Athens tickets still selling poor

Queues in Athens for tickets to Olympics Games events continue to grow, with only a few days remaining until the Opening Ceremony.

"I have bought tickets a year ago for the 27th and 28th and I decided to buy some more."

Games organizers have opened sales booths around Athens after ticket sales finally picked up in recent weeks. But fewer than half of the 5.3 million tickets available have been sold, with sports unfamiliar here, badminton and field hockey for example, selling poorly.

Fears of terrorism are thought to have led to low ticket sales overseas, but in Greece the problem seems to have been a lack of interest in some events.

Also in Athens, the Greek Trades Union Federation earlier staged a peaceful protest outside the parliament buildings in memory of the 13 workers killed during the construction of Olympic venues.

According to Greek parliamentarian Liana Kanelli, those killed worked under appalling conditions for little pay.

"Because for seven years, thousand of workers, Greeks and foreigners, they've worked hard, day and night, underpaid to build up this so-called miracle of the Athens Olympics 2004 and nobody practically paid a tribute to them. They worked with no security regulations. They were over pushed, and then in less than a year, the last year when everyone had to run we have 13 people dead."

The 13 workers all died in the past year during the construction of Olympic venues, and their families received no compensation for the deaths.

Protestors said they hoped to highlight health and safety violations as construction bosses cut corners in the rush to complete Athens' Olympic facilities.

Source: China Radio International