax declaration form to the wrong person was an «isolated incident» and the result of a taxpayer submitting their e-mail address incorrectly on the Taxisnet system, the Economy Ministry’s General Secretariat of Information Systems said yesterday. Around 150,000 tax declarations were submitted using the Taxisnet electronic network last year, the ministry said. Fatal shooting A brawl outside a nightclub in the Cretan port of Hania on Thursday night ended up with two Georgian nationals being shot – one fatally, police said. Georgios Moysidis, 29, and Romiz Tazarov, 31, started arguing with the club owner after being refused entry, whereupon the owner had called three friends, two of whom ended up firing their guns at the two Georgians, according to police. Moysidis sustained a fatal chest wound while Tazarov received a minor neck injury. Police arrested the club owner and were seeking the gunmen, who fled after the incident. Diamond win Australia’s Olympic shooting double gold medalist Michael Diamond, who is of Greek origin, yesterday won the right to defend his title in the Athens Olympics, Agence France-Presse reported. Diamond shot 117 out of a possible 125 targets at the Athens World Cup to beat fellow Australian Nathan Cassells by six targets in a shoot-off arranged after a drawn-out court case robbed Diamond of the chance to compete at Olympic selection events, AFP reported. Diamond was cleared of an assault charge against a former girlfriend in February.

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