Greece

Sept 3 (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Greece on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

The quake's epicentre was Crete and was 2 km (1.2 miles) below the earth's surface, the EMSC said.

ATHENS, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Greek lawmakers on Monday voted in favour of setting up an inquiry commission to probe the phone tapping of an opposition leader that led Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to sack the head of the country's intelligence service (EYP).

The scandal over the wiretapping of Nikos Androulakis, leader of socialist party PASOK, Greece's third-largest political party, has turned up the heat on the conservative premier who brought EYP under his control after taking office three years ago.

ATHENS, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis rejected on Friday opposition parties' calls for a snap election over the recent revelations of the phone tapping of an opposition leader by the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP).

"We will get through this difficult winter together," he said during Parliament's first plenary debate after the summer break.

The conservative government's four-year term ends next summer.

ATHENS, Aug 24 (Reuters) - A Greek parliamentary committee approved on Wednesday the appointment of diplomat Themistoklis Demiris to head the country's intelligence service (EYP) after his predecessor's sacking over a wiretapping scandal.

Demiris, 70, a secretary general at Greece's foreign ministry, has served as ambassador to Italy, Cyprus and the European Union.

His appointment was cleared by the parliament's 19-member institutions and transparency committee after a closed-door hearing, the parliament's president said in a statement.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — With more of a whisper than a resounding clang, Greece has shed another restriction dating to its painful financial bailout years.

Saturday’s formal end of “enhanced surveillance” by European Union creditors means the country will no longer face quarterly scrutiny of its public finances to win debt relief payments.

ATHENS, Aug 12 (Reuters) - An Iranian-flagged tanker is reloading oil confiscated in April by the United States after Greek authorities approved the release of the cargo, Iran's embassy in Athens and sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

"The operation to transfer Iran's stolen oil to the Lana ... is underway in Greek waters, and the ship will soon depart for our country with a full shipment of oil," Iran's embassy in Greece said on its Twitter account.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A search and rescue operation was conducted on Friday for a third day for migrants reported missing after their boat capsized south of the Greek island of Rhodes, the coast guard said Friday.

A Greek frigate and three merchant ships were searching the area roughly 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers, 46 miles) south of Rhodes and 33 nautical miles southeast of Karpathos, the coast guard said Friday.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s prime minister said Monday he was unaware that the country’s intelligence service had been bugging an opposition politician’s mobile phone for three months, insisting that he wouldn’t have allowed it had he known.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who faces elections next year, made the remarks in a televised address to the nation three days after a wiretapping scandal led to the resignations of the head of the National Intelligence Service, Panagiotis Kontoleon, and the general secretary of the prime minister’s office, Grigoris Dimitriadis.

29 July 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler announced on Tuesday that the kingdom will provide Europe with "much cheaper renewable energy" using a power cable that will link Riyadh with Greece.

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman arrived in Greece on Tuesday on his first visit to a European Union member state since the gruesome 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Germany’s top diplomat visited refugees at a camp in Greece on Thursday after stressing that European Union countries should do more to safeguard people seeking refuge from war and hardship.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited a Holocaust memorial in Athens before sitting down with refugees at a camp west of the city. She used the visit to promote what she called “a common European sea rescue policy” and to oppose summary deportations of asylum-seekers and migrants.