In Brief

THESSALONIKI TRASH

Municipal protest leads to garbage piling up on streets Piles of trash are building up on the streets of Thessaloniki as residents of the Lachana municipality continue to block the operation of the Mavrorachi landfill. Their protest is in reaction to plans by the government to unify their municipality with that of Lagada. Thessaloniki Deputy Mayor Constantinos Kazantzidis, who is responsible for sanitation, said that 400 tons of garbage are building up on a daily basis and today there are over 7,000 tons of uncollected waste littering the streets of the city. He appealed to residents to refrain from depositing their garbage bags in overflowing bins and asked them to temporarily keep them on their balconies. Concerned that the volume of trash, coupled with high temperatures, may pose a public health hazard, Kazantzidis also filed a petition with the Thessaloniki prosecutor to intervene. PHARMACIES CLOSED Strike on Monday and Tuesday Pharmacies yesterday announced a 48-hour strike scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday in protest at government plans to liberalize their sector, one of many closed-shop professions in Greece. Information on pharmacies that will be operating on emergency duty is posted in the window of all pharmacies or is available online at www.yyka.gov.gr. Peaceful sit-in In a petition for more transparent governance and in protest at the government’s austerity measures, the Greek chapter of the France-based Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC) is organizing a peaceful sit-in in front of Parliament in Syntagma Square on Sunday at 6 p.m. Railway reopening The section of the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway between Faliro and Tavros in southern Athens is set to open on Monday. The stretch has been closed for engineering works since January, with thousands of commuters having to use a replacement bus service. The reopening of this section of the line has been delayed by the discovery of antiquities. ISAP said that if everything goes to plan, the line will be opened on Monday. Commuters traveling from Kifissia should note that trains will still not stop at Nea Ionia, Kato Patissia and Aghios Nikolaos. Prefect probe Thessaloniki Prefect Panayiotis Psomiadis yesterday asked for an investigation into hundreds of contracts awarded by the city’s prefecture while he has been in office to be speeded up. Newspaper reports have accused Psomiadis, an outspoken member of New Democracy, of awarding more than 500 contracts each worth 45,000 euros or less directly to companies or individuals without first holding a tender. Psomiadis, who made an unsuccessful bid for the leadership of ND last November, has also been accused of corruption by several members of the prefecture’s council. Psomiadis said that he is the target of an «orchestrated attack.» Supermarket robbery Two armed robbers held up a supermarket in Nea Krini, Thessaloniki, just before closing on Thursday night. The unidentified gunmen got away with 600 euros in takings from the Kountouriotou Street store before fleeing. Police who arrived at the scene are investigating the incident.