Libya

Greeks were voting Sunday in the second general election in less than two months, with the conservative party in power for the last four years a strong favorite to win with a wide majority.

Hameed Iqbal Bhatti had prospered over two decades working in Saudi Arabia, but after returning to Pakistan three years ago, he was getting desperate.

There were at least 209 Pakistani "victims" on an overloaded boat that capsized and sank in open seas off Greece last week, according to data shared by a Pakistani investigative agency with Reuters on Thursday.

Nine men charged over the worst shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea this year that killed at least 82 people were detained pending trial, the coastguard said on Wednesday, while the European Union promised more funds and actions on migration.

Nine men suspected of crewing a migrant smuggling ship that sank off Greece leaving more than 500 missing were ordered held in pretrial custody Tuesday, as new accounts emerged on the sinking and the appalling conditions on the trip from Libya towards Italy.

The number of confirmed victims from one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean rose to 81 Monday after three more bodies were found off southern Greece, as more survivors claimed that the battered trawler had been under tow by another vessel just before it sank with hundreds of people aboard.

Pakistan has reported around 300 of its citizens who died when a ship carrying illegal migrants from Libya to Europe capsized last week.

"Senate President Sadiq Sanjrani deeply mourns the tragic loss of nearly 300 Pakistanis following a boat accident off the coast of Greece," Sanjrani's office said in a tweet, as quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency on Monday.

Nine suspected people smugglers were granted on Monday 24 hours to prepare their testimony over accusations that they captained the fishing trawler that sank off the southern coast of Greece last week, killing 78 and leaving hundreds of others presumed dead.

Their attorneys asked for the brief extension to study the case file. 

Kathimerini.gr has published excerpts from the harrowing depositions of two of the survivors of the fishing trawler that sunk off southwestern Greece early Wednesday.

The same human trafficking ring responsible for Wednesday's shipwreck off Pylos in southern Greece had ferried people from Libya to Italy 18 times in two months, according to reports.

Europol's assistance has already been sought to dismantle the ring.