Greek Police are examining the remnants of a bomb which detonated on Saturday in a sentry-box near the Athens Evelpidon court complex after learning about it from an online claim of responsibility by new guerrilla group.

The explosion, which does not appear to have caused any injuries, was claimed by an as yet unknown group calling itself Circle of Asymmetric Urban Warfare-Informal Anarchist Federation-International Revolutionary Front/FAI-FAR.

In the claim on an anarchist website, the group said it had placed a homemade bomb, comprising half a kilo of gunpowder and a timer behind the court complex last Saturday.

It said it knew the device had gone off but had been unaware of its impact "as our act was silenced by the status quo."

The group said the act was an act of solidarity with several jailed anarchists, including Constantinos Giagtzoglou, a 29-year-old being detained for sending a letter bomb to former prime minister Lucas Papademos last year, and in protest at a police crackdown on anarchist squats in Athens, Thessaloniki and Volos.</s>Self-styled anarchist group Rouvikonas (Rubicon in Greek) threw flyers and shouted slogans in favor of the Palestinians outside the house of Israeli Ambassador Irit Ben-Abba in the northern suburb of Psyhiko on Thursday evening.

 

 “As we have said in the past, the Palestinian issue is a multifaceted problem that some times intensifies and others it subsides. However, for us, the continuous support for such a respectable and dignified struggle is our primary concern. That is why we decided today to come to the home of Israel's Ambassador to Greece,” the group said in a statement posted on the indymedia website.

 

 “Rouvikonas believes that the Palestinian struggle does not lose its symbolic meaning it has had for decades,” it added.

 

 The group is responsible for dozens of acts of vandalism against perceived targets, such as state offices, financial agencies, embassies, media and other businesses.</s>Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde (back C) attend an euro zone finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, July 12, 2015 | REUTERS

ATHENS: Talks between Greece and its European creditors on a third bailout worth Euro 86 billion have been delayed owing to logistical problems.

The BBC quoted Greek and European Commission officials, as saying that talks would be held in the coming days.

Separately, Greece has formally submitted a request for a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In a letter to IMF chief Christine Lagarde dated July 23, but released to the public on Friday, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos wrote that Athens was "seeking a new loan".

Greece had initially planned not to ask the IMF for more funds, reports say.

Greek MPs have approved tough new conditions set by the EU lenders for talks on the bailout.

It is unclear when IMF officials will be joining the negotiations.

The Washington-based IMF wants Greece's debt burden to be reduced to a level it considers "sustainable", but it faces resistance from reluctant European partners.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has so far survived a challenge from party MPs on the issue of the austerity measures that he has introduced to get the Greek economy back on track.</s>ATHENS, Greece >> Greece is fast becoming the “warehouse of human beings” that its government has vowed not to allow.

Hastily setup camps for refugees and other migrants are full. Thousands of people wait through the night, shivering in the cold at the Greek-Macedonian border, in the country’s main port of Piraeus, in squares dotted around Athens, or on dozens of buses parked up and down Greece’s main north-south highway.

On Thursday, hundreds of frustrated men, women and children abandoned their stranded buses or left refugee camps, setting off on a desperate trek dozens of kilometers (miles) long to reach a border they know is quickly shutting down to them.

About 20,000 migrants were in Greece on Thursday, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said. Of those, Macedonia allowed just 100 people to cross over from Greece’s Idomeni border area.

By late Friday, not a single migrant had crossed into Macedonia that day, while 4,900 people waited nearby in heavy rain, according to Greek police.

Thousands more were heading north — about 40 busloads of people were waiting along Greece’s main highway, while refugee camps in northern Greece and near Athens were full.

Greece is mired in a full-blown diplomatic dispute with some EU countries over their border slowdowns and closures. Those border moves have left Greece and the migrants caught between an increasingly fractious Europe, where several countries are reluctant to accept more asylum-seekers, and Turkey, which has appeared unwilling or unable to staunch the torrent of people leaving in barely seaworthy smuggling boats for Greek islands.

Adding to the pressure is Greece’s financial predicament. The country has been wracked by a financial crisis since 2010 and still depends on an international bailout for which it must pass yet more painful reforms. Those have led to widespread protests, including blockades on the country’s highways by farmers who are furious at pension changes.

The vast majority of those reaching Greece, Europe’s main gateway for migrants, have been Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis fleeing war at home

“My only hope is to live in a safe place. That’s enough for me actually,” said 17-year-old Minhaj Ud Din Wahaj from Afghanistan’s Wardak province. “We have been in war since 40 years, so I have been raised in war.”

