In Greece

Foreign ministers and senior officials from several Persian Gulf countries are meeting in Athens on Thursday, as Greece seeks to expand alliances to counter tension with regional rival Turkey.

The Greek Police's (ELAS) internal affairs division has launched an investigation into allegations of violence by police officers against a group of migrants held at the Pre-removal Detention Centre of Paranesti, in the northern region of Drama.

The Piraeus Court of First Instance found five people guilty on Wednesday in the criminal trial of 11 Greek nationals over the deadly fire that broke out on one of the garage decks of the Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic passenger ferry on December 28, 2014.

As supply problems continue to hamper vaccination campaigns in the European Union, health authorities in Greece have expressed intense concern over the latest epidemiological data, which show a rise in coronavirus infections in the last two days while there are increasing indications that the British variant of Covid-19 may have made inroads in northern Greece as well, after Athens and Crete.

The testimony of dozens of fire and other officers and witnesses on the ground during the deadly 2018 east Attica wildfires point to a string of oversights that appear to lie mainly with the Hellenic Fire Service.

The state should consider moving certain mountain settlements to a different location instead of investing in expensive anti-erosion works, says Efthymis Lekkas, professor of dynamic tectonic applied geology at Athens University and head of the Organization of Earthquake Planning and Protection.

It is the result of many months of effort by Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who is in regular contact with UN Secretary-General

The European Summit postponed substantive decisions that Greece expected regarding Turkey for March, opting instead for limited sanctions on Turkish individuals over Ankara's transgressions in the Eastern Mediterranean, against Cyprus in particular. 

SYRIZA leftists have accused conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of failing to defend Greece's national interests after European Union leaders on Thursday failed to produce a solid response to Turkey over its repeated provocations in recent months.

Greek health authorities announced 1,383 new cases of the coronavirus over the 24-hour period ending at 3 p.m. Saturday. They also announced 98 deaths.

Thessaloniki once again led in number of new cases (305), ahead of the Attica region and the former Larissa prefecture in central Greece (260 and 98 cases, respectively).