In Brief
Transport disruption
No metro, ISAP services on New Year’s Day due to strike There will be no services on the Athens metro and the Piraeus-Kifissia urban electric railway (ISAP) on Saturday, New Year’s Day, after the drivers of both modes of transport decided to stage a 24-hour walkout in protest at the government’s plans to streamline public transport as part of a broader cost-cutting drive. Hidden migrants Eighty-two stopped at Patra Coast guard officers in the western port of Patra yesterday detained a total of 82 undocumented immigrants who had been hidden in two trucks waiting to board a ferry to Italy. Officials also detained the drivers of the two vehicles. In the first truck, there were 62 would-be migrants including 20 children. In the second truck, coast guard officers found another 20 migrants including four children. The adult migrants were detained while the children were to be transferred to hostels. Missing taxman Police stepped up their search yesterday for a 50-year-old tax office clerk who disappeared from his home in the small town of Filippiada in the northwestern prefecture of Preveza two weeks ago. Friends and relatives have joined efforts to find the unnamed clerk, who had relocated to the tax office in Filippiada from Ioannina a few months ago. A couple of days after his disappearance, police found the man’s car parked close to a minimarket in Kanali, near the main port of Preveza. Officers broke into the locked vehicle but found no clues to its owner’s whereabouts. Trash cleanup Municipal refuse collectors gathered yesterday the rubbish that had piled up over the last few days in the center of Thessaloniki and were proceeding to clean up the rest of the city. Tons of rubbish had accumulated on the northern city’s streets due to a lack of trash trucks but authorities said they would work around-the-clock to gather the rubbish before New Year’s Day. The Mavrorachi landfill is remaining open until 9 p.m. to help deal with the backlog. New Mayor Yiannis Boutaris also brokered an agreement to borrow 15 trash trucks from neighboring municipalities to help with the effort. Emissions trading The government yesterday signed a decision that will allow Greek airlines to participate in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) from the start of 2012. Launched in 2005, the EU ETS works on the cap-and-trade principle. This means there is a cap, or limit, on the total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by the factories, power plants and other firms that can take part in the system. Within this cap, companies receive emission allowances which they can sell to or buy from one another as needed. The decision signed yesterday allows other Geek industries to enter the EU Emissions Trading System when it expands in 2013. The scheme will include petrochemicals, ammonia and aluminium industries in 2013.
