Greece

The leaders of Greece’s two pro-business parties, Theodoros Skylakakis (photo) of Drasi and Thanos Tzimeros of Recreate Greece, wrote to the broadcasting watchdog on Wednesday to complain that they are being “almost totally ignored” by TV news programs despite the fact the parties won 1.6 percent of the vote in the June 2012 elections, when they ran on a joint ticket.

 Politicians round on To Potami backer Nikos Dimou for comment on Easter tradition

Writer Nikos Dimou came in for criticism Wednesday for suggesting that the Holy Fire brought back from Jerusalem each Easter Saturday is not the result of a miracle and that Greece should not spend money on a jet to bring it to Athens.

A new study by the environmental protection group Greenpeace has shown that the pollen collected by European bees contains up to 17 different pesticides, with checks on 10 pollen samples from beehives in Greece revealing seven of the chemicals.

Greece’s new five-year bond returned on Wednesday to the yield at which it was sold last week, after a turbulent few days of trading.

The bond issue – which was Greece’s first in four years and came just two years after the country defaulted – was issued at a yield of 4.95 percent last Thursday.

Leftist opposition SYRIZA on Wednesday announced another six of its candidates for next month’s European Parliament elections, following a stormy session of the party’s political secretariat, leaving the final two of its 42 hopefuls to be finalized in the coming days.

By Stathis Kousounis

The Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) has set its target for this year’s tourist arrivals from abroad at 18.5-19 million and revenues at 13 billion euros, as bookings from foreign markets continue to show a strong rise.

By Stathis Kousounis

Two major European corporate award ceremonies will take place in Athens for the first time in the coming months. They are the European Business Awards, which recognize the continent’s most innovative enterprises, and the World Travel Awards for Europe, known as “the Oscars of the travel industry.”

By George Georgakopoulos

The Hellenic National Meteorological Service (www.hnms.gr) on Wednesday issued a warning of a shift in warm weather starting in the northwest of the country with rain, thunderstorms as well as snow in mountainous areas.

Large parts of the town of Ioannina, in northwest Greece, were left without electricity on Wednesday morning after snowfall in mountainous areas and heavy rains that hit the region led to disruptions in the operations of the Public Power Corporation's local network.