In Athens, hundreds of migrants mill around central Victoria Square, uncertain of where to go next. On Thursday, two men hanged themselves from a tree in the square but were rescued by bystanders. Police said the men were trying to draw attention to their predicament.

In the north, nearly 400 people scrambled out of a former military base set up as a refugee camp in Diavata, near the city of Thessaloniki, and began walking the 70 kilometers (43 miles) to Idomeni on the Macedonian border. Dozens more set off on foot from buses stuck on the highway, where farmers’ blockades were hindering traffic.

Still more people flowed into the country, with dinghies full of migrants arriving on Greece’s islands and hundreds more people piling on ferries heading to the main port of Piraeus.

“We are escaping from war,” said Rana, an English teacher from Syria arriving in Piraeus. She would not give her last name to protect those she left behind. “Our house is destroyed, and salaries in some places stopped. … I think all the people … seek the shelter and education for their kids.”

But Europe appears increasingly unwilling to provide those basics.

On the weekend of Feb. 20-21, Macedonia stopped allowing Afghans through. Other countries further up the line appeared to do the same. On Thursday, even Syrians and Iraqis were being allowed to cross over from Greece only at a trickle. Nadica V’ckova, a spokeswoman for Macedonia’s crisis management department, told The Associated Press that Macedonia was restricting the entry of refugees to match the number leaving the country.

Bitter sniping has ensued between Greece and other EU members as Greece insists the EU’s 28 nations share the refugee burden equally.

“Greece, from now on, will not assent to agreements if the proportionate distribution of the burden and responsibility among all member states is not rendered obligatory,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told Parliament on Wednesday.

“We will not accept the transformation of our country to a permanent warehouse for human beings, while at the same time we continue to operate in Europe and at summit meetings as if nothing is happening,” he declared. “We will not put up with a series of countries that not only erect fences on their borders but at the same time do not accept to put up a single refugee.”

Athens was enraged when Austria held a meeting of Balkan countries Wednesday on the refugee crisis, excluding Greece. It recalled its ambassador in Vienna the next day.

Greece’s minister responsible for migration, Ioannis Mouzalas, had harsh words as he arrived for a Thursday migration meeting in Brussels.

“(Many here) will try to discuss how to respond to a humanitarian crisis in Greece that they themselves are intent on creating,” Mouzalas said. “Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece, too, can take unilateral action.”

Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, didn’t mince his words in response.

“Blackmailing is not a European attitude,” he said. “Maybe Greece, too, should observe our common rules, or at least accept help to observe them together. Then we do not have to face such challenges.”

While the politicians wrangle, the refugees still stream in, risking their lives across the winter seas in the hopes of a better future.

“If the border closes over there, there will be possibilities, but it may cost a lot of money, not only for me, for everybody,” said Jamshid Azizi, a 24-year-old Afghan who once worked as an interpreter for international forces in his homeland.

Many of his friends were already talking to smugglers, but not him.

“I prefer to stay here, because I don’t have that amount of money to pay for human traffickers in order to pass the borders,” he said.

Raphael Kominis and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Costas Kantouris in Idomeni and Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, Macedonia, contributed.</s>(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris). Protesters shouts slogans and hold a banner which reads "Solidarity is our weapon" outside a notary-public's office in Athens on Wednesday, March. 28, 2018. A few dozen people took part in the protest, as Greek police gu...

(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris). Protesters shout slogans as others on the top off a police vehicle hold a banner that reads in Greek: "No homes in the hands of bankers," outside a notary-public's office in Athens on Wednesday, March. 28, 2018. A few do...

(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris). Panagiotis Lafazanis, former Greek energy minister stands on a ladder as a police vehicle blocks the entrance outside a notary-public's office in Athens on Wednesday, March. 28, 2018. A few dozen people took part in the ...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece's largest commerce and legal associations have urged the government to urgently reform laws protecting distressed mortgage holders, warning that tens of thousands of struggling families could lose their homes this year.

In a joint proposal Wednesday, they recommended that the government give mortgage holders the right to match the auction price of their foreclosed property before the sale is approved.

Greece's bailout creditors are pressing the country to speed up property auctions and ease pressure on banks as the rate of non-performing loans nears 50 percent. Starting in May, property auctions will also be launched to recover tax arrears.

