Greece

Quake rattles northern Greece

ATHENS (Reuters) - An earthquake rattled northern Greece on Sunday with no reports of any damage or fatalities. The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the quake, of magnitude 5.4, was at…

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Greece’s Aegean Airlines suspends flights to Beirut after plane damage

ATHENS, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Greece's largest carrier Aegean Airlines said on Saturday it had suspended all flights to Beirut pending the results of an investigation into the cause of…

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Greece extends restrictions to curb Omicron variant

Greece will extend restrictions by a week at restaurants and bars to help curb the Omicron variant, which has dominated the country and was the main driver of a surge…

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Photo story: Weather front ‘Diomedes’ causes floods in Thessaly region in Greece

Α van is stuck in the mud in a flooded farm in the village of Palamas near Karditsa city, in Thessaly, central Greece. The weather front named 'Diomedes' which is…

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Greece reports new high of COVID-19 cases in a day

Greece reported a record 50,126 coronavirus infections on Tuesday, breaking a previous high of 40,560 registered on Dec. 31. As recently as Dec. 27, only 9,284 new infections were recorded…

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Greece COVID-19 cases reach new daily record as Omicron dominates

Greece reported a single-day record high of 35,580 COVID-19 infections on Thursday as the highly contagious Omicron becomes the dominant variant in the country. It was the third successive daily…

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Earthquake rattles Crete

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 was registered on the Greek island of Crete on Sunday, with no immediate reports of injuries or damage, the country's Geodynamic Institute said.…

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Greece bans public Christmas festivities to curb Omicron spread

ATHENS, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Greece has banned public Christmas and New Year's Eve festivities and mandated mask-wearing in open spaces to help to curb the spread of the Omicron…

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UPDATED: Southern Greece rattled by 5.4 tremor

ATHENS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - An strong earthquake rattled parts of southern Greece on Saturday, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. A tremor with a magnitude of 5.4…

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Greece demands COVID-19 tests from all visitors

Travellers to Greece will need a negative COVID-19 PCR test to enter the country as part of efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the health ministry said.…

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Storms pound parts of Greece, kill one

The driver of a car that was swept away by floods in northern Greece was found dead on Sunday after heavy storms pounded parts of the country on Saturday, causing…

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Greek economic rebound boosted by tourism in third quarter

ATHENS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Greece's economic rebound from the pandemic was helped by a strong performance in tourism in the third quarter, with the country's annual growth rate remaining…

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UPDATED: Pope ends visit to Greece focused on the plight of migrants

ATHENS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Pope Francis heard from young people including children of migrants who have fled war or poverty at a school in Athens on Monday, as he…

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Greece offers COVID vaccine booster three months after initial shots

Greece will offer all adults COVID-19 booster shots three months after they have had their second vaccine shot or tested positive for the virus, down from six months now, to…

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UPDATED: Citing ancient Greeks, Pope Francis laments threats to democracy today

ATHENS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Pope Francis appealed on Saturday for a return to "good politics", saying democracy has deteriorated dangerously as discontented people are lured by the "siren…

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Pope’s visit to Greece’s Lesbos lays bare divisions over migrants

Lucia Marcano was attending mass last month in the Catholic church on Lesbos when around 50 asylum-seekers from the island's migrant camp turned up, having heard that Pope Francis was…

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Greece’s first case of Omicron variant detected on Crete, Romania investigating two suspected Omicron cases

ATHENS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Greece has detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, in a Greek citizen on the island of Crete who had returned from South…

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Greece asks faithful to be COVID-clear to attend church

ATHENS, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Greece introduced new restrictions obliging churchgoers to present negative COVID-19 tests to attend services on Sunday following a surge in infections in recent weeks. Under…

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Greece opens two more holding centres for migrants on islands

Greece inaugurated two more migrant holding centres on islands near Turkey as part of a tougher policy for managing migrant flows that has been critised by rights groups. The conservative…

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Photo Story: Lighting of Christmas tree in Athens

