Urban decay

Cyprus is heading toward suspending first-residence property foreclosures up to 350,000 euros by end-October.

This intermediate solution is seen as a compromise, allowing either the government, the Central Bank of Cyprus, or both to come up with proposals that will effectively address the issue of nonperforming loans.

Police arrested one man and were searching for five more believed to be members of a criminal ring that broke into luxury houses and villas on the island of Mykonos. 

Officers detained a 34-year-old Albanian and opened a case against a 41-year-old Albanian, a 27-year-old Greek and three more unidentified individuals.  

The groundwork for the establishment of a specialized jurisdiction court in Cyprus, which will exclusively handle issues related to primary residence foreclosures, will be laid on Thursday.

A 31-year-old Iraqi man was injured during an altercation between an undisclosed number of foreign nationals at midnight on Wednesday in Antigonidis Square, in downtown Thessaloniki. 

Two Syrian nationals were arrested for possessing items such as a wooden bat but no involvement in the incident has been established. 

Greek police officers on Thursday morning arrested 10 people who took part in a sit-in inside the main building of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA) to protest a deadly train collision on Feb. 28.

The Finance Ministry of Cyprus has stressed the importance of having stable legislation regulating out-of-court auctions in tandem with an effective insolvency framework in order to achieve a reduction of bad loans.

Cyprus' Finance Ministry is considering possible actions to tackle nonperforming loans and is examining a set of measures aiming to address the issue, Finance Minister Makis Keravnos said in a statement on Friday, calling on banks and servicers to refrain from foreclosures on primary residences held by vulnerable borrowers.

Tuesday marked the end of the most recent three-month suspension of property auctions in Cyprus, imposed by a resolution of the House of Representatives in Nicosia. Starting on Wednesday, numerous foreclosure letters are expected to be sent out.

A gang suspected of burgling at least 72 homes in different parts of the Greek capital since last February has been broken up by the Greek police with the arrest of 15 suspects, the force said in an announcement on Tuesday.

According to investigators, the gang is believed to have made off with cash and valuables worth an estimated 1 million euros in the past year.

Red loan management companies are looking for ways to break out of the impasse in the execution of foreclosure auctions, after the government's refusal to resolve the issue by interpreting the existing law.