North Aegean

The Museum of Natural History of the Petrified Forest of Lesvos has announced the discovery this week of a large and intact fossilized tree complete with its branches and roots during excavations carried out along the Kalloni-Sigri road on the eastern Aegean island.

The body of one of the two women that went missing after a dinghy carrying migrants boat sank off the northeastern coast of the island of Lesvos on Wednesday morning was recovered later in the day. 

A search and rescue operation by the Hellenic Coast Guard and the European Union border agency Frontex was ongoing in the area late on Wednesday to locate the other woman.

Two Turkish nationals, 33 and 35, that were arrested on November 17 on the island of Lesvos say they are members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

They were nabbed on charges of facilitating the illegal entry into Greece via Lesvos of two compatriots. They face felony charges and have been placed in pre-trial detention.

Turkey on Tuesday issued three navigational telexes (Navtex) covering large swathes of the Aegean Sea, saying it is in response to Greece's militarization of the eastern Aegean islands of Chios, Samos, Samothrace, Lemnos, Ikaria and Patmos.

Sixteen refugees and migrants who had been left in an old bus on the port of Mytilene, Lesvos, since May 22 as a quarantine measure to protect against the spread of the coronavirus were transported on Monday to a separated section of the Kara Tepe camp.

On this International Women's Day I'm thinking about the thousands of women at Moria who struggle every day against the odds to stay healthy, feed their children, keep their dignity and survive to see a better day.

More than 2,000 refugees and migrants, holding their belongings, gathered at the main port of the island of Lesvos on Tuesday afternoon, following a rumor that a passenger ferry would transport them to the mainland.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday chaired a meeting between government officials and local authority officials from the eastern and northern Aegean in a bid to break a deadlock over the construction of new migrant detention centers on five islands.

After extensive clashes between officers and islanders that left 62 people injured on the eastern Aegean islands of Lesvos and Chios, the government announced on Wednesday that it is withdrawing most of the riot police units that were stationed there to counter fierce reaction to the creation of new, closed migrant camps.

Protesters on the Aegean islands of Lesvos and Chios were showing no sign of backing down in their resistance to government plans to build new migrants camps on Tuesday morning, following overnight clashes with riot police.