Greek police fired teargas to disperse crowds gathered outside parliament on Thursday to protest against a deal over the name of neighbouring Macedonia, as an at times angry parliamentary debate spilled into a third day.

Several thousand people massed outside the Greek legislature, some of them chanting "traitors" as lawmakers debated ratification of an agreement reached with the neighbouring ex-Yugoslav state last year.

The Greek parliament delayed the expected approval of the UN-brokered deal by a day due to an increased number of lawmakers who wanted to have a say over it.

The so-called Prespes Agreement between Athens and Skopje changes the tiny Balkan nation's name to Republic of North Macedonia, ending a 28-year-old row between the two countries.

"We are one step before a historic event," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, calling on lawmakers to approve the deal.

Although Tsipras appears to have secured the support of at least 151 deputies in the 300-seat house to get the deal approved, opinion polls have shown most Greeks oppose the term "Macedonia" being used in any agreement. They fear it could lead to territorial claims over Greece's largest northern province of Macedonia and an appropriation of Greek cultural heritage.

"We feel betrayed," Zografos Stathakopoulos, a 47-year-old protester, said on Thursday. "Most Greeks don't want this deal, but politicians are betraying us."

The deal could unblock Macedonia's bids to join NATO and the European Union, long blocked by Greece. The accord has already been ratified by Macedonia's parliament, but still needs Greek parliamentary endorsement.

Members of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) unfurled banners on the walls of the ancient Acropolis to protest against the deal on Thursday. The conservative New Democracy party called the deal a "national defeat."

Outside parliament, protesters chanted "Long live Macedonia, long live Greece!" referring to the Greek province of Macedonia. Police chased protesters on Syntagma Square, the same area of large, violent protests in Athens on Sunday.

They later detained dozens of them and a group of people who sprayed "Macedonia-Greek land" on a wall near the US&nbsp;ambassador's residence in Athens, a police official said.

There were also protests in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki and other cities.

Parliamentary speaker Nikos Voutsis said close to 230 MPs had wanted to have their say. Most are given six minutes to speak, a rule which has been routinely broken in the highly charged session, which opened on Wednesday.

Protesters were planning new rallies for Friday, before the vote takes place around 1230 GMT.

Greek police fired teargas to disperse crowds gathered outside parliament on Thursday to protest against a deal over the name of neighbouring Macedonia, as an at times angry parliamentary debate spilled into a third day.

Greek police fired teargas to disperse crowds gathered outside parliament on Thursday to protest against a deal over the name of neighbouring Macedonia, as an at times angry parliamentary debate spilled into a third day. Several thousand people massed outside the Greek legislature, some of them chanting "traitors" as lawmakers debated ratification of an agreement reached with the neighbouring ex-Yugoslav state last year. The Greek parliament delayed the expected approval of the UN-brokered deal by a day due to an increased number of lawmakers who wanted to have a say over it. The so-called Prespes Agreement between Athens and Skopje changes the tiny Balkan nation's name to Republic of North Macedonia, ending a 28-year-old row between the two countries. "We are one step before a historic event," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, calling on lawmakers to approve the deal. Although Tsipras appears to have secured the support of at least 151 deputies in the 300-seat house to get the deal approved, opinion polls have shown most Greeks oppose the term "Macedonia" being used in any agreement. They fear it could lead to territorial claims over Greece's largest northern province of Macedonia and an appropriation of Greek cultural heritage. "We feel betrayed," Zografos Stathakopoulos, a 47-year-old protester, said on Thursday. "Most Greeks don't want this deal, but politicians are betraying us." The deal could unblock Macedonia's bids to join NATO and the European Union, long blocked by Greece. The accord has already been ratified by Macedonia's parliament, but still needs Greek parliamentary endorsement. Members of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) unfurled banners on the walls of the ancient Acropolis to protest against the deal on Thursday. The conservative New Democracy party called the deal a "national defeat." Outside parliament, protesters chanted "Long live Macedonia, long live Greece!" referring to the Greek province of Macedonia. Police chased protesters on Syntagma Square, the same area of large, violent protests in Athens on Sunday. They later detained dozens of them and a group of people who sprayed "Macedonia-Greek land" on a wall near the US ambassador's residence in Athens, a police official said. There were also protests in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki and other cities. Parliamentary speaker Nikos Voutsis said close to 230 MPs had wanted to have their say. Most are given six minutes to speak, a rule which has been routinely broken in the highly charged session, which opened on Wednesday. Protesters were planning new rallies for Friday, before the vote takes place around 1230 GMT.

Greek police fire teargas at Macedonia name protesters

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras headed into a confidence vote Wednesday with his political future on the line after a row over a landmark name deal with Macedonia sunk his four-year coalition.

Tsipras is expected to win the vote in parliament, which will be held after midnight, but the subsequent fate of his government is less clear.

His Syriza party has 145 lawmakers in the 300-seat chamber, and he can survive even with 120 votes if enough MPs abstain.

Tsipras is expected to secure at least 151 votes thanks to the backing of a number of independent MPs.

But it's unclear whether he will be able to complete his four-year term, which ends in September.

The 44-year-old leftist leader on Tuesday insisted his government "has another nine months and very important tasks to carry out," pointing to elections in October.

Among his goals are a revision of the constitution, a minimum wage increase and the completion of a property deal with the church that was recently blocked by senior bishops.

"We do not seek (the support of) 151 lawmakers just to complete our term, but in order to carry out specific political initiatives," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told Open TV on Wednesday.

Many Greeks expect the elections could take place earlier than October and may even be called to coincide with European and local elections in May, if not sooner.

Coalition in crisis&nbsp;

Even if he survives Wednesday's vote, Tsipras faces an immediate challenge to also secure the approval of a controversial name deal with neighbouring Macedonia.

Last year's agreement with Skopje to rename the country the Republic of North Macedonia, ending a 27-year diplomatic dispute, broke up Tsipras' coalition with the nationalist ANEL party at the weekend, ending a four-year partnership.

Macedonian lawmakers last week approved a constitutional revision to rename their country, but the agreement will only come into effect if backed by the Greek parliament.

Athens has not given a date for the vote on the Macedonia deal, but Tsipras recently said it would be before the end of January.

The European Union and NATO have hailed the deal, which would lift Greek objections to Macedonia joining both organisations.

The proposal faces resistance in Greece because of what critics see as the implied claims to Greek land and cultural heritage.&nbsp;

For most Greeks, Macedonia is the name of their history-rich northern province made famous by Alexander the Great's conquests.

In many cities in northern Greece, posters were put up overnight to urge local lawmakers to vote against the deal.

"Will you betray our Macedonia?" the posters read, each bearing the name and picture of local MPs from the Syriza and ANEL parties.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras headed into a confidence vote Wednesday with his political future on the line after a row over a landmark name deal with Macedonia sunk his four-year coalition.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras headed into a confidence vote Wednesday with his political future on the line after a row over a landmark name deal with Macedonia sunk his four-year coalition. Tsipras is expected to win the vote in parliament, which will be held after midnight, but the subsequent fate of his government is less clear. His Syriza party has 145 lawmakers in the 300-seat chamber, and he can survive even with 120 votes if enough MPs abstain. Tsipras is expected to secure at least 151 votes thanks to the backing of a number of independent MPs. But it's unclear whether he will be able to complete his four-year term, which ends in September. The 44-year-old leftist leader on Tuesday insisted his government "has another nine months and very important tasks to carry out," pointing to elections in October. Among his goals are a revision of the constitution, a minimum wage increase and the completion of a property deal with the church that was recently blocked by senior bishops. "We do not seek (the support of) 151 lawmakers just to complete our term, but in order to carry out specific political initiatives," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told Open TV on Wednesday. Many Greeks expect the elections could take place earlier than October and may even be called to coincide with European and local elections in May, if not sooner. Coalition in crisis Even if he survives Wednesday's vote, Tsipras faces an immediate challenge to also secure the approval of a controversial name deal with neighbouring Macedonia. Last year's agreement with Skopje to rename the country the Republic of North Macedonia, ending a 27-year diplomatic dispute, broke up Tsipras' coalition with the nationalist ANEL party at the weekend, ending a four-year partnership. Macedonian lawmakers last week approved a constitutional revision to rename their country, but the agreement will only come into effect if backed by the Greek parliament. Athens has not given a date for the vote on the Macedonia deal, but Tsipras recently said it would be before the end of January. The European Union and NATO have hailed the deal, which would lift Greek objections to Macedonia joining both organisations. The proposal faces resistance in Greece because of what critics see as the implied claims to Greek land and cultural heritage. For most Greeks, Macedonia is the name of their history-rich northern province made famous by Alexander the Great's conquests. In many cities in northern Greece, posters were put up overnight to urge local lawmakers to vote against the deal. "Will you betray our Macedonia?" the posters read, each bearing the name and picture of local MPs from the Syriza and ANEL parties.

Greek PM Tsipras to face confidence vote after Macedonia row

Coastguards on Tuesday recovered a dead body after a boat loaded with dozens of migrants sank off western <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.wionews.com/opinions/syrian-kurds-the-new-frontline-in-confronting-iran-and-turkey-190389&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiR_LmOz-_fAhUDtY8KHehuAmAQFggFMAA&amp;client=internal-uds-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;usg=AOvVaw3PkOPnTQmmTNbLAm_t2suA">Turkey</a>, the authorities said in a statement.&nbsp;

The coastguard said it rescued 46 people after the vessel capsized off the Guzelcamli region in the Aegean province of Aydin.&nbsp;

The identity of the migrants was not immediately known.&nbsp;

Initial testimonies revealed there were no missing migrants, the Turkish coastguard said.

Turkey has been the main transition route for people trying to reach Europe, especially since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011.&nbsp;

The number of migrants coming to Europe has declined since hitting a peak in 2015 when more than a million people landed in Greece from Turkey, mainly on boats.

Turkey and the European Union reached a deal in 2016 to stem the flow, with Ankara agreeing to take back migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives including financial aid.

Coastguards on Tuesday recovered a dead body after a boat loaded with dozens of migrants sank off western Turkey, the authorities said in a statement. The coastguard said it rescued 46 people after the vessel capsized off the Guzelcamli region in the Aegean province of Aydin.

Coastguards on Tuesday recovered a dead body after a boat loaded with dozens of migrants sank off western Turkey, the authorities said in a statement. The coastguard said it rescued 46 people after the vessel capsized off the Guzelcamli region in the Aegean province of Aydin. The identity of the migrants was not immediately known. Initial testimonies revealed there were no missing migrants, the Turkish coastguard said. Turkey has been the main transition route for people trying to reach Europe, especially since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011. The number of migrants coming to Europe has declined since hitting a peak in 2015 when more than a million people landed in Greece from Turkey, mainly on boats. Turkey and the European Union reached a deal in 2016 to stem the flow, with Ankara agreeing to take back migrants landing on Greek islands in exchange for incentives including financial aid.

Migrant drowns as boat sinks off Turkey

Europe battles snowfall; weather warnings issued in many areas

The death toll from the cold front which has been battering Greece in the first days of the new year rose to three on Sunday, local authorities said.

Firemen retrieved the bodies of two men, aged 66 and 67, at the outskirts of Keratea town, 30 km southeast of Athens, according to a Fire Brigade announcement.

On Saturday, search squads also found the body of a 66-year-old woman, one of the victims' spouse.

They were all riding a car when a heavy storm hit the area on Thursday.

As the cold front named "Sophia", which was sweeping across Greece from Tuesday bringing snowfall and downpour in many parts of the country, receded on Sunday, Greece's national weather service warned that a new low-pressure weather system was due to hit the country on Monday evening.

