In Brief
SUBURBAN RAILWAY
Council of State accepts mayor’s appeal to block Olympic project The Council of State has accepted an appeal by the mayor of Athens to block construction of a section of a suburban railway line to connect the city with the Spata airport, court sources said yesterday. The court accepted Dimitris Avramopoulos’s arguments that alternative routes for the railway had not been considered. In its initial phase, scheduled for completion in time for the 2004 Olympics, the railway will link the port of Piraeus with the new Athens airport through the northwestern suburb of Menidi. CYPRUS DEADLOCK Leaders discuss territory, Denktash insists Greek side trying to derail talks Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash yesterday discussed territorial issues, continuing face-to-face talks intended to yield a solution for unifying the divided island by next Tuesday’s deadline. Meanwhile, Denktash insisted he would ward off a Greek-Cypriot «conspiracy» to derail negotiations by depicting Turkish-Cypriots as intransigent, the Turkish-Cypriot radio station Bayrak reported. The two men are to due to meet on Friday to discuss whether the federal structure of Belgium could be a model for Cyprus, but there is already dissent, with Clerides interested in the entire model and Denktash favoring the adoption of certain aspects. AEGEAN VIOLATIONS Turkish jets enter Greek airspace A total of 30 Turkish fighter jets in 13 formations repeatedly violated Greek national airspace and the Athens Flight Information Region between the islands of Lemnos and Samothrace, and Rhodes and Kastelorizo yesterday, air force sources said. They were chased off by Greek interceptors, four of which became involved in simulated dogfights with Turkish planes. Traffic disrupted Traffic heading out of Athens on Mesogeion Avenue will be suspended between Faneromenis and Aghiou Ioannou streets between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. today, tomorrow and on Friday due to road maintenance works. Drivers will face the same disruption during the same hours next Wednesday to Friday. Power cuts Power cuts hit in the northeastern suburbs of Athens yesterday after roadworks on Mesogeion Avenue disabled an electricity cable at Stavros, the Public Power Corporation (PPC) said. The sporadic cuts were the result of an overload on the electric cable which normally supplies Psychico and Filothei, but was yesterday also used to power Aghia Paraskevi and neighboring districts that would otherwise have been plunged into darkness, the PPC said. Although the original fault was repaired in an hour, it took several hours for the Filothei-Psychico cable to recharge, during which time another two cables fell, leaving residents of southern Attica without power. Fire starter A young Albanian shepherd faced an Athens prosecutor yesterday after telling police he started a fire at Aghia Kyriaki, near the coastal town of Loutsa in eastern Attica, on Monday night which destroyed more than 2 hectares of pine trees. The 17-year-old, who was arrested shortly after firemen extinguished the blaze, admitted to starting the fire – though he did not say why – but stressed that he had tried to put it out. Exam results The results of this month’s secondary school end-of-term and university entrance examinations will begin to appear on school notice boards as of today and will all have been displayed by the end of this week, Education Ministry General Secretary Thanasis Tsouroplis said yesterday. The full list of university entrants is expected in early September. Modern bishop The bishop of Kilkis must explain why he conducts his church services in modern Greek rather than in traditional Byzantine Greek, the Holy Synod ruled during its session yesterday, after dozens of churchgoers from the northern town lodged a complaint against the cleric. The bishop is to face the Synod board on Friday. Dortmund shooting A 35-year-old Greek man injured during a shooting in the west German city of Dortmund on Monday was yesterday recovering from surgery. Three Turks were arrested in connection with the attack, in which two Turks were killed, apparently in revenge for an earlier killing in Turkey.