People watch the lighting of the Christmas tree at Syntagma square in Athens, Greece. Via EPA-EFE/GEORGE VITSARAS

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Greek PM says EU should make COVID booster shot a condition for free travel

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis proposed that the EU’s executive arm make having a booster shot against COVID-19 a condition for some Europeans to travel freely across the bloc, amid…

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Greece imposes further restrictions on unvaccinated

Greece joined several other European countries in imposing more restrictions on those unvaccinated against COVID-19 following a surge in infections in recent weeks. From next Monday, unvaccinated people will be…

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Greece sees 2021 tourism recovering after strong Jan-Aug

ATHENS, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Greece has seen revenues from its key tourist industry in the eight months to August reach half of 2019 levels, its tourism minister said in…

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After debt crisis, Greek economy faces climate change threats

Strolling along the coast of Nea Irakleia village where he would go swimming as a young man, George Perperis points to where there was once a beach, now submerged by…

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Greece reports new record high of COVID-19 cases

Greece reported 6,700 new coronavirus infections in the preceding 24 hours on Tuesday, breaking a previous single-day record of 5,449 that was recorded on Monday. This took the total infections…

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Ship with hundreds of Afghan migrants docks at Greek port

A Turkish-flagged cargo ship carrying 382 mostly Afghan migrants docked safely at a Greek island's port early on Sunday, two days after losing power in the Aegean Sea and sending…

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Four migrants, including children, drown in Greece after boat sinks

Four migrants, three of them children, drowned on Tuesday after a boat in which they and 23 others were trying to cross from Turkey to Greece sank, the Greek coast guard…

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Greek socialist party leader dies at 57 after battle with cancer

Fofi Gennimata, the leader of Greece's socialist opposition Movement for Change, died on Monday after a long battle with cancer. The death of Gennimata, who was 57, was announced by…

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Magnitude 6 quake hits eastern Mediterranean, USGS reports

A magnitude 6 earthquake hit the eastern Mediterranean off the Greek island of Karpathos on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The tremor was felt on the islands of Crete,…

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Strong quake rattles Crete, no immediate reports of damage

A powerful quake rattled the Greek island of Crete on Tuesday for a second time in less than a month but there were no immediate reports of damage. A magnitude 6.3 tremor…

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Greece-France defence pact protects against third-party aggression-Greek PM

A new defence agreement between Greece and France will allow them to come to each other's aid in the event of an external threat, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said…

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Greece proposes EU-wide mechanism on rising energy costs

Greece has proposed an EU-wide mechanism for hedging against steep gas price fluctuations to help households tackle rising energy prices across the bloc. Gas prices have surged so far this year…

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Greece says will not allow ‘uncontrolled’ migrant flows from Afghanistan

SAMOS, Greece, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Greece will not allow a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis to unfold on its borders following the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, Prime Minister…

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Greece imposes COVID restrictions for its second largest city

Greece will impose a nighttime curfew and ban music at bars, cafes and restaurants in Thessaloniki, its second biggest city, following an increase in COVID-19 cases, the government said. Infections…

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UPDATED: Strong quake hits Greece’s biggest island of Crete, one person killed

A strong earthquake measuring 5.8 shook Greece's largest island Crete on Monday and one person was killed when a church dome collapsed, authorities said. The quake, which sent people out…

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Delta airliner makes emergency landing in Athens

THENS (Reuters) - A Delta airliner with 248 passengers and crew on board landed safely in Athens on Sunday after the pilot reported an indication of a problem in the…

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Greece tests drone drug delivery for remote regions

TRIKALA, Greece (Reuters) - Greece on Tuesday tested a drone to deliver medicines to isolated places in an environmentally friendly way, sending the unmanned vehicle to a 200-person village. The…

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Greek current account turn to surplus in July, tourism revenues up

Greece's current account turned to surplus in July compared to the same month last year on the back of a significant rise in tourism revenues, the Bank of Greece said…

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Extreme heat ravages Greece’s mussel harvest

