News archive of August 2015

New Democracy leader Evangelos Meimarakis on Monday kicked off the center-right party’s pre-election campaign from the city of Patras, saying the mainstream political formation is the one that supports unity among the Greek people.

“Others want to divide us with their rhetoric,” he told supporters at an indoor sports arena.

A major wildfire erupted near the western port city of Patras on Monday afternoon, burning forestland, scrubs and crops.

Two fire-fighters were injured during efforts to extinguish the blaze. The wildfire was reportedly brought under control in the evening.

Greece’s snap elections on Sept. 20 and an apparent slump in the ratings of previously unassailable radical leftist leader Alexis Tsipras continued to generate foreign press coverage at the beginning of the week.

The Islamic State released a video on Monday showing four hogtied Iraqi men being strung up and burned alive.

The latest in a long line of gruesome execution videos by the jihadis created yet another negative international sensation.

A Turkish court has remanded in custody two British journalists working for US-based media outlet VICE News on terror charges, in a case that has sparked fresh concern about press freedom.

Grigor Dimitrov proceeded to the second round of the 2015 US Open on Monday, defeating the Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden in three sets.

The 17th seed Bulgarian came through by a comfortable 6-4 6-2 6-4 win over Ebden in New York.

Greece’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, on Monday published a decision that maintains a fine against an Athens television station for its raunchy prime-time weather reports by a scantily clad presenter.

The original fine was levied by the board of the National Council for Radio-Television, an independent broadcast watchdog agency, known as ESR.

Bulgaria's central government budget is expected to show a surplus of BGN 601M equivalent to 0.7% of the projected 2015 GDP as of August 31, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.

The expected figure is improvement on end-August 2014, when the central government budget showed a deficit of BGN 1.28B, or 1.6% of GDP, the Finance Ministry said in a monthly budget forecast.

Bulgaria's central government budget showed a surplus of BGN 789M equivalent to 0.9% of the projected 2015 GDP at the end of July, the Finance Ministry announced on Monday.

This compared with a budget gap of BGN 1.15B, or 1.4% of GDP at the end of July 2014.

The opening to a well — part of a reputed oracle — considered as sacred by the ancient Athenians was recently uncovered during excavation work at the renowned Kerameikos archaeological site in central Athens, west of the Acropolis.