In Brief
Railway strike
No OSE services today; metro link to airport also to halt All services on the country’s railway network and on Athens’s suburban railway (Proastiakos) are to be suspended today as employees of the Hellenic Railways Organization (OSE) launch a 24-hour strike to protest the planned streamlining of the debt-ridden company. The metro link between Athens International Airport and Doukissis Plakentias station will also not be operating. The strike is to run from midnight on Monday until midnight on Tuesday. The workers oppose government reforms which will result in hundreds of job losses and forced retirements. TRAIN DEATHS Two men killed in Patra Two men were killed after walking into the path of an incoming train outside the eastern Peloponnesian city of Patra early yesterday morning. The two men, whose identities were not revealed, stepped onto the tracks at Ayia, without noticing that the train was bearing down on them. According to investigators, by the time the conductor spotted the pair on the tracks, he was unable to stop the train, which careened into them, killing them instantly. The stretch of track where the accident occurred will be closed while further investigations are carried out. Egnatia tollgate The first toll booths on the Egnatia Highway are to start operating at the Polymylo junction, near the northern city of Kozani, as of this morning. The fee is 2.80 euros for motorists and 2 euros for motorcyclists. More toll booths are to open at other junctions on the highway in the coming months. Zakynthos suicide? Police on the Ionian island of Zakynthos are investing the death of a 20-year-old Romanian woman who was found hanged with her wrists slit in the storage room of a holiday pension yesterday. The young woman, who worked at a bar in the village of Lagana, was found by her roommate, who became concerned when she had not seen her friend for several hours. Depending on the findings of the coroner’s report, police will investigate whether the young woman’s death was suicide or the result of foul play. Cannabis haul A 59-year-old father and his 41-year-old son were arrested yesterday after narcotics squad officers in the southern Peloponnese city of Kalamata discovered 20 cannabis plants in an olive grove belonging to the family. A raid on the family’s home further revealed another 136 cannabis saplings in the basement, as well as 26 full-grown plants, cannabis seeds and packages of the drug. Pharmacies closed Pharmacies across the country will be closed today in observance of the Day of the Finding of the Timios Stavros (True Cross). Emergency duty pharmacies, however, will operate as usual. A list is available on the hotline 1434, but only in Greek, as well as in signs posted in all pharmacy windows. Grill robbery Three armed men stormed a grill restaurant in the Olympic village in Acharnes in northwestern Athens late on Sunday night, making off with approximately 2,500 euros from the eatery’s till. Police were still looking for the perpetrators yesterday.
