Greece

In a move that essentially serves to underline Turkish claims in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara has issued three navigational telexes (navtexes 1291/18, 1298/18 and 1299/18) reserving a sea area for naval exercises and seismic surveys by its research vessel Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa.

Officers from the police's anti-narcotics squad in Kavala, northern Greece, netted a large haul of ecstasy tablets and hashish in a crackdown earlier this week.

Two Greek men, aged 47 and 33, face charges of smuggling and dealing in narcotics while officers are seeking a third suspect, a 33-year-old foreign national.

Three nongovernmental organizations issued a report yesterday decrying what they described as the "continuous and uninterrupted" practice of forced deportations of third-country nationals who enter Greece via its land border with Turkey.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday expressed his condolences to the families of the victims of a deadly gun attack on a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, which left two people dead and six injured.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has called on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to shed any irredentist ambitions.

During a visit to a military outpost near the Greek-FYROM border on Wednesday, Kammenos said that Greece wanted to maintain peaceful ties with its Balkan neighbor.

The same people who have shouldered the fiscal adjustment of recent years continue to pay the lion's share of taxes, with 90 percent of income tax paid by just 19 percent of the population, an event organized by the Economic Chamber of Greece (OEE) on the 2019 budget heard on Tuesday.

The EU executive has authorized Greece to extend a concession granted to operate Athens International Airport (AIA) by 20 years for 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion), it said on Wednesday.

The majority of foreign investors continue to have considerable reservations about Greece, despite its emergence from the bailout programs more than 100 days ago.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos has extended his condolences to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron over the death of innocent civilians in late Tuesday's shooting at a Christmas market in Strasbourg.

The message was passed through the secretary general of the Greek presidency, ambassador Georgios Gennimatas.

Less than a fifth of Greek taxpayers cover 90 percent of the income tax the Greek state receives every year, while just a few enterprises pay the bulk of corporate tax, an economists' conference on the Greek budget for 2019 heard on Tuesday in Athens.