Patra

Greece's public revenue authority, AADE, has been dispatching dozens of inspectors to popular tourism spots all over the country to check businesses for tax evasion and other violations.

"I'd wanted to come to Greece for years, but something always prevented it from happening. But when I got the phone call from Stavros Tsakiris asking me to play Prometheus, I was scared stiff. And then I thought of my parents, who are now gone, telling me: 'Are you kidding Katerina?

Authorities evacuated dozens of citizens from flooded homes in western Greece on Sunday, a few days after seven people were killed by a violent storm in the north of the country.

Such severe storms are unusual in Greece, where summers are usually hot and dry. 

The huge backlog of applications for residence permits for non-European Union citizens investing at least 250,000 euros in Greek properties has forced the state to decentralize the Decentralized Authorities' competences.

Promitheas has surprisingly eliminated AEK in the Basket League semifinal series with a win in Athens in the deciding game on Friday, to make its first ever finals where it will face favorite Panathinaikos.

A moderate earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale rattled parts of western Greece on Tuesday, though there have been no reports of injuries or damage.

According to the Athens-based Geodynamic Institute, the 4.3 tremor struck at 11.58 a.m. off the coast of the port town of Kyllini, southwest of Patra.

Transport authorities in Patra will be launching the trial run of an extension to the western port city's suburban rail network (Proastiakos) to Kato Achaia.

Crew members abandoned their posts, fire emergency plans were mistakenly activated for Deck 3 instead of Deck 4 where the blaze had broken out, and a lifeboat was released into the sea before the evacuation order had been issued or any safety measures taken.

The final two of four concessions for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in the Ionian Sea are set to be signed on Tuesday by Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis, the head of Hellenic Hydrocarbon Research Management, Ioannis Basias, and the contractors. 

Education Minister Costas Gavroglou is pressing on with plans to merge technical colleges (TEIs) with universities despite protests by both teachers and students. 

The move is seen as part of plans by the government to gain popularity in the runup to elections - which are scheduled for October but expected earlier - by appointing new academic staff to the expanded institutions.