Rafina

The owner of a ferry company has been on hunger strike this week, waiting outside Shipping Minister Panayiotis Kouroublis's office for a license to serve a route linking the Attica port of Rafina with Crete.

An operation was under way on Thursday morning to tow the Panagia Agiasou passenger ferry back to safety after it broke away from its moorings at Piraeus Port in gale-force winds overnight.

Winds were still strong in the areas, hampering the operation, though meteorologists have said that conditions will ease later in the day.

A cluster of small tremors, with the biggest measuring just 2.7 on the Richer scale, was recorded in eastern Attica on Tuesday morning, though seismologists appear confident this is not a precursor to a bigger event.

Strong winds and showers, as well as heavy snowfall at higher altitudes hampered the movements of thousands of holidaymakers in many parts of the country ahead of Christmas on Saturday.

Restrictions will start coming into effect Friday and Saturday on several key roads ahead of the Athens Marathon on Sunday when much of the city center will be closed to traffic.

The Athens Riviera represents about 80 percent of demand for property purchases in the broader area of the Greek capital. Coastal locations stretching from the city's seaside southern suburbs all the way to Sounio are attracting most of the interest, while buyers are also focusing on Artemida (Loutsa) and Rafina, according to data provided by online real estate platform Spitogatos.

Ferry boats will be sailing from the port of Rafina, east of Athens, to the Greek islands as usual on Tuesday through Thursday after workers called off a planned three-day strike.

Workers of the PENEN union had complained last week that certain ferry companies using the port were violating employees' rights by making them work longer hours without overtime pay.

Some 30 refugee children staying at an accommodation center in Rafina, outside Athens, attended their first day of school Monday.

The children were welcomed at the 1st Primary School of Rafina by the town mayor and the deputy regional governor of Attica.

Refugee children have been starting to go to classes at schools across the country since October.

The municipalities of Rafina – Pikermi, Markopoulo-Spata and Artemida appealed to the Council of State asking for Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos run by German Hochtief to pay retroactively from 2008 municipal fees and taxes.

A journalist for the British-based ITV network caused a minor furor this week with his Tweets relating how he jumped into the harbor of Rafina, east of Athens, to save an elderly man whose car plunged off the quayside.

Tom Bradby also claimed that the man committed suicide, while at the same time railing at what he described as inaction by coast staff at the port.