(Greece) More than half of tickets are unsold

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Posted on Wed, Aug. 04, 2004

 

By Lisa Orkin

 

Associated Press

 

 

ATHENS, Greece - Olympic ticket sales are picking up after a slow

start, but Athens organizers said yesterday that more than half the

seats for the Summer Games still are available.

 

Just 10 days before the opening ceremony, only 2.2 million of the 5.2

million tickets have been bought, although the opening and closing

ceremonies have sold out. About 38,000 tickets were sold Monday, the

most for one day, officials said. An average of 4,000 tickets were

sold each day in June and July.

 

International concern over terrorism and construction delays at

Olympic sites have hurt sales. Rooms are still available at some

Athens hotels despite earlier fears of a shortage.

 

Greek Premier Costas Caramanlis toured the main Olympic complex and

insisted Athens is ready to host the games after years of

construction delays.

 

" We are fully prepared, and that is why we are optimistic, "

Caramanlis told reporters.

 

Caramanlis predicted the Aug. 13-29 games would be " extraordinary, "

but he noted that fears of terrorism forced " conditions of maximum

security. "

 

Strays rounded up. Stray dogs that evaded hundreds of police and

soldiers during a security sweep at the Olympic athletes' village are

being gathered by animal activists.

 

The animal activists and municipal officials were called by Olympic

organizers after British Olympic Association officials complained.

 

Thousands of stray dogs roam Athens, prompting city officials to

create a program of collecting, vaccinating and neutering the animals

before releasing them.

 

 

 

full story:

 

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/9313270.htm

 

 

 

 

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" The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual

superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong

proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot: " Mark

Twain, What Is Man, 1906

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