"Telemachos", as meteorologists have named the new cold front, was forecast to bring snowfall in Athens and southern Greece, after "Sophia" caused travel disruptions in the northern and central regions of the country.

The lowest temperature of minus 19 Celsius degree was recorded on Sunday at Florina town in northern Greece.

The death toll from the cold front which has been battering Greece in the first days of the new year rose to three on Sunday, local authorities said. Firemen retrieved the bodies of two men, aged 66 and 67, at the outskirts of Keratea town, 30 km southeast of Athens, according to a Fire Brigade announcement.

The death toll from the cold front which has been battering Greece in the first days of the new year rose to three on Sunday, local authorities said. Firemen retrieved the bodies of two men, aged 66 and 67, at the outskirts of Keratea town, 30 km southeast of Athens, according to a Fire Brigade announcement. On Saturday, search squads also found the body of a 66-year-old woman, one of the victims' spouse. They were all riding a car when a heavy storm hit the area on Thursday. As the cold front named "Sophia", which was sweeping across Greece from Tuesday bringing snowfall and downpour in many parts of the country, receded on Sunday, Greece's national weather service warned that a new low-pressure weather system was due to hit the country on Monday evening. "Telemachos", as meteorologists have named the new cold front, was forecast to bring snowfall in Athens and southern Greece, after "Sophia" caused travel disruptions in the northern and central regions of the country. The lowest temperature of minus 19 Celsius degree was recorded on Sunday at Florina town in northern Greece.

Death toll from cold front in Greece rises to three

An explosive device injured a police officer and a civilian when it detonated outside a church in central Athens early on Thursday, shortly before liturgy was due to start and without warning, police and state media said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack outside the Saint Dionysios church in the heavily policed, wealthy Kolonaki quarter which borders on Exarchia, a district where clashes between police and anarchists are common.

The blast occurred around 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), just before the church was due to open to the public for a service at 07:30 (0530 GMT).

The police officer and a second person - identified by state TV as the church caretaker - were taken to hospital and police cordoned off the area. Their injuries were not life threatening, health officials said.

Witnesses cited by state television suggested the caretaker called police after finding the package. There was no warning call that the device would go off. Police were checking footage from surveillance cameras in the area.

"The blast was not powerful, the officer was injured in the face and hands," a police official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Police found remnants of a timing device at the site of the blast but it was unclear if it was remote-controlled, the police official said.

Small-scale attacks on businesses, state buildings, police and politicians are not uncommon in Greece, which has a long history of political violence.

"Why this attack at a time when people would gather at the church?" a priest at the church told reporters. "Why are they attacking the love of Christ, what are they trying to say?"

A powerful blast smashed windows and wrecked offices at Greece's SKAI TV in Athens earlier this month in what officials called an attack on democracy. No one was hurt, and no-one has claimed responsibility for that attack.

No one has so far claimed responsibility of the attack.

An explosive device injured a police officer and a civilian when it detonated outside a church in central Athens early on Thursday, shortly before liturgy was due to start and without warning, police and state media said. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack outside the Saint Dionysios church in the heavily policed, wealthy Kolonaki quarter which borders on Exarchia, a district where clashes between police and anarchists are common. The blast occurred around 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT), just before the church was due to open to the public for a service at 07:30 (0530 GMT). The police officer and a second person - identified by state TV as the church caretaker - were taken to hospital and police cordoned off the area. Their injuries were not life threatening, health officials said. Witnesses cited by state television suggested the caretaker called police after finding the package. There was no warning call that the device would go off. Police were checking footage from surveillance cameras in the area. "The blast was not powerful, the officer was injured in the face and hands," a police official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. Police found remnants of a timing device at the site of the blast but it was unclear if it was remote-controlled, the police official said. Small-scale attacks on businesses, state buildings, police and politicians are not uncommon in Greece, which has a long history of political violence. "Why this attack at a time when people would gather at the church?" a priest at the church told reporters. "Why are they attacking the love of Christ, what are they trying to say?" A powerful blast smashed windows and wrecked offices at Greece's SKAI TV in Athens earlier this month in what officials called an attack on democracy. No one was hurt, and no-one has claimed responsibility for that attack.

2 injured in explosion near church in central Athens

A bomb blast early Monday damaged a building in Athens housing the headquarters of Greece's private radio and television network Skai, but there were no casualties, police said.

Anti-terrorist police opened an investigation into the attack that focused on Greek extremist groups.

Attacks targeting broadcasting groups, public companies or embassies have been frequent in Greece in recent years, and have been blamed on anarchist or far-left groups.

The coalition government led by leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras condemned the blast as &nbsp;"an attack on democracy".

The homemade device went off at around 2:30am (0030 GMT), 45 minutes after an anonymous telephone warning to another TV network.

Police cordoned off the neighbourhood in the Athens suburb of Neo Phaliro and evacuated the building, which contains the offices of Skai, a group owned by the Alafouzos shipping family, as well as those of Kathimerini, a centre-right daily critical of the government.

Police said the bomb was placed near a fence around the building and smashed windows on the facade.

Skai said in a statement the blast caused "major damage".

"The terrorist attack will not discourage us..," it said, accusing the government of failing to do enough to protect the media despite "recurrent threats against the station."

The minister for civil protection, Olga Gerovassili, visited the site with police.

"The democracy is not threatened," she said, and warned those who "leave the way open to terrorism or fascism."

Last month a bomb was defused outside the Athens home of a controversial prosecutor. 
&nbsp;

A bomb blast early Monday damaged a building in Athens housing the headquarters of Greece's private radio and television network Skai, but there were no casualties, police said.

A bomb blast early Monday damaged a building in Athens housing the headquarters of Greece's private radio and television network Skai, but there were no casualties, police said. Anti-terrorist police opened an investigation into the attack that focused on Greek extremist groups. Attacks targeting broadcasting groups, public companies or embassies have been frequent in Greece in recent years, and have been blamed on anarchist or far-left groups. The coalition government led by leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras condemned the blast as "an attack on democracy". The homemade device went off at around 2:30am (0030 GMT), 45 minutes after an anonymous telephone warning to another TV network. Police cordoned off the neighbourhood in the Athens suburb of Neo Phaliro and evacuated the building, which contains the offices of Skai, a group owned by the Alafouzos shipping family, as well as those of Kathimerini, a centre-right daily critical of the government. Police said the bomb was placed near a fence around the building and smashed windows on the facade. Skai said in a statement the blast caused "major damage". "The terrorist attack will not discourage us..," it said, accusing the government of failing to do enough to protect the media despite "recurrent threats against the station." The minister for civil protection, Olga Gerovassili, visited the site with police. "The democracy is not threatened," she said, and warned those who "leave the way open to terrorism or fascism." Last month a bomb was defused outside the Athens home of a controversial prosecutor.

Bomb blast at Athens headquarters of media group

A strong quake with a magnitude of at least 6.4 struck off Greece early on Friday, earthquake monitors said. There were no initial reports of extensive damage or casualties.

The epicentre of the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.0, was in the Ionian Sea, some 83 miles (133.5 km) southwest of Patras in the Peloponnese.

A fire brigade official in Athens said there were no early reports of damage or casualties. Attention was focused on the island of Zakynthos, where reports indicated power was out.

Local news websites reported that a 15th century monastery in the Strofades area of the island had been damaged.&nbsp;

The tremor was felt in Greece`s capital, Athens, and as far away as Italy.&nbsp;

Italy’s Il Messaggero online news site reported that the quake had been felt hundreds of kilometres away in southern Italy. Firefighters in Sicily, Calabria and Puglia received thousands of telephone calls for information about the quake.

The quake was fairly shallow, only 10.3 miles (16.5 km) below the seabed, which would have amplified shaking.

It struck at 1:54 a.m. (2254 GMT Thursday) and was followed about half an hour later by a 5.2 aftershock.Greece straddles two tectonic plates and often gets earthquakes.&nbsp;

Greece`s Geodynamic Institute reported a tremor of 6.4, 50 kilometres south of Zakynthos. An official there confirmed a tsunami alert had been issued, which is standard for tremors over 5.5.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) put the quake at 6.8.

"It was strong, things fell of the shelves," a witness in Katastari, Greece, 36 kilometres north of the epicentre, wrote on the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) website.&nbsp;

Soon after the quake there were only 3 postings on the EMSC testimonials page, which is unusual for a quake of such magnitude.

A strong quake with a magnitude of at least 6.4 struck off Greece early on Friday, earthquake monitors said. There were no initial reports of extensive damage or casualties.

A strong quake with a magnitude of at least 6.4 struck off Greece early on Friday, earthquake monitors said. There were no initial reports of extensive damage or casualties. The epicentre of the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.0, was in the Ionian Sea, some 83 miles (133.5 km) southwest of Patras in the Peloponnese. A fire brigade official in Athens said there were no early reports of damage or casualties. Attention was focused on the island of Zakynthos, where reports indicated power was out. Local news websites reported that a 15th century monastery in the Strofades area of the island had been damaged. The tremor was felt in Greece`s capital, Athens, and as far away as Italy. Italy’s Il Messaggero online news site reported that the quake had been felt hundreds of kilometres away in southern Italy. Firefighters in Sicily, Calabria and Puglia received thousands of telephone calls for information about the quake. The quake was fairly shallow, only 10.3 miles (16.5 km) below the seabed, which would have amplified shaking. It struck at 1:54 a.m. (2254 GMT Thursday) and was followed about half an hour later by a 5.2 aftershock.Greece straddles two tectonic plates and often gets earthquakes. Greece`s Geodynamic Institute reported a tremor of 6.4, 50 kilometres south of Zakynthos. An official there confirmed a tsunami alert had been issued, which is standard for tremors over 5.5. The US Geological Survey (USGS) put the quake at 6.8. "It was strong, things fell of the shelves," a witness in Katastari, Greece, 36 kilometres north of the epicentre, wrote on the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) website. Soon after the quake there were only 3 postings on the EMSC testimonials page, which is unusual for a quake of such magnitude.

Strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Greece, no early reports of damage, injuries

A powerful quake of magnitude at least 6.8 struck off western Greece early on Friday (October 26), earthquake monitors said, causing slight damage but no casualties in a tremor felt as far away as Libya.

The tremor was felt in Athens, the Greek capital, and as far away as Albania, Italy, Libya and Malta.

The epicentre was in the Ionian Sea, about 130 km (81 miles) southwest of Patras in the Peloponnese, the USGS said.

It was felt particularly on Zakynthos, also known as Zante, which was rattled by a series of strong aftershocks, the highest at 5.6, and where power was briefly disrupted.

Three people were taken to hospital, two of them slightly injured, a spokesman for Greece's civil protection agency told Reuters.

The power cut and slight damage to the port of Zakynthos, near the epicentre would not affect port operations, officials said.

The quake was fairly shallow, according to the USGS, just 14 km (8.7 miles) below the seabed, which would have amplified shaking.

It struck at 1:54 a.m. (2254 GMT). Greece straddles two tectonic plates and often suffers earthquakes.

A powerful quake of magnitude at least 6.8 struck off western Greece early on Friday (October 26), earthquake monitors said, causing slight damage but no casualties in a tremor felt as far away as Libya.