Fisherman Stefanos Sougioultzis cracks open the mussels he cultivated in Greece’s Aegean Sea only to find scores of empty shells. After a summer of scorching heat and warming waters, it…

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Greek PM says climate crisis is with us and cost of ignoring it ‘unimaginable’

Mediterranean nations must lead the way in addressing climate change, the Greek prime minister said, warning that the cost of doing nothing was unimaginable, with mankind possibly struggling to survive…

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Greece is bouncing back from pandemic rout, says PM Mitsotakis

ATHENS, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Greece is on track to produce a primary surplus from 2023, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday, saying the country's economy had shown resilience…

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EU’s Mediterranean states demand global action on climate crisis

ATHENS, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Leaders of the EU's bloc of nine southern European members on Friday demanded urgent global action to combat a worsening climate crisis and build a…

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Greece sees jump in international arrivals in August

International air traffic to Greece picked up strongly in August at the peak of the summer tourism season, civil aviation authority data showed on Friday. Arrivals nearly doubled in that…

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Greek unemployment drops to 14.2% in July

Greece's jobless rate dropped to 14.2% in July from 15.0% in the previous month, data from the statistics service ELSTAT showed on Wednesday. Seasonally adjusted data showed 664,384 people were…

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Greece plans firm hand on Afghan migrants, wants more EU help

ATHENS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Greece would seek to block a potential wave of Afghan asylum-seekers fleeing Taliban rule and needs more European Union help on migrant issues, the prime…

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Anti COVID vaccine protesters clash with police in Greece

Demonstrations against compulsory vaccination also took place in Istanbul on Saturday, where more than 2,000 Turks protested against the government's new inoculation push. ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek police fired tear…

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Photo Story: Athens Flying Week Air Show at Tanagra Airbase

A Greek Spitfire performs a low pass during an airshow at Tanagra air base, north of Athens, Greece. The performance is part of an annual airshow, known as Athens Flying…

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Photo Story: ‘Zorba the Greek’ composer Theodorakis dies at 96

Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis directs his orchestra during a rehearsal at the ancient Herodium Atticon theater at the steps of Acropolis, in Athens, Greece, 20 May 2001 (reissued 02 September…

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Greek PM to reshuffle cabinet after wildfires, his office says

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will reshuffle his cabinet on Tuesday, his office said, adding new faces after criticism of the government's handling of wildfires this summer although key ministers are…

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Greek police use tear gas, water canon during Athens vaccine protest

Greek police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a group of people who threw flares and other objects during a protest in central Athens on Sunday against mandatory…

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Freighter sinks after hitting Greek islets, all 16 crew rescued

ATHENS, Aug 28 (Reuters) - A Togo-flagged cargo ship sank on Saturday after hitting Greek islets in the Aegean Sea but all 16 crew were rescued, the Greek coast guard…

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Freighter heading to Tunisia sinks off Greek coast, all 16 crew rescued

A Togo-flagged cargo ship sank on Saturday after hitting Greek islets in the Aegean Sea but all 16 crew were rescued, the Greek coast guard said. The freighter Sea Bird,…

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Villagers evacuated as forest fire spreads near Athens

People were evacuated from two villages west of Athens on Monday as firefighters battled a new blaze in a forested area that was devastated by flames last week. Authorities ordered…

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Greece plans to name heatwaves in the same way as storms

Spurred on by this summer’s record temperatures, Greek scientists have begun discussing the need to name and rank heatwaves, better known for their invisibility, before rampant wildfires made the realities…

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Germany designates parts of Greece “high risk” COVID areas

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is designating parts of Greece as high-risk areas, meaning unvaccinated travellers from those regions would need to go into quarantine for five days. Crete and islands…

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Greece completes border wall extension, surveillance to deter migrants

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Friday it had completed a 40-kilometre fence on its border with Turkey and a new surveillance system was in place, amid concerns that the…

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Greece says border forces on alert to avoid repeat of 2015 migrant crisis

Greece's border forces are on alert to avoid a repeat of the mass arrivals of migrants that the country experienced in 2015, the government's spokesman said on Thursday, following the…

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