Heraklion

With Bulgaria's Minister for Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski as chair, the telecommunications ministers of the EU Member States today confirmed their position on draft EU rules to ensure that products and services in the digital world are safe to use.

Cretan entrepreneur Theodoros Vassilakis, the founder of Aegean Airlines, died on Thursday, aged 78. He was also the man behind car rental company Autohellas-Hertz and car retailer Autotechnica Velmar.

Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are seen during their visit at the the ancient site of Knossos on the southern Greek island of Crete, on Friday. The British royals are on a three-day official visit to Greece. [EPA]

On the third and last day of an official visit to Greece, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were on Crete on Friday. 

The royal couple flew into the port of Irakleio on a private aircraft and were received by the Archbishop of Crete Irinaios, the regional governor Stavros Arnaoutakis and the Mayor of Irakleio Vasilis Lambrinos among other local officials.

Swathes of Greece are blanketed in orange haze after southerly winds swept dust from the Sahara desert in Africa to southeastern Europe.

Health authorities have urged the young, elderly and those with breathing problems to limit their time outside.

 Huge dust clouds have reduced visibility in large parts of Greece, including the capital Athens.

Three foreign nationals were arrested on Monday as they to tried fly out from the airports of Iraklio and Hania on Crete with fake travel documents.

Two men - a Syrian and an Afghan, both 25 - were nabbed at Iraklio airport for using bogus French and Pakistani documents in their bid to board a flight to Germany.

Crete has come in fifth place among the world's top destinations for 2018 in the Travelers' Choice Awards of travel website TripAdvisor, hailed for "its rich archaeological and mythological history that's reflected in its ancient ruins and cultural attractions."

Most people in Greece associate the name Candia with the Cretan wine brand. Fewer know of the 21-year Siege of Candia in the 1600s that resulted in Crete passing from Venetian control into the hands of the Ottomans or that Candia was the name of present-day Iraklio.

Archaeological sites in Attica and on the island of Crete, including the Acropolis in Athens and Knossos, will be closed to the public on Friday due to a 24-hour strike called by the Panhellenic Federation of Culture Ministry Workers.

The staff have called the action to protest planned changes to their system of payment.

Nikolaos Platon was known for never exaggerating, however wild his archaeological adventures may have seemed. Slight and modest, with a PhD from Paris, he was one of the unlikely heroes of occupied Greece in World War II, defending the country's monuments at any cost.