A powerful quake of magnitude at least 6.8 struck off western Greece early on Friday (October 26), earthquake monitors said, causing slight damage but no casualties in a tremor felt as far away as Libya. The tremor was felt in Athens, the Greek capital, and as far away as Albania, Italy, Libya and Malta. The epicentre was in the Ionian Sea, about 130 km (81 miles) southwest of Patras in the Peloponnese, the USGS said. It was felt particularly on Zakynthos, also known as Zante, which was rattled by a series of strong aftershocks, the highest at 5.6, and where power was briefly disrupted. Three people were taken to hospital, two of them slightly injured, a spokesman for Greece's civil protection agency told Reuters. The power cut and slight damage to the port of Zakynthos, near the epicentre would not affect port operations, officials said. The quake was fairly shallow, according to the USGS, just 14 km (8.7 miles) below the seabed, which would have amplified shaking. It struck at 1:54 a.m. (2254 GMT). Greece straddles two tectonic plates and often suffers earthquakes.

Greece jolted by 6.8 earthquake, 3 injured

Three people were reported missing in Greece on Sunday after swirling winds and torrential rain brought flash floods in several parts of the country.

A rare type of tropical storm known as a Medicane began on Saturday and has so far mostly affected areas on the island of Evia, east of mainland Greece, and the southern Peloponnese peninsula.

State TV said that a young man and a middle-aged couple were missing in Evia. The civil protection service said that it had launched a search and rescue operation near the town of Mantoudi.

Ships were held at Greece's main ports and traffic was disrupted in many other areas across the country as roads flooded because of the heavy rain. Gale-force winds led to power cuts and falling trees across the country.

Firefighters have so far received more than 1,300 calls for assistance to help evacuate people trapped in cars and flooded homes and to remove downed trees and other debris.

TV images showed flooded streets turned into rivers in the wider area of Corinth in the Peloponnese and massive sea waves crashing into the shores of coastal towns in the region.

"The Peloponnese is holding on despite the impact and the side effects of this extreme weather phenomenon," said regional governor Petros Tatoulis, adding that homes, fields and state infrastructure had suffered damage.

Temperatures plunged unexpectedly by up to 10 degrees Celsius this week. Wind speeds topped 100 km (56 miles) per hour in several areas and were forecast to intensify.

The civil protection service warned that northern and central Greece could also be affected on Sunday and called on citizens to take self-protection measures.

Authorities were also concerned that the tropical storm could bring mudslides and floods in the wider Athens area, which was recently hit by deadly fires and flash floods.

In August blazes in the area of Mati killed at least 99 people. Last year 24 people were killed and scores were left homeless after a rain-swollen torrent swept through two coastal towns west of the capital.

Three people were reported missing in Greece on Sunday after swirling winds and torrential rain brought flash floods in several parts of the country. A rare type of tropical storm known as a Medicane began on Saturday and has so far mostly affected areas on the island of Evia, east of mainland Greece, and the southern Peloponnese peninsula.

Three people were reported missing in Greece on Sunday after swirling winds and torrential rain brought flash floods in several parts of the country. A rare type of tropical storm known as a Medicane began on Saturday and has so far mostly affected areas on the island of Evia, east of mainland Greece, and the southern Peloponnese peninsula. State TV said that a young man and a middle-aged couple were missing in Evia. The civil protection service said that it had launched a search and rescue operation near the town of Mantoudi. Ships were held at Greece's main ports and traffic was disrupted in many other areas across the country as roads flooded because of the heavy rain. Gale-force winds led to power cuts and falling trees across the country. Firefighters have so far received more than 1,300 calls for assistance to help evacuate people trapped in cars and flooded homes and to remove downed trees and other debris. TV images showed flooded streets turned into rivers in the wider area of Corinth in the Peloponnese and massive sea waves crashing into the shores of coastal towns in the region. "The Peloponnese is holding on despite the impact and the side effects of this extreme weather phenomenon," said regional governor Petros Tatoulis, adding that homes, fields and state infrastructure had suffered damage. Temperatures plunged unexpectedly by up to 10 degrees Celsius this week. Wind speeds topped 100 km (56 miles) per hour in several areas and were forecast to intensify. The civil protection service warned that northern and central Greece could also be affected on Sunday and called on citizens to take self-protection measures. Authorities were also concerned that the tropical storm could bring mudslides and floods in the wider Athens area, which was recently hit by deadly fires and flash floods. In August blazes in the area of Mati killed at least 99 people. Last year 24 people were killed and scores were left homeless after a rain-swollen torrent swept through two coastal towns west of the capital.

Three people missing as cyclone brings flash floods in Greece

Voters across the Balkan state of Macedonia will decide Sunday whether to re-name their country North Macedonia, an emotional vote that could end a bitter row with Greece and unlock a path to NATO and the EU.

It is a loaded question for many in the nation of around 2.1 million, which has tussled with Greece for 27 years over its name and history.

Athens objects to its northern neighbour's name because it has its own province called Macedonia.

It accuses Skopje of encroaching on its territory and cultural heritage.

In protest Greece has used its veto to thwart Macedonia's progress in NATO and EU accession talks.

But in June the two neighbours reached a compromise: the Republic of North Macedonia.

Now Macedonians are being called on to approve the name, despite a widespread feeling that they have been pushed around by Greece.

'Only chance'

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is selling the name-change as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the poor country to move past the row and integrate with the West.

He has the backing of a host of European and US leaders who have trotted through Skopje this month to shore up support.

"You know well that a better deal cannot be made," Zaev told a crowd this week in one of his final campaign events.

Some Macedonians say they are willing to vote "yes" in the hope that NATO and EU membership will inject life into a flat economy ravaged by emigration.

"We won't ever have a chance for a better future for Macedonia," said Bogdana Zabrcanec, a resident of the central city of Prilep who came to listen to Zaev speak this week.

But even if voters approve the name change, the deal will still need to be ratified in parliament, where a right-wing opposition threatens to block it.

Zaev is hoping a strong majority for "yes" will make it difficult for the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party to resist the public's will.

But turnout figures could prove contentious.&nbsp;

If less than half of the 1.8 million registered voters cast ballots, detractors may attack the referendum's credibility.

That turnout figure could be hard to reach in a country where a quarter of the population is estimated to have emigrated abroad.

So far, the boycott movement has been mostly limited to online activities. A planned rally on Thursday night was cancelled, with only several dozen people showing up.

The opposition's leader, Hristijan Mickoski, said this week that Macedonians should "listen to their heart" when they wake up on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, president Gjorge Ivanov, who is allied with the nationalist opposition, told the UN assembly this week that he personally would not vote, describing the deal as "historical suicide".

'Long process'

A failure to pass the referendum could crush a rare diplomatic breakthrough in the Western Balkans, a region riven by complex disagreements between neighbours.

The name deal "was a really positive story... It's been held as a sign that look, longstanding disputes can be solved," James Ker-Lindsay, a Balkans specialist at the London School of Economics.

But "this is just the next phase in what is proving to be quite a long protracted process," he added, explaining that the parliament vote will be the next hurdle.

While NATO's invite is waiting on the table, the road to EU membership is less sure.

By EU standards, Macedonia still has a lot of work to do to tackle graft and the rule of law.

And the appetite for EU enlargement is shrinking among some members of the bloc, who voted to postpone Macedonia's accession talks to next year despite the deal.

Polling stations will be open from 0500 to 1700 GMT with 500 foreign observers monitoring, according to Telma TV channel.

Voters across the Balkan state of Macedonia will decide Sunday whether to re-name their country North Macedonia, an emotional vote that could end a bitter row with Greece and unlock a path to NATO and the EU.

Voters across the Balkan state of Macedonia will decide Sunday whether to re-name their country North Macedonia, an emotional vote that could end a bitter row with Greece and unlock a path to NATO and the EU. It is a loaded question for many in the nation of around 2.1 million, which has tussled with Greece for 27 years over its name and history. Athens objects to its northern neighbour's name because it has its own province called Macedonia. It accuses Skopje of encroaching on its territory and cultural heritage. In protest Greece has used its veto to thwart Macedonia's progress in NATO and EU accession talks. But in June the two neighbours reached a compromise: the Republic of North Macedonia. Now Macedonians are being called on to approve the name, despite a widespread feeling that they have been pushed around by Greece. 'Only chance' Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is selling the name-change as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the poor country to move past the row and integrate with the West. He has the backing of a host of European and US leaders who have trotted through Skopje this month to shore up support. "You know well that a better deal cannot be made," Zaev told a crowd this week in one of his final campaign events. Some Macedonians say they are willing to vote "yes" in the hope that NATO and EU membership will inject life into a flat economy ravaged by emigration. "We won't ever have a chance for a better future for Macedonia," said Bogdana Zabrcanec, a resident of the central city of Prilep who came to listen to Zaev speak this week. But even if voters approve the name change, the deal will still need to be ratified in parliament, where a right-wing opposition threatens to block it. Zaev is hoping a strong majority for "yes" will make it difficult for the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party to resist the public's will. But turnout figures could prove contentious. If less than half of the 1.8 million registered voters cast ballots, detractors may attack the referendum's credibility. That turnout figure could be hard to reach in a country where a quarter of the population is estimated to have emigrated abroad. So far, the boycott movement has been mostly limited to online activities. A planned rally on Thursday night was cancelled, with only several dozen people showing up. The opposition's leader, Hristijan Mickoski, said this week that Macedonians should "listen to their heart" when they wake up on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, president Gjorge Ivanov, who is allied with the nationalist opposition, told the UN assembly this week that he personally would not vote, describing the deal as "historical suicide". 'Long process' A failure to pass the referendum could crush a rare diplomatic breakthrough in the Western Balkans, a region riven by complex disagreements between neighbours. The name deal "was a really positive story... It's been held as a sign that look, longstanding disputes can be solved," James Ker-Lindsay, a Balkans specialist at the London School of Economics. But "this is just the next phase in what is proving to be quite a long protracted process," he added, explaining that the parliament vote will be the next hurdle. While NATO's invite is waiting on the table, the road to EU membership is less sure. By EU standards, Macedonia still has a lot of work to do to tackle graft and the rule of law. And the appetite for EU enlargement is shrinking among some members of the bloc, who voted to postpone Macedonia's accession talks to next year despite the deal. Polling stations will be open from 0500 to 1700 GMT with 500 foreign observers monitoring, according to Telma TV channel.

Macedonia to vote on new name to end Greek row

The eurozone bailout fund ESM decided on Friday to hold off the disbursement of a 1 billion euro loan tranche for Greece to wait for confirmation from Athens it fulfilled the condition of arrears clearance for the release of the money.

An ESM spokesman said Greece made satisfactory progress to meet the conditions for the release of the loan but not quite.

"Confirmation from the Greek authorities is still needed that some payments for arrears clearance are fully executed. This is necessary in order to take the decision on the release of the remaining 1 billion euros," the spokesman said.

"Therefore the ESM Board of Directors decided today in Paris to postpone its decision on this issue," he said.

The money is available until June 15.

Greece made satisfactory progress to meet the conditions for the release of the loan but not quite

The eurozone bailout fund ESM decided on Friday to hold off the disbursement of a 1 billion euro loan tranche for Greece to wait for confirmation from Athens it fulfilled the condition of arrears clearance for the release of the money. An ESM spokesman said Greece made satisfactory progress to meet the conditions for the release of the loan but not quite. "Confirmation from the Greek authorities is still needed that some payments for arrears clearance are fully executed. This is necessary in order to take the decision on the release of the remaining 1 billion euros," the spokesman said. "Therefore the ESM Board of Directors decided today in Paris to postpone its decision on this issue," he said. The money is available until June 15.

Eurozone holds off on 1 billion euro tranche for Greece

Foreign Ministers of Greece and Macedonia met in the presence of a UN envoy on Saturday, in an attempt to bridge their differences in a decades-old dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav Republic before an EU summit next week.

The row began in earnest in 1991, when Macedonia broke away peacefully from former Yugoslavia, declaring its independence under the name Republic of Macedonia.

