News archive of November 2016

Alpha Bank, Greece's fourth-largest lender by assets, turned profitable in the third quarter after booking lower provisions for impaired loans.

Alpha, 11 percent-owned by the country's bank rescue fund HFSF after its recapitalization late last year, reported a net profit of 41.2 million euros after a bottom line loss of 16.8 million euros in the second quarter.

When asked in a public opinion survey to describe the state of the nation, 28% of respondents answered “rage,” 25% said “frustration” and 19% replied “disgrace,” while only 14% responded that they want the current government.

A Turkish soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Turkey's southeastern Şırnak province on Nov. 30, a military official said.

The soldier was severely injured when explosives believed to have been planted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants detonated as a military vehicle passed in Uludere, a district lying on the Iraq border.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told lawmakers in her conservative bloc that she does not expect the European Union to open negotiations on new policy areas with Turkey in its talks to join the bloc, a source told Reuters. 

Ombudsman Maya Manolova has initiated a law suit against Toplofikatsiya Sofia. Manolova is appealing the refusal of the venture to provide information about the collection of payments owed by consumers via judicial procedures.

Police carried out an investigative search at the Student Selection and Placement Center's (ÖSYM) top secret unit for preparation of questions for Turkey's central higher education exams, amid accusations of cheating leveled at the movement of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

A 47-year-old homeless man wielding a screwdriver broke into a car in New Ionia, Volos without taking anything from the vehicle, then turned himself in to the Magnisias police station at 03:00 Tuesday and told the on-duty police officers to arrest him.

A string of miscommunications, intelligence shortcomings and human errors resulted in a U.S.-led coalition air strike in Syria in September that reportedly killed around 90 regime forces, the Pentagon said Nov. 29, AFP reported.

A deal reunifying the ethnically divided Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus can be reached if both sides demonstrate more "flexibility and creativity," Britain's foreign secretary said Wednesday.

With complex peace talks between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots deadlocked, Boris Johnson said Britain stands ready to help.

A plot to kidnap and assassinate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the night of the July 15 coup attempt was planned a week before the failed bid, at a meeting in a mansion in Ankara, a prosecutors' indictment into 47 putschist soldiers has alleged.