News archive of March 2014

An investigation was launched on Friday into the circumstances surrounding the death of Ilie Kareli, the 42-year-old Albanian inmate who killed a prison guard on Tuesday, after he was found dead in a prison cell and a coroner’s report indicated that he had suffered serious injuries after being beaten with a blunt instrument.

Four police officers, two lawyers and an insurance adjuster are among 13 people arrested on Friday in connection with an insurance scam which cost at least 27 companies an estimated 1.3 million euros.

US and British investors bought the bulk of Alpha Bank’s 1.2-billion-euro new share issue, it said on Friday, providing further evidence that foreign investors are warming to Greece.

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it had reviewed Cyprus’s economy under a bailout program and approved a loan disbursement for about $115 million.

The international lender said the disbursement brings total lending to date under the IMF’s $1.4 billion program with Cyprus to about $459 million.

People line up outside a pharmacy in central Athens that was on duty on Friday. Pharmacists have been on strike for several days and have vowed to continue their action unless the government withdraws a provision for the deregulation of the over-the-counter drug market.

Greek bank deposits dropped in February for a second month in a row and private sector lending continued to shrink, central bank data showed on Thursday, with no sign of the credit expansion needed to spur economic recovery this year.

Cyprus abolished maximum daily cash withdrawal limits from bank accounts on Friday, a year after it imposed capital controls to prevent economic meltdown and a flight of cash under the terms of a painful international bailout.

[Reuters]

Konstantina Kouneva, a former labor union activist from Bulgaria and the victim of a notorious 2008 acid attack, will run in the coming European Parliament elections on main leftist opposition SYRIZA’s ticket, it emerged Friday.

NOVI SAD - Serbia's Minister of Youth and Sports Vanja Udovicic said on Friday that it is necessary to engage in the changes and modernization of the sports system in Serbia.

We have set out to modernize all segments of the society, so it is necessary to modernize the sports system as well, Udovicic said in a public debate on privatization in sports, held in Novi Sad.

The closing auctions helped the Greek stock market’s benchmark index to post gains of almost 1 percent on Friday, as it registered a small weekly drop of 0.21 percent.

The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index closed at 1,327.87 points, adding 0.98 percent to Thursday’s 1,314.99 points. The large-cap FTSE/ATHEX 25 expanded 1.05 percent to 428.65 points.