Greece, which has its own region called Macedonia, has asked its neighbour to change its name, as well as what it says are "irredentist" references in Skopje's national constitution, which Greece says must be taken out.

The dispute has blocked Macedonia's aspirations to join the European union and the NATO military alliance.

But the two countries decided last year to renew their efforts and try to reach a settlement long before the summer.

"We are in a very delicate phase ... in a way tackling one of the last remaining differences," said Macedonia's Nikola Dimitrov a day before meeting his Greek counterpart and UN mediator Matthew Nimetz.

"We managed in 11 months to become very close at a personal level," Dimitrov told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Balkan foreign ministers on Friday.

"If we are able to have this breakthrough, I think in less than 11 months, probably in 11 weeks, there will be a huge relief."

The meeting at a resort east of Athens comes five days before an EU-Western Balkans summit in Sofia, where the two countries' prime ministers are also expected to discuss the issue.

Both sides see 2018 as a year of opportunity.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hopes to resolve the matter to gain more political leverage in Europe and at the same time increase his popularity at home where many Greeks feel the country's debt crisis and three massive bailouts have compromised its sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who came to power a year ago, wants to accelerate his country's accession to NATO and the EU to boost international support for his fragile coalition.

Greece has said a compromise could include a compound name with a geographical or chronological qualifier by which the country would be known and referred to in all international institutions - the so-called "erga omnes".

Examples could include Upper Macedonia and North Macedonia.

Pending a settlement, the ex-Yugoslav nation was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

But the two countries decided last year to renew their efforts and try to reach a settlement long before the summer

Foreign Ministers of Greece and Macedonia met in the presence of a UN envoy on Saturday, in an attempt to bridge their differences in a decades-old dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav Republic before an EU summit next week. The row began in earnest in 1991, when Macedonia broke away peacefully from former Yugoslavia, declaring its independence under the name Republic of Macedonia. Greece, which has its own region called Macedonia, has asked its neighbour to change its name, as well as what it says are "irredentist" references in Skopje's national constitution, which Greece says must be taken out. The dispute has blocked Macedonia's aspirations to join the European union and the NATO military alliance. But the two countries decided last year to renew their efforts and try to reach a settlement long before the summer. "We are in a very delicate phase ... in a way tackling one of the last remaining differences," said Macedonia's Nikola Dimitrov a day before meeting his Greek counterpart and UN mediator Matthew Nimetz. "We managed in 11 months to become very close at a personal level," Dimitrov told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Balkan foreign ministers on Friday. "If we are able to have this breakthrough, I think in less than 11 months, probably in 11 weeks, there will be a huge relief." The meeting at a resort east of Athens comes five days before an EU-Western Balkans summit in Sofia, where the two countries' prime ministers are also expected to discuss the issue. Both sides see 2018 as a year of opportunity. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hopes to resolve the matter to gain more political leverage in Europe and at the same time increase his popularity at home where many Greeks feel the country's debt crisis and three massive bailouts have compromised its sovereignty. Meanwhile, Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who came to power a year ago, wants to accelerate his country's accession to NATO and the EU to boost international support for his fragile coalition. Greece has said a compromise could include a compound name with a geographical or chronological qualifier by which the country would be known and referred to in all international institutions - the so-called "erga omnes". Examples could include Upper Macedonia and North Macedonia. Pending a settlement, the ex-Yugoslav nation was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Greece, Macedonia race to end name row before EU summit

Clashes broke out on Sunday (April 22) between asylum-seekers and groups of locals on Lesbos, police said, in one of the most serious bouts of violence on the Greek island in months.

The violence erupted late Sunday after members of the radical "Patriotic Movement" gathered on the central square of the island's main city Mytilene, where some 200 Afghan asylum-seekers launched a sit-in protest last week against their miserable living conditions. The asylum-seekers were demonstrating against conditions in the island's camp and delays in asylum applications.

The clashes raged all night until security forces used tear gas to disperse the crowd and evacuate the square, forcing the Afghans to return to the island's overcrowded migrant camps.

A dozen migrants were lightly hurt and had to be taken to hospital, police said.

The clashes, which began on Sunday evening, lasted well into the early hours of Monday, the official said.&nbspTensions spiraled further when Left-wing activists arrived in support of the migrants and started fighting with the far-Right supporters.

Lesbos was the main gateway to Europe for nearly a million refugees and migrants in 2015. Its main camp, Moria, suffers from overcrowding, with more than double the number of people it can handle, and conditions have deteriorated. Acts of violence and protests are often reported in the camp.

The clashes, which began on Sunday evening, lasted well into the early hours of Monday, the official said

Clashes broke out on Sunday (April 22) between asylum-seekers and groups of locals on Lesbos, police said, in one of the most serious bouts of violence on the Greek island in months. The violence erupted late Sunday after members of the radical "Patriotic Movement" gathered on the central square of the island's main city Mytilene, where some 200 Afghan asylum-seekers launched a sit-in protest last week against their miserable living conditions. The asylum-seekers were demonstrating against conditions in the island's camp and delays in asylum applications. The clashes raged all night until security forces used tear gas to disperse the crowd and evacuate the square, forcing the Afghans to return to the island's overcrowded migrant camps. A dozen migrants were lightly hurt and had to be taken to hospital, police said. The clashes, which began on Sunday evening, lasted well into the early hours of Monday, the official said.&nbspTensions spiraled further when Left-wing activists arrived in support of the migrants and started fighting with the far-Right supporters. Lesbos was the main gateway to Europe for nearly a million refugees and migrants in 2015. Its main camp, Moria, suffers from overcrowding, with more than double the number of people it can handle, and conditions have deteriorated. Acts of violence and protests are often reported in the camp.

Asylum-seekers and locals clash on Greek island of Lesbos over migrant crisis

Sixteen people, including at least five children, drowned on Saturday when the small boat they on capsized in the Aegean Sea, Greek coast guard officials said.&nbsp;

The incident occurred off Greece&rsquo;s Agathonisi island, which is close to the Turkish coast. The nationality of the victims was not immediately known.

Saturday&rsquo;s incident was thought to be the highest death toll of migrants trying to reach outlying Greek islands for months.

Greek authorities said they believed there were 22 people on the boat. Greek coast guard vessels assisted by helicopters were searching for survivors.&nbsp;

&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t tolerate (losing) children in the Aegean Sea ... the solution is to protect people, to implement safe procedures and safe routes for migrants and refugees, to hit the human trafficking circuits,&rdquo; Greek migration minister Dimitris Vitsas said in a press release.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants arrived in Greece and further west in 2015 from Turkey, making the short but precarious crossing. Hundreds died in the attempt.&nbsp;

Following a 2016 agreement between the European Union and Turkey, the numbers have diminished.

Under that deal, anyone who arrives on Greek islands must be returned to Turkey unless they qualify for asylum. But procedures can take several months, leading to overcrowded conditions on the islands.

Two more migrants were killed and seven more were injured on Saturday, in a separate incident in northern Greece, when their driver lost control of a vehicle during a car chase with the police, a police official told Reuters.&nbsp;

Greek authorities said they believed there were 22 people on the boat. Greek coast guard vessels assisted by helicopters were searching for survivors.

Sixteen people, including at least five children, drowned on Saturday when the small boat they on capsized in the Aegean Sea, Greek coast guard officials said. The incident occurred off Greece’s Agathonisi island, which is close to the Turkish coast. The nationality of the victims was not immediately known. Saturday’s incident was thought to be the highest death toll of migrants trying to reach outlying Greek islands for months. Greek authorities said they believed there were 22 people on the boat. Greek coast guard vessels assisted by helicopters were searching for survivors. “We can’t tolerate (losing) children in the Aegean Sea ... the solution is to protect people, to implement safe procedures and safe routes for migrants and refugees, to hit the human trafficking circuits,” Greek migration minister Dimitris Vitsas said in a press release. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants arrived in Greece and further west in 2015 from Turkey, making the short but precarious crossing. Hundreds died in the attempt. Following a 2016 agreement between the European Union and Turkey, the numbers have diminished. Under that deal, anyone who arrives on Greek islands must be returned to Turkey unless they qualify for asylum. But procedures can take several months, leading to overcrowded conditions on the islands. Two more migrants were killed and seven more were injured on Saturday, in a separate incident in northern Greece, when their driver lost control of a vehicle during a car chase with the police, a police official told Reuters.

At least 16 dead as migrant boat sinks off Greek island

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to protest against the use of the term Macedonia in any settlement the government pursues with the ex-Yugoslav Republic to end a decades-old name row.

According to the law enforcement data, 283 buses brought the protesters to the demonstration site. The demonstration&rsquo;s organizers said that over a million people had been a part of&nbsp;the rally up till Sunday night.

The two countries have agreed to step up negotiations, mediated by the United Nations, this year to settle the dispute, which has frustrated the aspirations of Greece&rsquo;s small northern neighbour to join NATO and the European Union.

Thoroughfares in central Athens turned into a sea of people waving blue and white Greek flags in what locals said was the largest gathering in decades, easily outdoing rallies against austerity foisted by lenders on the crisis-hit country.

Greece objects to Macedonia&rsquo;s name because it has its own region called Macedonia, and argues that its neighbour&rsquo;s use of the name, along with contentious articles in its constitution, imply territorial claims over Greek land.

According to media reports, the police officials are trying to get the situation in control between the far-right and far-left protesters after the far-right demonstrators reportedly attempted to attack anarchists with stones, flag poles, and stun grenades.

Reports further said that the police had to resort to using tear gas against demonstrators.

Protesters hoisted a giant Greek flag over the demonstration with a crane on Sunday. They held banners reading &ldquo;Hands off Macedonia!&rdquo; and chanted the national anthem.

Greece considers the name &quot;Macedonia&quot; to be part of its own cultural heritage, as it is also the name of a historic Greek province that was the core of Alexander the Great&#39;s ancient empire.

Athens thus seeks guarantees that the use of the name by its neighbour implies no claim to parts of its own territory.

Because of Greece&#39;s objections, Macedonia in 1993 joined the United Nations as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

To break the deadlock, longterm UN mediator Matthew Nimetz has now proposed several alternative names in Macedonian, including &quot;Republika Nova Makedonija&quot; or the &quot;Republic of New Macedonia&quot;.

Tsipras&#39; government says it is ready to accept a composite name that will establish a clear distinction from Greek Macedonia.

A resolution of the issue is needed before Macedonia can join NATO or the EU.

Greece in 2008 threatened to veto Macedonia&#39;s NATO entry. Skopje subsequently took the issue to the International Court of Justice, which said Athens had been wrong to block its land-locked neighbour&#39;s aspirations.

