Andreas Lykourentzos

The damage that viticulture has suffered from the recent heatwave is great, according to the president of the organization of grape-growers of Crete, Priamos Ieronymakis.

The Novartis affair, which was once described by the government as the biggest scandal since the establishment of the Greek state, appears to be fizzling out as the judiciary closed the investigation due to lack of evidence for four politicians and sent only the case of former health minister Andreas Loverdos (Pasok) to parliament with a request that his parliamentary immunity be lifted so that

Andreas Lykourentzos, a former health minister who was named in a prosecutor's report as one of 10 politicians who had allegedly received kickbacks from Swiss pharma giant Novartis, has written to Parliament Speaker Nikos Voutsis asking for the creation of a special committee to examine the charges against him.

The Greek Parliament will decide on Friday whether or not to request the prosecution of 10 prominent politicians named in a bribery scandal involving the Swiss drugs manufacturer Novartis, in the final phase of a parliamentary inquiry into the case.

Former health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday said that he will not respond to a summons to appear before a special parliamentary committee investigating allegations that several high-ranking former officials took bribes from drugs firm Novartis.

The vice president of New Democracy, Adonis Georgiadis, said on Monday that he "welcomed" an investigation into corruption at the Henry Dunant Hospital in Athens.