Activism

A series of arson attacks disrupted high-speed trains in France just hours before the opening of the Summer Olympics in Paris.

After fears of sabotage and sabotage attacks, experts issue warnings to voters - What the European Monitoring Centre for Misinformation has identified for Greece

Criticism from human rights watchdogs mounted on Friday over the alleged brutality of French police in handling protests opposed to President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform.

French authorities arrested more than 450 people on Thursday in the most violent day of demonstrations since the start of the year against the bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Protesters hold placards during a protest outside the French embassy in solidarity with French workers protesting pension system changes, in Athens, Thursday. [Reuters]

Greece is blocked by a 24-hour general strike. The transport is not moving. Government offices are closed. Large-scale protest demonstrations are being prepared throughout the country.

A small concrete box marked with the word SHIZO (punishment cell in Russian) in giant red letters sits incongruously next to a 13th-century church just behind the Louvre museum in Paris.

The grey box is a mock-up of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's punishment prison cell that his team unveiled in the French capital on March 14.

The country's railways will gradually return to service on March 22, three weeks after the deadly Tempe disaster, the minister with responsibility for transport announced on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Athens and cities across Greece on Wednesday to protest the deaths of 57 people in the country's worst train disaster , which exposed significant rail safety deficiencies.

Minister of Citizens' Protection Takis Theodorikakos has ordered the immediate investigation into reports of police violence during a rally and protest march in Athens on Sunday over the deadly train accident at Tempe in central Greece last week. 

Performing artists and art students ‒ some banging drums, playing trumpets and dressed in clown outfits ‒ gathered outside Parliament Thursday during a strike that closed theaters, halted TV shoots and disrupted art school classes.