 
&nbsp;

The two countries have agreed to step up negotiations, mediated by the United Nations, this year to settle the dispute, which has frustrated the aspirations of Greece’s small northern neighbour to join NATO and the European Union

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens on Sunday to protest against the use of the term Macedonia in any settlement the government pursues with the ex-Yugoslav Republic to end a decades-old name row. According to the law enforcement data, 283 buses brought the protesters to the demonstration site. The demonstration’s organizers said that over a million people had been a part of the rally up till Sunday night. The two countries have agreed to step up negotiations, mediated by the United Nations, this year to settle the dispute, which has frustrated the aspirations of Greece’s small northern neighbour to join NATO and the European Union. Thoroughfares in central Athens turned into a sea of people waving blue and white Greek flags in what locals said was the largest gathering in decades, easily outdoing rallies against austerity foisted by lenders on the crisis-hit country. Greece objects to Macedonia’s name because it has its own region called Macedonia, and argues that its neighbour’s use of the name, along with contentious articles in its constitution, imply territorial claims over Greek land. According to media reports, the police officials are trying to get the situation in control between the far-right and far-left protesters after the far-right demonstrators reportedly attempted to attack anarchists with stones, flag poles, and stun grenades. Reports further said that the police had to resort to using tear gas against demonstrators. Protesters hoisted a giant Greek flag over the demonstration with a crane on Sunday. They held banners reading “Hands off Macedonia!” and chanted the national anthem. Greece considers the name "Macedonia" to be part of its own cultural heritage, as it is also the name of a historic Greek province that was the core of Alexander the Great's ancient empire. Athens thus seeks guarantees that the use of the name by its neighbour implies no claim to parts of its own territory. Because of Greece's objections, Macedonia in 1993 joined the United Nations as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). To break the deadlock, longterm UN mediator Matthew Nimetz has now proposed several alternative names in Macedonian, including "Republika Nova Makedonija" or the "Republic of New Macedonia". Tsipras' government says it is ready to accept a composite name that will establish a clear distinction from Greek Macedonia. A resolution of the issue is needed before Macedonia can join NATO or the EU. Greece in 2008 threatened to veto Macedonia's NATO entry. Skopje subsequently took the issue to the International Court of Justice, which said Athens had been wrong to block its land-locked neighbour's aspirations.

Millions of Greeks rally over Macedonia name row

A Russian accused of laundering $4 billion using Bitcoin digital currency has been ordered to be extradited to the United States by Greece&#39;s Supreme Court.

Alexander Vinnik owned an exchange for cyber currency and was accused of money laundering using cryptocurrency.&nbsp;

Vinnik was first indicted in July by an American court for charges involving money laundering, identity theft and facilitating drug trafficking.

He has been held in a Greek jail since his arrest on July 25 in the northern Greek tourist resort of Halkidiki.&nbsp;

Vinnik was also charged with receiving funds from the infamous hack of Mt. Gox -- an earlier digital currency exchange that eventually failed, in part due to losses attributable to hacking.

Although Vinnik denies the accusations, he has said he would accept extradition to his home country. Russia has also filed a demand to extradite Vinnik so he can stand trial on separate fraud charges while two Greek courts separately approved both extradition requests in October.

In Russia, Vinnik is wanted on separate fraud charges totalling 9,500 euros.

The final say on Vinnik&#39;s extradition now rests with Greece&#39;s justice minister.&nbsp;

Alexander Vinnik&#39;s BTC-e was founded in 2011 and became one of the world&#39;s largest and most widely used digital currency exchanges.

In addition, BTC-e &quot;was noted for its role in numerous ransomware and other cyber-criminal activity&quot;. It allegedly received more than $4 billion (3.4 billion euros) worth of Bitcoin over the course of its operation, AFP reported.&nbsp;

BTC-e was slapped with a whopping $110 million fine for &quot;willfully violating&quot; US anti-money laundering laws.

Vinnik has been ordered to pay $12 million by the US Treasury Department.

(With inputs from AFP)&nbsp;

Vinnik was first indicted in July by an American court for charges involving money laundering

A Russian accused of laundering $4 billion using Bitcoin digital currency has been ordered to be extradited to the United States by Greece's Supreme Court. Alexander Vinnik owned an exchange for cyber currency and was accused of money laundering using cryptocurrency. Vinnik was first indicted in July by an American court for charges involving money laundering, identity theft and facilitating drug trafficking. He has been held in a Greek jail since his arrest on July 25 in the northern Greek tourist resort of Halkidiki. Vinnik was also charged with receiving funds from the infamous hack of Mt. Gox -- an earlier digital currency exchange that eventually failed, in part due to losses attributable to hacking. Although Vinnik denies the accusations, he has said he would accept extradition to his home country. Russia has also filed a demand to extradite Vinnik so he can stand trial on separate fraud charges while two Greek courts separately approved both extradition requests in October. In Russia, Vinnik is wanted on separate fraud charges totalling 9,500 euros. The final say on Vinnik's extradition now rests with Greece's justice minister. Alexander Vinnik's BTC-e was founded in 2011 and became one of the world's largest and most widely used digital currency exchanges. In addition, BTC-e "was noted for its role in numerous ransomware and other cyber-criminal activity". It allegedly received more than $4 billion (3.4 billion euros) worth of Bitcoin over the course of its operation, AFP reported. BTC-e was slapped with a whopping $110 million fine for "willfully violating" US anti-money laundering laws. Vinnik has been ordered to pay $12 million by the US Treasury Department. (With inputs from AFP)

Greece SC orders extradition of Russian accused of laundering $4 billion using Bitcoin

Greek police and emergency workers rescued three bodies in flood-hit areas west of Athens on Saturday, bringing the death toll since Wednesday to 19.

&quot;The bodies of three men discovered on Saturday, aged 28, 58, and 35, have been identified by their families,&quot; Nikos Papaefstathiou, head of the National Health Operations Centre, said.

&quot;We are still searching for at least three people reported missing,&quot; he added.&nbsp;

Two of the bodies found Saturday were fished out of the Gulf of Eleusis, near the town of Mandra west of Athens, by port police.

The bodies were those of two men, aged 35 and 55, a police official said.

Meanwhile, in Mandra itself, rescue workers uncovered a third body buried in the mud.

The freak flood struck early on Wednesday the towns of Mandra, Nea Peramos, and Megara, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Athens.

Before the latest discoveries, the flood toll stood at 16 dead and six missing.

Local authorities have begun tallying the damage but with the emphasis still on clearing roads and searching for the missing, there is no clear indication of the cost.

The mayor of Mandra said some 2,000 homes and businesses had been gutted, and the Megara mayor said another 500 homes had been hit in this area. Even the local cemetery was submerged in mud, with tombstones broken and strewn about.

The Athens authorities and civil groups have been distributing food and water in Mandra.

&quot;For the third day, there isn&#39;t a single open shop in Mandra, we don&#39;t have water, (and) we haven&#39;t washed since Wednesday,&quot; local shop owner Evangelos Peppas told AFP on Friday.

Most of the victims were drowned, carried away by the floodwaters and mudslides, or trapped in flooded cars or basements.

Some local residents spoke of a &quot;tsunami&quot;.

Experts have said ill-conceived building in the area&nbsp;some of it by local municipal authorities -- meant this was a disaster waiting to happen.

Corrective drainage works for the area were approved in 2016 but work has yet to begin.

Stricken areas will request EU solidarity funds, the Athens governor&#39;s office said.

Greek police and emergency workers rescued three bodies in flood-hit areas west of Athens on Saturday, bringing the death toll since Wednesday to 19

Greek police and emergency workers rescued three bodies in flood-hit areas west of Athens on Saturday, bringing the death toll since Wednesday to 19. "The bodies of three men discovered on Saturday, aged 28, 58, and 35, have been identified by their families," Nikos Papaefstathiou, head of the National Health Operations Centre, said. "We are still searching for at least three people reported missing," he added. Two of the bodies found Saturday were fished out of the Gulf of Eleusis, near the town of Mandra west of Athens, by port police. The bodies were those of two men, aged 35 and 55, a police official said. Meanwhile, in Mandra itself, rescue workers uncovered a third body buried in the mud. The freak flood struck early on Wednesday the towns of Mandra, Nea Peramos, and Megara, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Athens. Before the latest discoveries, the flood toll stood at 16 dead and six missing. Local authorities have begun tallying the damage but with the emphasis still on clearing roads and searching for the missing, there is no clear indication of the cost. The mayor of Mandra said some 2,000 homes and businesses had been gutted, and the Megara mayor said another 500 homes had been hit in this area. Even the local cemetery was submerged in mud, with tombstones broken and strewn about. The Athens authorities and civil groups have been distributing food and water in Mandra. "For the third day, there isn't a single open shop in Mandra, we don't have water, (and) we haven't washed since Wednesday," local shop owner Evangelos Peppas told AFP on Friday. Most of the victims were drowned, carried away by the floodwaters and mudslides, or trapped in flooded cars or basements. Some local residents spoke of a "tsunami". Experts have said ill-conceived building in the area some of it by local municipal authorities -- meant this was a disaster waiting to happen. Corrective drainage works for the area were approved in 2016 but work has yet to begin. Stricken areas will request EU solidarity funds, the Athens governor's office said.

Greek flooding toll reaches 19, as more bodies found

By&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/cesar-renduels-menendez-de-llano-365327">C&eacute;sar Renduels Menendez de Llano</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/donatella-della-porta-366380">Donatella Della Porta</a>

&nbsp;

In 1980, the novelist Martin Amis attended a meeting in Texas with Ronald Reagan, then in the midst of the campaign that would put him in the White House. Reagan liked to end his electoral activities with some audience Q+A. The more personal the question, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/HeliganSecretsOfTheLostGardens/AmisMartin-TheMoronicInfernoAndOtherVisitsToAmerica_djvu.txt">Amis explained</a>, the more Reagan enjoyed answering.

Question: &ldquo;Of all the people in America, sir, why you for President?&rdquo;

Reagan grins.

Answer: &ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m not smart enough to tell a lie.&rdquo;

Laughter, applause.

Amis relays the exchange:

<blockquote>
&lsquo;But why do you want it, sir?&rsquo; Reagan flexes his worn, snipped, tucked, mottled face. &lsquo;This country needs a good Republican and I feel I can do the job. Why? I&rsquo;m happy. I&rsquo;m feeling good.&rsquo; Here he turns. &lsquo;And I have Nancy to tuck me up at night.&rsquo;
</blockquote>

Laughter, applause, hats in the air.

Anger, discontent and resentment

Imagine this anecdote today. Were Donald Trump had asked the same question in 2016, it seems like he may have responded: &ldquo;Because I&rsquo;m unhappy. I&rsquo;m feeling bad. And my relationship with my wife is catastrophic.&rdquo;

And surely his Republican audience would also have clapped, identifying now not with Reagan&rsquo;s optimism but with Trump&rsquo;s self-portrait of anger, discontent and resentment.

Ronald Reagan, that carefree actor-president, may have been the last US leader to channel Americans&rsquo; good feelings about the free market. As Robert Putnam outlines in his famous <a href="http://bowlingalone.com">investigation</a>, Bowling Alone, civil society and social bonds in the US strengthened from the early 20th century until the 1970s, when the era of neoliberal reforms began.

At that point, things quickly began to unravel. Historically speaking, the growth of mercantilism, en economic nationalism that seeks to enrich the state through trade and wealth accumulation, has always deteriorated social bonds, though that&rsquo;s not necessarily a bad thing. The market also <a href="http://www.rochelleterman.com/ComparativeExam/sites/default/files/Bibliography%20and%20Summaries/Comparative%20Politics_0.pdf">weakens relationships that are clientelistic</a>, toxic or patriarchal.

Problems arise when mercantilism becomes an expansive, generalised social dynamic, which is precisely what globalisation unleashed starting in the 1970s. After global economic crisis exposed the limits of the Fordist assembly line-style mass production model, the world veered sharply back toward the liberal, unregulated <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/manchester-capitalism/">Manchester capitalism</a> that had predominated before the second world war.

The rest of the story, which is the subject of our new book <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509522352,subjectCd-SO20.html">The Great Regression</a>, you know well.

&lsquo;A catastrophic level of social corrosion&rsquo;

We often make the mistake of thinking that globalisation is a radical new phenomenon, both postmodern and futuristic.

In fact, in his 1944 book <a href="http://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb/pdf_4/Great_Transformation.pdf">The Great Transformation</a>, historian Karl Polanyi was already explaining the political and social crises of the inter-war period as a reaction to the failures of the free market.

