Greece

19 July 2019; DW: Greek police have arrested 15 people suspected of facilitating migrant smuggling on two Greek islands. There are reports they charged up to €6,000 to make false travel documents.

State officials said on Thursday they detained people allegedly forming part of the two groups on the islands of Samos and Kos.

Six individuals, who are reported to include a security official working at Kos airport, were taken into custody this week.

ATHENS, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The 300 deputies of the 18th session of the Greek Parliament, elected from the July 7 general elections, was sworn in on Wednesday.

New Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wished "strength to all" during the ceremony broadcast on national television ERT.

11 July 2019; DW: More than 200,000 years old, skull fragments found in Greece show Homo sapiens reached Europe from Africa much earlier than previously known. The findings may upend theories about migration from the cradle of humankind.

Researchers at the University of Tübingen and the University of Athens on Wednesday said they identified the earliest modern human remains found outside Africa.

11 July 2019; DW: At least six people have been killed and dozens more have been injured after tornadoes and violent hailstorms hit the Halkidiki peninsula. The victims, including two children, were tourists visiting Greece.

At least six people died and many more were injured in storms that hit northern Greece, state broadcaster ERT reported early on Thursday.

Tourists from the Czech Republic, Romania and Russia were among those who died in the storms. Two of the victims were children.

9 July 2019; AFP: Greece's new conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in Monday after a sweeping election victory put him in charge of the EU's most indebted member with promises to end a decade of economic crisis.

"The Greek people gave us a strong mandate to change Greece. We will honour it to the full," the 51-year-old Harvard graduate and former McKinsey consultant said after taking his oath of office in a televised ceremony, his wife and three children close by.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s bailout creditors on Monday bluntly rejected calls from the country’s new conservative government to ease draconian budget conditions agreed as part of its rescue program.

Conservative party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as Greece’s new prime minister Monday, a day after his resounding election victory on campaign pledges to cut taxes and negotiate new terms with international lenders.

Euro area finance ministers meeting hours later in Brussels said key targets already agreed with Athens would not be changed.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis comfortably won Greece’s parliamentary elections Sunday, delivering a stinging blow to leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after a tumultuous four years in office as the country struggled through a crippling financial crisis.

With more than 90% of votes counted, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party had 39.8% of the votes, compared to 31.5% for Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party.

LAVRIO, Greece (AP) — On an exhaustive tour of Greece’s blue collar towns and city suburbs, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has a spring in his step. It’s no wonder - he’s the overwhelming favorite to become the country’s next prime minister as the unlikely heir of a powerful political family.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for an early national election following the defeat of his party at the European Parliament elections.

Tsipras said from the Syriza party offices that “the result does not rise to our expectations ... I will not ignore it or quit.”

ATHENS, May 11 (Xinhua): Dialogue between different civilizations is important for world peace, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos has said.

"Global peace depends on the dialogue between civilizations," Pavlopoulos told Xinhua ahead of his state visit to China on May 12-16, during which he will also attend the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations (CDAC) in Beijing.

The president said that his country sees the CDAC as the best opportunity to underline how great the value of dialogue between civilizations is.