Greece

ATHENS, Sept 7 (NNN-AMNA) – Cooperation between Greece and China on shipping finance, is set to receive a boost, after a conference held at the major Greek port of Piraeus, yesterday.

The Export-Import Bank of China (EXIMBANK) and Greek shipowners, discussed the issue within the framework of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), for global infrastructure development at the conference, co-organised by the Association of Banking and Financial Executives of the Hellenic Shipping (ABFEHS) and the Chinese embassy in Greece.

ATHENS, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Torrential rains have flooded homes, businesses and roads in Greece and a man died after a wall collapsed in the bad weather, the fire brigade said on Tuesday.

Storm Daniel has battered western and central Greece since Monday, prompting hundreds of calls to emergency services to pump out water just days after a deadly wildfire that has burned for more than two weeks was brought under control in the north of the country.

ATHENS, Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four migrants died Monday when their boat capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos, while 18 people were rescued, the coastguard said.

A patrol picked up 22 people in the Aegean but four of them were dead, a brief statement said.

The survivors were transferred to Mytilene, the main city on Lesbos, along the main passage route for migrants coming in from Turkey.

No details were given about the nationalities or the condition of those rescued.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The prime ministers of India and Greece pledged to boost their countries’ trade, business and defense ties Friday during a visit to Athens by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s visit is the first to Greece by an Indian prime minister in 40 years since Indira Gandhi visited the country in September 1983.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the two countries enjoyed relations stretching back to antiquity.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Authorities battling a major wildfire in northeastern Greece that has been described as the European Union’s largest single recorded fire recovered another body, the fire department said Friday, bringing the total death toll from wildfires in Greece this week to 21.

The fire department said firefighters recovered the body of a man from the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park, which lies near the border with Turkey, on Thursday.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Advancing flames devoured forests and homes as dozens of wildfires raged across Greece on Wednesday, leaving 20 people dead over the past three days, while major blazes also burned in northwestern Turkey near the Greek border and on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands.

ATHENS, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a visit to Greece on Monday, where he met with European leaders, Greek national broadcaster ERT has reported.

During his visit, Zelensky met separately with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

He also joined an informal meeting of European leaders on enlargement of the European Union (EU) here in Athens.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Nearly two months after a dilapidated fishing trawler crammed with people heading from Libya to Italy sank in the central Mediterranean, killing hundreds, relatives are still frantically searching for their loved ones among the missing and the dead.

Many questions remain about Greek authorities’ response and exactly how and why the boat, carrying an estimated 500-750 people mostly from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt, capsized and sank in the early hours of June 14 in what became one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.

RHODES, Greece (AP) — Tourists at a seaside hotel on the Greek island of Rhodes snatched up pails of pool water and damp towels as flames approached, rushing to help staffers and locals extinguish one of the wildfires threatening Mediterranean locales during recent heat waves.

The quick team effort meant that “by the time the fire brigade came, most of the fire actually was dealt with,” said Elena Korosteleva from Britain, who was vacationing at the Lindos Memories hotel.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Authorities are maintaining an exclusion zone around an air force base in central Greece where wildfires have triggered powerful explosions at an ammunition depot.

The blasts late Thursday at the 111th Combat Wing base facilities — among the largest in the country — shattered windows in nearby towns and prompted an evacuation of more than 2,000 people, while fighter jets nearby were moved to another base.

A civilian traffic ban and evacuation order remained in effect in a 3-kilometer (2-mile) radius of the blast site.