<figure class="align-right "><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/169363/width237/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg" />
<figcaption>
<a class="source" href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-Regression-Heinrich-Geiselberger/dp/1509522360">Amazon</a>

&nbsp;
</figcaption>
</figure>

From his perspective, the whole utopian idea of a self-regulating market was nihilistic and self-destructive, materially incompatible with the variety of human social life of humans.

For the pragmatist Polanyi, the &ldquo;free market&rdquo; never existed and could never exist. To begin with, mercantilism as a financial system has always required aggressive state intervention, both to ease the pains of its flaws and to break people&rsquo;s natural resistance to being dragged along by the coattails of their economy.

Practically every government in the world has undertaken this process since the 1980s. In <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/%7Esharonb/jape.html">privatising public services</a>, for example, they have created enormous business opportunities for local elites (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/06/business/the-big-push-toward-privatization-in-argentina.html?pagewanted1">Argentina</a> being a prime example), stimulated rampant real estate speculation (just look at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/06/made-london-property-speculation-industry-capital">the UK</a>) and used public resources to rescue the banking system from its own mistakes (remember <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/spain-banks-timeline-idUSL5E8H88YV20120608">Spain</a>?).

When mercantilistm reaches the catastrophic point at which it begins to corrupt all society, Polanyi says, then collective counter-movements emerge. These efforts to reestablish communal living can have radically different political orientations.

The 20th century had the fascists, waging what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci dubbed &ldquo;<a href="https://quadernidelcarcere.wordpress.com/tag/teoria-della-rivoluzione-passiva/">passive revolutions</a>&rdquo; that aspired to alter the economic and social machinery to preserve elite privileges. It also saw Roosevelt&rsquo;s New Deal, Europe&rsquo;s 1940s democratic socialist movements and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/attlee_clement.shtml">Clement Attlee&rsquo;s reformist Labour government</a> in the UK (1945-1951).

All these were anti-mercantlist projects inspired by democratisation, learning and egalitarianism.

Anti-neoliberal counter reactions

This history is a reminder that there is an old pattern to these shaky modern times.

In the 21st century, counter reactions to globalisation have also been taking radically different forms. Early in the century, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13260219.2013.853353">Latin America&rsquo;s leftist governments</a> challenged the neoliberal order, rejecting the Washington Consensus and building regional solidarity.

Then, there were the <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-years-on-the-spirit-of-tahrir-square-has-been-all-but-crushed-53461">Arab Spring</a> uprisings of 2010 to 2013, which sought to deepen democracy in a region long dominated by dictators.

The former was crushed and the latter has <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-chilean-outsider-revive-latin-americas-ailing-left-71213">largely waned</a>. But the innovative ideas developed in the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/1644759/Understanding_European_movements_new_social_movements_global_justice_struggles_anti-austerity_protest">anti-austerity protests</a> of Iceland Greece, Spain and Portugal following the start of the European debt crisis in 2009 are still very much alive.

What has everyone talking are developments on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum: Brexit, Trump, the extreme right, Islamic fundamentalism &ndash; <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-brexit-to-colombias-no-vote-are-constitutional-democracies-in-crisis-66668">neoliberal backlashes</a> offering new solutions for global elites hoping to preserve their privileges in a turbulent international economy.

It is early yet for an in-depth analysis of the current regressive phenomenon. But we can at least start asking the right questions.

First, did economic discontent really fuel the rise of the modern right, as many claim? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/jun/24/the-areas-and-demographics-where-the-brexit-vote-was-won">Data from the UK</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/white-voters-victory-donald-trump-exit-polls">the US</a> indicate exactly the opposite. Not only &ndash; not even mainly &ndash; blue collar workers supported Brexit and Donald Trump; <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-trump-voters-social-sciencing-the-s-t-out-of-yard-signs-66099">the rich and the educated did</a> too.

But it is misleading to blame the resentment of the declining middle class for the state of Western politics today.

Money played a crucial role in right-wing victories in the US. Big business and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html">well-funded think tanks</a>, including the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/study-confirms-tea-party-_b_2663125.html">tobacco lobby and the billionaire Koch brothers</a>, have funded the US Tea Party for years, and starting in 2015, they richly backed Trump.

To mobilise the traditional conservative base of the Republican Party, <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-trump-and-sanders-rewriting-the-rules-on-money-in-politics-56891">cash was injected</a> into media blitzes that spread simple messages, often lies, appealing to American fear.

Money is not the whole story, but it is an important part of it and it has historic resonance. During Europe&rsquo;s fascist and Nazi movements, regressive counter movements feigned solidarity with the 99% while clearly enjoying the support of the 1%. The market&rsquo;s positive response to Trump&rsquo;s victory may be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-we-can-learn-from-markets-reaction-to-a-president-trump-68116">clear indication that this is happening again</a>.

So far, the new regressive movements are adopting very different forms to their left-wing recent predecessors in Latin America and Europe. They diverge not only ideologically &ndash; with cosmopolitanism on the one side and xenophobia on the other &ndash; but also in their organisational models.

On the right, politics today is characterised by <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-inauguration-ushers-in-2017-the-year-of-the-strongman-70846">strong, personalised leadership</a>: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump being prime examples.

Recent progressive anti-neoliberal movements, on the other hand, have been mostly been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">defined by citizen participation</a>.

There&rsquo;s no evidence (yet) that regressive movements are necessarily more successful than their progressive counterparts. Rather, in times of economic crisis, left-wing advances such as workers&rsquo; rights have been met with a powerful, well-funded resistance.

The near-constant protest of Trump, Erdogan or Orban confirm progressive counter-reactions <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-victory-comes-with-a-silver-lining-for-the-worlds-progressives-68523">are very much alive</a> indeed. But they seem unlikely to put regressive movements out of business any time soon.

<figure><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rmdiUoL-ZMk?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440"></iframe></figure>

&nbsp;

One step forward, two steps back

The mainstream progressive response to this reactionary challenge has been, primarily, nostalgia for Keynesian economics: increase public spending to stimulate the economy, boost demand and create employment, redistribute wealth to grow the economy, among other things.

That&rsquo;s a bad alternative. Keynes is dead and he&rsquo;s not coming back. Everything about his era &ndash; from the post-second world war international relations system of Bretton Woods and the Soviet threat to the fast clip of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6251312/Keynes-the-Return-of-the-Master-by-Robert-Skidelsky-review.html">economic expansion</a> back then &ndash; is unthinkable today.

Only in a few places has the popular response to the failure of the self-regulating free-market been to push for greater freedom and deeper democracy, rather than to retrench or reminisce.

In addition to a timid normalisation of such activism around basic rights such as housing, a universal basic income, cooperativism and feminism, we have <a href="https://theconversation.com/austerity-portugal-is-on-a-different-path-to-greece-and-spain-heres-why-48121">Portugal&rsquo;s left-wing ruling coalition</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-podemos-the-party-revolutionising-spanish-politics-33802">Podemos</a> in Spain and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/syriza-sweeps-to-victory-in-greek-election-promising-an-end-to-humiliation-36680">Syriza government in Greece</a>.

Today, it is evident that Greece is not the European Union&rsquo;s burden to bear but rather part of its salvation. Syriza has proposed an alternative to European financial metastasis by <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/06/03/greece-eurozone/">reclaiming fiscal sovereignty</a>, battening down the markets, focusing on democratisation, and seeking continent-wide social solidarity.

It&rsquo;s noteworthy that virtually <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">all rights-based anti-neoliberalism</a> has come from peripheral or semi-peripheral nations: first Latin America a decade ago, and now southern Europe. All of them have faced fierce opposition from the rich West.

It may be time to start <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">thinking about the Global South not as a problem but as a solution</a> to the great regression.

*Llano is with the&nbsp;<a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universidad-complutense-de-madrid-2383">Universidad Complutense de Madrid</a>

**&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/donatella-della-porta-366380">Porta</a>&nbsp;is with the&nbsp;<a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/institute-of-human-and-social-sciences-scuola-normale-superiore-florence-3060">Institute of Human and Social sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence</a>

The Great Regression, available in 13 languages, can be <a href="http://www.thegreatregression.eu/">found online</a>.

&nbsp;

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-the-great-regression-76293">original article</a>.

On the right, politics today is characterised by strong, personalised leadership: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump being prime examples.

