In Brief
Marbles
London’s V&A director proposes sharing works The director of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Mark Jones, yesterday proposed that the British Museum should somehow share its Elgin Collection of 5th century BC sculptures from the Parthenon with Greece – which has repeatedly and unsuccessfully requested the pieces’ return. «I do believe it is possible to develop partnerships,» yesterday’s Observer quoted him as saying. «It can be good to display objects at different places.» The sculptures were removed by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century. Court filter New law on Supreme Court cases Procedures making it much harder for citizens to take their appeals to the Supreme Court come into effect today. The new law is designed to save judges time and keep silly cases out of court. Cases will now have to be approved by a three-member committee of judges in order to be discussed at the country’s highest civil court. Account access An exception now applies to confidentiality laws governing bank accounts, following a Supreme Court ruling made public yesterday that allows lenders to claim funds due to them from the borrower’s bank account if proof can be supplied that the funds are indeed owed. Mediator dies Former US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, best known in Greece for his role as mediator between Greece and Turkey during the 1974 Cyprus crisis, died on Saturday of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 84. Vance, known as an advocate of dialogue instead of violence, also served as mediator between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on the matter of the latter country’s name. Police bus torched A police bus parked near the headquarters of ruling party PASOK was damaged yesterday by molotov cocktails thrown by a group of youths. No was injured in the attack in Exarchia, central Athens, and no arrests were made. Demetrios in Athens Archbishop Demetrios, the spiritual leader of more than one million Orthodox Christians in America, arrived in Greece on Saturday for a six-day visit. Demetrios met the head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Christodoulos, on Saturday and led mass on Sunday at the Athens Cathedral in which he expressed support for the 20 Greek-American families affected by the September 11 attacks in the USA. – Primary school teachers have called a 24-hour strike in protest at the new education bill.
