Athens-Macedonia

Special forces from Greece, Cyprus and the United States are holding a joint exercise in the sea area off the naval base at Souda Bay on the southern Greek island of Crete, state-run Athens-Macedonia news agency (ANA-MPA) reports.

According to the same report, the trilateral drill is designed to enhance cooperation and interoperability between the forces.

American sanctions on Turkey's top defense procurement and development body Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) for purchasing Russian defense systems will not affect "current, valid, non-exhausted licenses and authorizations," the US State Department has said.

Greece's Defense Council was on Tuesday meeting under Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos amid an escalation of tensions with Turkey, state-run Athens-Macedonia news agency said, quoting ministry sources.

The meeting was attended by deputy National Defense Minister Alkiviadis Stefanis and the country's top military brass.

Dozens of foreign tourists are in quarantine at a campsite in Drepano, in the northern Greek prefecture of Thesprotia, as part of measures to ward against the spread of the coronavirus.  

The campsite hosts 41 tourists from different countries in Europe who started a tour of Greece in December in their caravans and now find themselves stranded in Epirus amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Police were on the streets of Thessaloniki from early Monday morning, checking whether citizens were complying with the rules of a lockdown announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday night. 

Greece will pay Lockheed Martin Corporation $279 million to upgrade the country's fleet of F-16 fighter jets, state-run Athens-Macedonia news agency reported Friday.

Thessaloniki Police are investigating an attack by unidentified assailants on an Iranian middle school pupil in the suburb of Neapoli, reports said on Wednesday. 

The auction of a primary residence belonging to a family affected by the 2018 deadly wildfire in Mati in eastern Attica, which on Wednesday sparked clashes between riot police and communist unionists, has been suspended following an intervention by Development and Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis, state-run Athens-Macedonia news agency (ANA-MPA) reports.

Police launched a series of raids on squats that have been occupied by anarchists in the downtown Athens neighborhood of Exarchia in the early hours of Monday morning.

The four buildings targeted by police on Monday had been under occupation for a long time, according to the Athens-Macedonia news agency which said that the buildings are on Harilaou Trikoupi and Kallidromiou streets. 

A 42-year-old man was in police custody on Friday after allegedly shooting a neighbor, a man also aged 42, and the latter's 67-year-old mother in the small town of Chrysoupoli near Kavala in northern Greece following a dispute over a parking spot.