By César Renduels Menendez de Llano and Donatella Della Porta In 1980, the novelist Martin Amis attended a meeting in Texas with Ronald Reagan, then in the midst of the campaign that would put him in the White House. Reagan liked to end his electoral activities with some audience Q+A. The more personal the question, Amis explained, the more Reagan enjoyed answering. Question: “Of all the people in America, sir, why you for President?” Reagan grins. Answer: “Well, I’m not smart enough to tell a lie.” Laughter, applause. Amis relays the exchange: ‘But why do you want it, sir?’ Reagan flexes his worn, snipped, tucked, mottled face. ‘This country needs a good Republican and I feel I can do the job. Why? I’m happy. I’m feeling good.’ Here he turns. ‘And I have Nancy to tuck me up at night.’ Laughter, applause, hats in the air. Anger, discontent and resentment Imagine this anecdote today. Were Donald Trump had asked the same question in 2016, it seems like he may have responded: “Because I’m unhappy. I’m feeling bad. And my relationship with my wife is catastrophic.” And surely his Republican audience would also have clapped, identifying now not with Reagan’s optimism but with Trump’s self-portrait of anger, discontent and resentment. Ronald Reagan, that carefree actor-president, may have been the last US leader to channel Americans’ good feelings about the free market. As Robert Putnam outlines in his famous investigation, Bowling Alone, civil society and social bonds in the US strengthened from the early 20th century until the 1970s, when the era of neoliberal reforms began. At that point, things quickly began to unravel. Historically speaking, the growth of mercantilism, en economic nationalism that seeks to enrich the state through trade and wealth accumulation, has always deteriorated social bonds, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The market also weakens relationships that are clientelistic, toxic or patriarchal. Problems arise when mercantilism becomes an expansive, generalised social dynamic, which is precisely what globalisation unleashed starting in the 1970s. After global economic crisis exposed the limits of the Fordist assembly line-style mass production model, the world veered sharply back toward the liberal, unregulated Manchester capitalism that had predominated before the second world war. The rest of the story, which is the subject of our new book The Great Regression, you know well. ‘A catastrophic level of social corrosion’ We often make the mistake of thinking that globalisation is a radical new phenomenon, both postmodern and futuristic. In fact, in his 1944 book The Great Transformation, historian Karl Polanyi was already explaining the political and social crises of the inter-war period as a reaction to the failures of the free market. Amazon From his perspective, the whole utopian idea of a self-regulating market was nihilistic and self-destructive, materially incompatible with the variety of human social life of humans. For the pragmatist Polanyi, the “free market” never existed and could never exist. To begin with, mercantilism as a financial system has always required aggressive state intervention, both to ease the pains of its flaws and to break people’s natural resistance to being dragged along by the coattails of their economy. Practically every government in the world has undertaken this process since the 1980s. In privatising public services, for example, they have created enormous business opportunities for local elites (Argentina being a prime example), stimulated rampant real estate speculation (just look at the UK) and used public resources to rescue the banking system from its own mistakes (remember Spain?). When mercantilistm reaches the catastrophic point at which it begins to corrupt all society, Polanyi says, then collective counter-movements emerge. These efforts to reestablish communal living can have radically different political orientations. The 20th century had the fascists, waging what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci dubbed “passive revolutions” that aspired to alter the economic and social machinery to preserve elite privileges. It also saw Roosevelt’s New Deal, Europe’s 1940s democratic socialist movements and Clement Attlee’s reformist Labour government in the UK (1945-1951). All these were anti-mercantlist projects inspired by democratisation, learning and egalitarianism. Anti-neoliberal counter reactions This history is a reminder that there is an old pattern to these shaky modern times. In the 21st century, counter reactions to globalisation have also been taking radically different forms. Early in the century, Latin America’s leftist governments challenged the neoliberal order, rejecting the Washington Consensus and building regional solidarity. Then, there were the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010 to 2013, which sought to deepen democracy in a region long dominated by dictators. The former was crushed and the latter has largely waned. But the innovative ideas developed in the anti-austerity protests of Iceland Greece, Spain and Portugal following the start of the European debt crisis in 2009 are still very much alive. What has everyone talking are developments on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum: Brexit, Trump, the extreme right, Islamic fundamentalism – neoliberal backlashes offering new solutions for global elites hoping to preserve their privileges in a turbulent international economy. It is early yet for an in-depth analysis of the current regressive phenomenon. But we can at least start asking the right questions. First, did economic discontent really fuel the rise of the modern right, as many claim? Data from the UK and the US indicate exactly the opposite. Not only – not even mainly – blue collar workers supported Brexit and Donald Trump; the rich and the educated did too. But it is misleading to blame the resentment of the declining middle class for the state of Western politics today. Money played a crucial role in right-wing victories in the US. Big business and well-funded think tanks, including the tobacco lobby and the billionaire Koch brothers, have funded the US Tea Party for years, and starting in 2015, they richly backed Trump. To mobilise the traditional conservative base of the Republican Party, cash was injected into media blitzes that spread simple messages, often lies, appealing to American fear. Money is not the whole story, but it is an important part of it and it has historic resonance. During Europe’s fascist and Nazi movements, regressive counter movements feigned solidarity with the 99% while clearly enjoying the support of the 1%. The market’s positive response to Trump’s victory may be a clear indication that this is happening again. So far, the new regressive movements are adopting very different forms to their left-wing recent predecessors in Latin America and Europe. They diverge not only ideologically – with cosmopolitanism on the one side and xenophobia on the other – but also in their organisational models. On the right, politics today is characterised by strong, personalised leadership: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump being prime examples. Recent progressive anti-neoliberal movements, on the other hand, have been mostly been defined by citizen participation. There’s no evidence (yet) that regressive movements are necessarily more successful than their progressive counterparts. Rather, in times of economic crisis, left-wing advances such as workers’ rights have been met with a powerful, well-funded resistance. The near-constant protest of Trump, Erdogan or Orban confirm progressive counter-reactions are very much alive indeed. But they seem unlikely to put regressive movements out of business any time soon. One step forward, two steps back The mainstream progressive response to this reactionary challenge has been, primarily, nostalgia for Keynesian economics: increase public spending to stimulate the economy, boost demand and create employment, redistribute wealth to grow the economy, among other things. That’s a bad alternative. Keynes is dead and he’s not coming back. Everything about his era – from the post-second world war international relations system of Bretton Woods and the Soviet threat to the fast clip of economic expansion back then – is unthinkable today. Only in a few places has the popular response to the failure of the self-regulating free-market been to push for greater freedom and deeper democracy, rather than to retrench or reminisce. In addition to a timid normalisation of such activism around basic rights such as housing, a universal basic income, cooperativism and feminism, we have Portugal’s left-wing ruling coalition, Podemos in Spain and the Syriza government in Greece. Today, it is evident that Greece is not the European Union’s burden to bear but rather part of its salvation. Syriza has proposed an alternative to European financial metastasis by reclaiming fiscal sovereignty, battening down the markets, focusing on democratisation, and seeking continent-wide social solidarity. It’s noteworthy that virtually all rights-based anti-neoliberalism has come from peripheral or semi-peripheral nations: first Latin America a decade ago, and now southern Europe. All of them have faced fierce opposition from the rich West. It may be time to start thinking about the Global South not as a problem but as a solution to the great regression. *Llano is with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid ** Porta is with the Institute of Human and Social sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence The Great Regression, available in 13 languages, can be found online. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The road to the great regression

Greece&#39;s former prime minister Lucas Papademos was injured when a booby-trapped package exploded in his car in central Athens on Thursday, police said, in the most dramatic act of political violence in the crisis-hit country for several years.

Police said Papademos&#39;s injuries were not life-threatening, and an Athens hospital source told Reuters he was being treated for superficial wounds to his abdomen and a slightly deeper injury to his right leg.

Greece has a history of small-scale attacks against politicians, businesses and police. Greek police say they intercepted several suspected packages addressed to Greek, German and International Monetary Fund officials in the past two months.

But Thursday&#39;s blast, in which an unnamed police official said two others in the vehicle were also hurt, was the most prominent since a booby-trapped package killed a guard for then Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis in 2010.

Papademos, a low-key figure who was more of a technocrat than a politician, was catapulted to the forefront of Greece&#39;s debt crisis when he became caretaker prime minister from late 2011 to May 2012, fusing a fragile governing coalition between socialists and conservatives.

The country remains in recession with the highest unemployment rate in Europe, and a stalled creditor review has interrupted payouts under its international bailout programme, its third since 2010.

Papademos also served as central bank governor from 1994 to 2002, and as vice-president of the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010.

A health ministry official said Papademos suffered injuries to his chest and abdomen after opening a package in his moving car.

Greek media reported the vehicle was armoured, containing the blast within its interior.

Footage from the scene, at a busy intersection in central Athens during rush hour, showed a black vehicle with its hazard lights on, virtually undamaged save for extensive cracks on the front windscreen.

&quot;I felt my car shake ...it was like a small earthquake,&quot; an eyewitness told Greece&#39;s Skai TV. He said he saw the doors of the vehicle be prised open from the blast.

&quot;It was total panic,&quot; he said.

Papademos has been in retirement since stepping down as caretaker prime minister in May 2012.

A Greek central bank source said Papademos had just left the Bank of Greece building when the explosion occurred. It was unclear whether the suspect package had been delivered there.

A police source said fragments of an envelope found at the scene of the incident suggested it was delivered to the Academy of Athens, of which Papademos is president.

An envelope containing bullets and addressed to Greece&rsquo;s general secretary for public revenue was intercepted at a post office branch in Athens on Tuesday.

In March, police intercepted eight suspect packages at a postal sorting centre in Athens, days after letter bombs were sent and detected at the German Finance Ministry and the IMF in Paris. The rigged package to the IMF exploded, injuring an employee.

(Reuters)

Greece has a history of small-scale attacks against politicians, businesses and police

Greece's former prime minister Lucas Papademos was injured when a booby-trapped package exploded in his car in central Athens on Thursday, police said, in the most dramatic act of political violence in the crisis-hit country for several years. Police said Papademos's injuries were not life-threatening, and an Athens hospital source told Reuters he was being treated for superficial wounds to his abdomen and a slightly deeper injury to his right leg. Greece has a history of small-scale attacks against politicians, businesses and police. Greek police say they intercepted several suspected packages addressed to Greek, German and International Monetary Fund officials in the past two months. But Thursday's blast, in which an unnamed police official said two others in the vehicle were also hurt, was the most prominent since a booby-trapped package killed a guard for then Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis in 2010. Papademos, a low-key figure who was more of a technocrat than a politician, was catapulted to the forefront of Greece's debt crisis when he became caretaker prime minister from late 2011 to May 2012, fusing a fragile governing coalition between socialists and conservatives. The country remains in recession with the highest unemployment rate in Europe, and a stalled creditor review has interrupted payouts under its international bailout programme, its third since 2010. Papademos also served as central bank governor from 1994 to 2002, and as vice-president of the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010. A health ministry official said Papademos suffered injuries to his chest and abdomen after opening a package in his moving car. Greek media reported the vehicle was armoured, containing the blast within its interior. Footage from the scene, at a busy intersection in central Athens during rush hour, showed a black vehicle with its hazard lights on, virtually undamaged save for extensive cracks on the front windscreen. "I felt my car shake ...it was like a small earthquake," an eyewitness told Greece's Skai TV. He said he saw the doors of the vehicle be prised open from the blast. "It was total panic," he said. Papademos has been in retirement since stepping down as caretaker prime minister in May 2012. A Greek central bank source said Papademos had just left the Bank of Greece building when the explosion occurred. It was unclear whether the suspect package had been delivered there. A police source said fragments of an envelope found at the scene of the incident suggested it was delivered to the Academy of Athens, of which Papademos is president. An envelope containing bullets and addressed to Greece’s general secretary for public revenue was intercepted at a post office branch in Athens on Tuesday. In March, police intercepted eight suspect packages at a postal sorting centre in Athens, days after letter bombs were sent and detected at the German Finance Ministry and the IMF in Paris. The rigged package to the IMF exploded, injuring an employee. (Reuters)

Greece: Former Prime Minister Papademos injured in blast

Greek authorities on Saturday began evacuating some 70,000 people in the city of Thessaloniki ahead of an operation to defuse a bomb from World War II.

The bomb, containing nearly 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of explosives, was unearthed in the northern city during road works last week and is due to be defused on Sunday.

More than 300 disabled people and bedbound patients were set to be the first evacuated on Saturday using 20 ambulances, authorities from&nbsp;Greece&#39;s second city said.

The full evacuation of all residents within a 1.9-kilometre (1.1-mile) radius of the bomb site, affecting three working-class neighbourhoods around west of the city-centre, is due to be completed before 0800 GMT on Sunday.

Evacuation is &quot;obligatory&quot;, regional security chief Apostolos Tzitzikostas told reporters Friday.

The operation is unprecedented in&nbsp;Greece, &quot;where a bomb of this size has never been found in an area this densely populated,&quot; Tzitzikostas added.

Regional authorities said the entire operation would take up to eight hours, but local military spokesman Colonel Nikos Phanios was more cautious.

&quot;We don&#39;t know what we&#39;re going to find,&quot; he told AFP. Defusing the bomb and then moving it to a military shooting range &quot;could take us up to two days&quot;, he added.

It is not yet known which side in the war dropped the bomb or when it fell, Phanios said.

A thousand police officers have been mobilised for the operation, with residents given several days&#39; warning via the media, leaflets and posts on social networks.&nbsp;

Thessaloniki residents were facing disruption on the bus and train networks, with facilities set up to host evacuees in need of shelter.

People living in a nearby refugee camp will also have to be evacuated, the migration ministry said, without specifying the number affected. At their request, the refugees will use the evacuation as an opportunity to visit the local archaeology museum, the ministry added.

Seven decades after the end of World War II, unexploded bombs from the conflict are still being found around the globe.

On January 23 dozens of people were evacuated after a bomb was found near a Hong Kong university, while three days before that Britain&#39;s navy disposed of a suspected World War II bomb found close to the parliament in London.

In the German city of Augsburg, 54,000 people had an unwelcome Christmas surprise on December 25 when they had to leave their homes while authorities dealt with a bomb dropped by Britain during the war.