In central Athens, demonstrators staged weekly anti-auction protests, led by a former government minister who used a ladder to climb up a riot police bus used as a cordon.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece's largest commerce and legal associations have urged the government to urgently reform laws protecting distressed mortgage holders, warning that tens of thousands of struggling families could lose their homes this year.

In a joint proposal Wednesday, they recommended that the government give mortgage holders the right to match the auction price of their foreclosed property before the sale is approved.

Greece's bailout creditors are pressing the country to speed up property auctions and ease pressure on banks as the rate of non-performing loans nears 50 percent. Starting in May, property auctions will also be launched to recover tax arrears.

Panagiotis Lafazanis, former Greek energy minister stands on a ladder as a police vehicle blocks the entrance outside a notary-public's office in Athens on Wednesday, March. 28, 2018. A few dozen people took part in the protest, as Greek police guard the building. Protesters were opposing the auction of foreclosed properties, a key demand of Greece's bailout creditors. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

In central Athens, demonstrators staged weekly anti-auction protests, led by a former government minister who used a ladder to climb up a riot police bus used as a cordon.

Protesters shout slogans as others on the top off a police vehicle hold a banner that reads in Greek: "No homes in the hands of bankers," outside a notary-public's office in Athens on Wednesday, March. 28, 2018. A few dozen people took part in the protest, as Greek police guard the building. Protesters were opposing the auction of foreclosed properties, a key demand of Greece's bailout creditors. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Protesters shouts slogans and hold a banner which reads "Solidarity is our weapon" outside a notary-public's office in Athens on Wednesday, March. 28, 2018. A few dozen people took part in the protest, as Greek police guard the building. Protesters were opposing the auction of foreclosed properties, a key demand of Greece's bailout creditors. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)</s>Baku. 8 March. REPORT.AZ/ Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice president responsible for Energy Union, is scheduled to travel to Greece this Thursday on an official visit whose agenda will include a tour of the gas grid operator DESFA’s facilities in Elefsina, west of Athens, Report informs referring to the Greece media.

Sefcovic’s schedule also includes a meeting with energy minister Panos Skourletis, the administrations of DESFA and RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, while he will also participate at a meeting organized by SEV, the Hellenic Association of Industrialists, and EVIKEN, the Association of Industrial Energy Consumers.

His visit to Greece is part of a tour of European capitals intended to promote Energy Union. Most recently, Sefcovic visited Cyprus and Bulgaria.</s>Jamiroquai, Thievery Corporation, London Grammar, UB40, Rag’n’Bone Man and Parov Stelar are among the headliners on the bill for this year’s Release Athens, one of the main events on Greece’s music festival calendar. The three-day event will be taking place at Plateia Nerou, a prime location right on the seafront in Faliro, southern Athens, on May 31, June 1 and 17. Tickets are available at releaseathens.gr and viva.gr. For ticket prices and the full lineup, visit releaseathens.gr.

 

 

 Plateia Nerou, Neo Faliro</s>ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Swaths of Greece have been shrouded in haze as persistent southerly winds have carried waves of dust from the African continent across the Mediterranean.

The dust cloud has reduced visibility in large parts of Greece, including in the capital Athens, and health authorities have urged those with breathing problems, the very young and the elderly to limit their time outdoors. The southern island of Crete was particularly badly affected, with some parts reporting dust in the air 10 times normal levels.

Schools in some parts of Crete remained closed Monday due to the dust, although conditions on the island were reported to have improved compared with the previous week.

Meteorologists said conditions are expected to improve from Monday evening in the capital and from Wednesday in southern Greece and Crete.</s>ATHENS: The Greek government said Tuesday it had submitted proposals to Macedonia aimed at resolving the long-running row over the name of its neighbour.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias will go to Skopje on Thursday to discuss how to end a saga which has festered since Macedonia's independence in the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991 and hindered its ambitions of EU and NATO membership.

Kotzias will meet his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov prior to a meeting on March 30 in Vienna with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz.

Under Greece's plan, the ex-Yugoslav republic will have a composite name, following earlier proposals by Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Athens has long argued that calling the country simply Macedonia implies Skopje has claims to the territory and heritage of Greece's historic northern region of the same name.

In light of the Greek objections, the country joined the UN in 1993 as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said Athens hoped to see a sole name agreed for universal use.

He stressed that would require "a constitutional amendment by the neighbouring state".

The Macedonian government however currently lacks sufficient parliamentary support for such a move to pass.

"Athens is waiting for comments and observations from the other party," Tzanakopoulos said.
An anarchist group claims responsibility for a bombing outside a courthouse in Athens, Greece, on March 24.