News archive of July 2019

Protest rallies are already in the works against the new legislation being introduced by the recently elected center-right government to abolish a ban on law enforcement authorities from entering university and technical college campuses.

The improvement of Greece's financial indicators to levels not seen since before the financial crisis appears to be leading to the fulfillment of the high expectations cultivated by Kyriakos Mitsotakis' New Democracy party before it rose to power.
The reason for this is his administration's positive outlook as regards investments and entrepreneurship.

The licensing by Cyprus of Block 7 in its exclusive economic zone to a consortium made up of France's Total and Italy's Eni to prospect for hydrocarbons is seen as part of Nicosia's effort to shore up its sovereign rights in light of Turkey's illegal activities off its coast.

Sweltering conditions in much of the country are to intensify on Thursday with temperatures forecast to reach 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) in both Athens and Thessaloniki. Temperatures will dip gradually from Friday, reaching 36C in Athens and 35C in Thessaloniki, and falling to the low 30s next week. [InTime News]

Canadian-born Dutchman John Van 't Schip is the new manager of the Greek national team, the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) announced on Wednesday.

The former assistant to Marco van Basten at the bench of The Netherlands from 2004 to 2008 has signed a two-and-a-half year contract that will see him coach Greece through the end of the 2022 World Cup qualifying.

The Special Prosecutor's Office in Montenegro says it suspects British-Israeli politican consultant Aron Shaviv of helping the alleged coup attempt in October 2016, and of creating a criminal organization.

State Prosecutor Sasa Cadenovic said Shaviv was involved in the alleged coup along with former CIA agent Joseph Assad and eight other foreign citizens.

The Greek bourse benchmark has almost reached the psychologically important 900-point mark, ending July with monthly gains of 3.62 percent.
The Athens Exchange (ATHEX) general index ended at 899.93 points on Wednesday, adding 1.14 percent to Tuesday's 889.81 points.

Greek oil and gas group Energean was awarded four new Israeli offshore licenses in Israel's exclusive economic zone, the company said on Wednesday.
"Energean has identified a prospect within Zone D analogous to the prolific Tamar Sand fields (Karish, Tamar, Leviathan etc) offshore Israel," Energean said, referring to existing discoveries.

The Labor Ministry is about to introduce a ceiling on the monthly amount of pensions, to apply retroactively, in order to plug the loophole in the Katrougalos law that allowed for some very large pensions, which in certain cases exceeded 20,000 euros a month.

The Greek Ombudsman's first-ever report on people with disabilities is a scathing condemnation of the country's failure to ensure that their fundamental rights are being upheld.