In Brief
OFF TRACK
Railway line closed for two days after train derails near Xanthi Train journeys in and out of Thrace, northeastern Greece, were canceled yesterday because a freight train transporting armored personnel carriers derailed near Xanthi. The driver was slightly injured when the train left the tracks as it was traveling between Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis. It was not immediately clear what caused two rail cars to derail. The army was called in to recover the armored vehicles as railway workers began to repair the damage to the line. Normal train service is due to return on Sunday. NOTARY FEES MP wants limit on charges Independent MP Stefanos Manos yesterday called on the government to reduce the fee that notaries are able to charge for their services during a property purchase. Thanks to a 2005 amendment, notaries can charge 1.2 percent of the so-called objective value of a property. Since the government announced on Thursday a rise in objective property prices, Manos argued that the percentage that notaries can charge should be reduced. He said that based on the current rates, notaries working on the sale of a 100-square-meter property in Athens would get between -1,200 and -10,200 euros for doing «one or two hours» of work. Deadly swerve A 56-year-old man was killed and his 57-year-old wife seriously injured yesterday morning when a car struck them as they were waiting at a bus stop in Marathon, northeast of Athens. The 38-year-old woman driving the vehicle said she had swerved to avoid a dead cat in the road but then lost control of the car. The driver has been arrested. Costly mistake A 47-year-old man told police in Thessaloniki yesterday that two men on a motorbike stole -92,000 from him. The man claimed he had stopped at the side of the road to change a flat tire when the men rode by and stole the bag containing the money from inside his car.
