News archive of July 2016

Belgian police has arrested two men suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in the country, Belgian newspaper Le Soir reported on Saturday.

A good business idea is one that fills a gap in the market. For years, the three partners behind A Million Senses, a brand-new social startup that organizes package holiday deals for families with autistic children, had been keenly aware of one such gap.

A 7-year-old boy who suffered serious head injuries off the coast of the Ionian island of Zakynthos when he was hit by a speedboat, has regained consciousness, his doctors said over the weekend.

A 35-year-old is in custody on charges of starting a forest fire in Elefsina, west of Athens, on Monday.

The suspected arsonist, whose identity has not been made public, is also accused of starting several fires in the areas of Elefsina and Aspropyrgos over the past year.

A man snorkeling in Kalamata, in the southern Peloponnese, discovered an automatic revolver on the seabed and delivered it to the authorities, local reports said over the weekend.

Reports said the man found the gun at a depth of 3 meters, some 200 meters off the coast, and that he handed it over to the town's coast guard.

Police said they have seized 149 cannabis plants during an operation on the northeastern Aegean island of Samothraki.

Authorities, acting on a tip-off, on Friday discovered two separate farms growing the illegal crop in the area of Varades.

The plants, reaching up to 3 meters in height, were uprooted by officials. There were no reports of arrests.

Two men, a Bulgarian and an Indian national, both aged 30, have been arrested on charges of smuggling 1.5 kilos of contraband tobacco, in Hania on the island of Crete.

The illegal tobacco was separated for sale into 30 packages of tobacco which, according to the authorities, did not feature the tax markings for Greece.

The tobacco was confiscated by police.

A surfer was pulled unconscious from the water off Aghios Ioannis beach on the Ionian island of Lefkada, on Saturday.

The man, identified as a 73-year-old Italian, was taken to a local hospital by an ambulance but doctors were unable to revive him.

A coroner was expected to determine the exact cause of death.

A municipal urban planning official and a civil engineer were arrested in Attica over the weekend on bribery charges, police said.

The arrests were made following a complaint lodged by a 47-year-old business owner with the police.

More than 13,000 migrants have lodged applications for asylum in Greece since the beginning of this year, according to government figures, but it could take months for the requests to be processed even as the Aegean islands are seeing hundreds of new arrivals every week.