&nbsp;

(AFP)

The bomb, containing nearly 250 kilograms of explosives, was unearthed during road works last week and will be defused on Sunday

Greek authorities on Saturday began evacuating some 70,000 people in the city of Thessaloniki ahead of an operation to defuse a bomb from World War II. The bomb, containing nearly 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of explosives, was unearthed in the northern city during road works last week and is due to be defused on Sunday. More than 300 disabled people and bedbound patients were set to be the first evacuated on Saturday using 20 ambulances, authorities from Greece's second city said. The full evacuation of all residents within a 1.9-kilometre (1.1-mile) radius of the bomb site, affecting three working-class neighbourhoods around west of the city-centre, is due to be completed before 0800 GMT on Sunday. Evacuation is "obligatory", regional security chief Apostolos Tzitzikostas told reporters Friday. The operation is unprecedented in Greece, "where a bomb of this size has never been found in an area this densely populated," Tzitzikostas added. Regional authorities said the entire operation would take up to eight hours, but local military spokesman Colonel Nikos Phanios was more cautious. "We don't know what we're going to find," he told AFP. Defusing the bomb and then moving it to a military shooting range "could take us up to two days", he added. It is not yet known which side in the war dropped the bomb or when it fell, Phanios said. A thousand police officers have been mobilised for the operation, with residents given several days' warning via the media, leaflets and posts on social networks. Thessaloniki residents were facing disruption on the bus and train networks, with facilities set up to host evacuees in need of shelter. People living in a nearby refugee camp will also have to be evacuated, the migration ministry said, without specifying the number affected. At their request, the refugees will use the evacuation as an opportunity to visit the local archaeology museum, the ministry added. Seven decades after the end of World War II, unexploded bombs from the conflict are still being found around the globe. On January 23 dozens of people were evacuated after a bomb was found near a Hong Kong university, while three days before that Britain's navy disposed of a suspected World War II bomb found close to the parliament in London. In the German city of Augsburg, 54,000 people had an unwelcome Christmas surprise on December 25 when they had to leave their homes while authorities dealt with a bomb dropped by Britain during the war. (AFP)

Unexploded WWII bomb unearthed in Greece, 70,000 evacuated

Greek and Turkish warships were involved today in a brief face off near a group of disputed Greek islets in the Aegean, coinciding with renewed tensions between Athens and Ankara.

The Greek defence ministry said a Turkish navy missile boat, &quot;along with two special forces rafts,&quot; entered Greek territorial waters near the Imia islets.

Located just off the Turkish coast and claimed by Ankara, the unhabited rocky specks are an historic flarepoint in a long-running demarcation dispute.

Greek coastguard vessels and a navy gunboat shadowed the Turkish group, notifying them of the violation, and the Turks left the area after about seven minutes, it said.

In Turkey, the local media initially reported that the Turkish warship -- with Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar onboard -- was blocked by Greece from approaching the islets.

The private Dogan news agency reported that there were &quot;tense moments&quot; for half an hour before the Turkish ship returned to the Turkish peninsula of Bodrum.

But Turkish armed forces, quoted by the state-run news agency Anadolu, denied that the ship had been blocked, and said a small Greek coastguard vessel had watched from afar.

It added that General Akar was onboard the ship to &quot;review and inspect&quot; Turkish vessels in the Aegean.

The Imia islets -- called Kardak in Turkey -- lie just seven kilometres from Bodrum.

A row over their sovereignty islets flared in January 1996, when the two countries sent marines to two neighbouring islands in a sign of an imminent armed confrontation.

They then withdrew their troops after heavy diplomatic pressure by the United States, a fellow member of NATO.

Today&#39;s incident comes amid fresh tension between the two countries, after the Greek Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the extradition of eight former army officers who had fled to Greece after the failed July 15 coup.

Turkey lashed the ruling as &quot;political&quot; and threatened to scrap a &quot;readmission agreement&quot; under which Turkey has been taking in migrants landing illegally in Greece.&nbsp;

(AFP)

The Greek defence ministry said a Turkish navy missile boat 'along with two special forces rafts' entered Greek territorial waters

Greek and Turkish warships were involved today in a brief face off near a group of disputed Greek islets in the Aegean, coinciding with renewed tensions between Athens and Ankara. The Greek defence ministry said a Turkish navy missile boat, "along with two special forces rafts," entered Greek territorial waters near the Imia islets. Located just off the Turkish coast and claimed by Ankara, the unhabited rocky specks are an historic flarepoint in a long-running demarcation dispute. Greek coastguard vessels and a navy gunboat shadowed the Turkish group, notifying them of the violation, and the Turks left the area after about seven minutes, it said. In Turkey, the local media initially reported that the Turkish warship -- with Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar onboard -- was blocked by Greece from approaching the islets. The private Dogan news agency reported that there were "tense moments" for half an hour before the Turkish ship returned to the Turkish peninsula of Bodrum. But Turkish armed forces, quoted by the state-run news agency Anadolu, denied that the ship had been blocked, and said a small Greek coastguard vessel had watched from afar. It added that General Akar was onboard the ship to "review and inspect" Turkish vessels in the Aegean. The Imia islets -- called Kardak in Turkey -- lie just seven kilometres from Bodrum. A row over their sovereignty islets flared in January 1996, when the two countries sent marines to two neighbouring islands in a sign of an imminent armed confrontation. They then withdrew their troops after heavy diplomatic pressure by the United States, a fellow member of NATO. Today's incident comes amid fresh tension between the two countries, after the Greek Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the extradition of eight former army officers who had fled to Greece after the failed July 15 coup. Turkey lashed the ruling as "political" and threatened to scrap a "readmission agreement" under which Turkey has been taking in migrants landing illegally in Greece. (AFP)

Greek, Turkish warships face off near disputed Greek islets in the Aegean

The International Monetary Fund will not join the Greek bailout programme but will likely accept a special advisory status with limited powers that keeps it at the table, two senior sources with direct knowledge of the proposals said.

The IMF has been holding out for more than a year over the terms under which it would participate in any new program, arguing that the financial targets set in the European bailout are unrealistic without major debt relief.&nbsp;

But the Fund is increasingly resigned to European resistance to debt relief for Greece and it is now in talks to accept a newly created role that would let it play a part with limited formality, the sources said.&nbsp;

&quot;It will be more than an advisor but the role will not have the strict conditionality, like the compliance and economic health checks every three months,&quot; one of the sources told Reuters.&nbsp;

Talks between Greece, its European creditors and the IMF have been at an impasse since German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted on the IMF taking part but rejected calls from IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde for a big debt restructuring.

&quot;This way Lagarde can go to the board and say, hey, &#39;I&#39;m not violating our rules&#39;&nbsp;and Schaeuble, whose government is facing an election next fall, can say, &#39;see, I have the IMF on board`&quot; the source said.&nbsp;

The exact nature of the IMF`s role has not been decided but it would have more powers than a simple advisor and would&nbsp;for example, be responsible for drawing up certain proposed agreements and negotiating documents, coordinating with the Greek and European Union sides.&quot;

They won&#39;t put money into the programme but it won&#39;t be just technical assistance; they will probably take a special advisory role to be created especially for the Greek bailout,&quot; the second source said.&nbsp;

&quot;Talks this week just made it clear that the IMF just can`t come on board formally.&quot;

&quot;They will remain part of the troika and be at all the talks,&quot; the source added.

Greek and IMF officials held talks at the Funds&#39;&nbsp;fall meetings in Washington this week, discussing this special status, which was supported by the Greek side. Despite the change in the IMF`s role, Greek officials believe it will aid them having a body that supports debt restructuring at the table.

The IMF was not immediately available for comment on the what the sources said.&nbsp;

Poul Thomsen, director of the IMF&#39;s European Department, said on Friday that the IMF is still &quot;fully engaged&quot; on Greece but is insisting on debt relief, although this need not come in the form of principal reduction, Reuters reported.&nbsp;

&quot;We have not changed our mind on this. This discussion we will have in the coming months,&quot; Thomsen said.

The Greek economy has suffered from a deep recession with demand weighed down by fiscal cutbacks, a heavy tax burden, capital controls and a lack of investment.&nbsp;

The sources added that while the IMF is officially expecting the economy to grow by 0.1 per cent, the actual figure is still likely to be in negative territory. That is far short of the IMF`s 2.8 per cent target for next year in the Fund`s latest economic projections.

The sources said that an agreement over Greek debt relief was still possible but the window of opportunity was very narrow and depended on the quick conclusion of the next bailout review.

If the review drags on, then talks would be put off until after German elections next fall as any discussion on restructuring debt will irk German voters, the sources said.

The Greek side argues that it does not need a haircut but could manage its debt if its repayments were smoothed out, maturities were extended and more expensive IMF debt was swapped for cheaper European funding.

Some of these measures are not acceptable for the EU, however, so talks have moved only slowly.&nbsp;

The Greek economy would also get a major boost from being included in the European Central Bank`s sovereign debt buying programme but that is not likely to happen until the end of the first quarter of 2017, at the earliest, one of the sources said.

The ECB could buy just under 3 billion Euros of Greek debt, a relatively small amount for the economy, but potentially a major confidence booster.&nbsp;

(Reuters)

Two senior sources said IMF will accept a special advisory status with limited powers that keeps it at the table

The International Monetary Fund will not join the Greek bailout programme but will likely accept a special advisory status with limited powers that keeps it at the table, two senior sources with direct knowledge of the proposals said. The IMF has been holding out for more than a year over the terms under which it would participate in any new program, arguing that the financial targets set in the European bailout are unrealistic without major debt relief. But the Fund is increasingly resigned to European resistance to debt relief for Greece and it is now in talks to accept a newly created role that would let it play a part with limited formality, the sources said. "It will be more than an advisor but the role will not have the strict conditionality, like the compliance and economic health checks every three months," one of the sources told Reuters. Talks between Greece, its European creditors and the IMF have been at an impasse since German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted on the IMF taking part but rejected calls from IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde for a big debt restructuring. "This way Lagarde can go to the board and say, hey, 'I'm not violating our rules' and Schaeuble, whose government is facing an election next fall, can say, 'see, I have the IMF on board`" the source said. The exact nature of the IMF`s role has not been decided but it would have more powers than a simple advisor and would for example, be responsible for drawing up certain proposed agreements and negotiating documents, coordinating with the Greek and European Union sides." They won't put money into the programme but it won't be just technical assistance; they will probably take a special advisory role to be created especially for the Greek bailout," the second source said. "Talks this week just made it clear that the IMF just can`t come on board formally." "They will remain part of the troika and be at all the talks," the source added. Greek and IMF officials held talks at the Funds' fall meetings in Washington this week, discussing this special status, which was supported by the Greek side. Despite the change in the IMF`s role, Greek officials believe it will aid them having a body that supports debt restructuring at the table. The IMF was not immediately available for comment on the what the sources said. Poul Thomsen, director of the IMF's European Department, said on Friday that the IMF is still "fully engaged" on Greece but is insisting on debt relief, although this need not come in the form of principal reduction, Reuters reported. "We have not changed our mind on this. This discussion we will have in the coming months," Thomsen said. The Greek economy has suffered from a deep recession with demand weighed down by fiscal cutbacks, a heavy tax burden, capital controls and a lack of investment. The sources added that while the IMF is officially expecting the economy to grow by 0.1 per cent, the actual figure is still likely to be in negative territory. That is far short of the IMF`s 2.8 per cent target for next year in the Fund`s latest economic projections. The sources said that an agreement over Greek debt relief was still possible but the window of opportunity was very narrow and depended on the quick conclusion of the next bailout review. If the review drags on, then talks would be put off until after German elections next fall as any discussion on restructuring debt will irk German voters, the sources said. The Greek side argues that it does not need a haircut but could manage its debt if its repayments were smoothed out, maturities were extended and more expensive IMF debt was swapped for cheaper European funding. Some of these measures are not acceptable for the EU, however, so talks have moved only slowly. The Greek economy would also get a major boost from being included in the European Central Bank`s sovereign debt buying programme but that is not likely to happen until the end of the first quarter of 2017, at the earliest, one of the sources said. The ECB could buy just under 3 billion Euros of Greek debt, a relatively small amount for the economy, but potentially a major confidence booster. (Reuters)

IMF to stay out of Greek bailout: Report

Austria has handed over to France two suspected members of the same Islamic State (IS) cell that massacred 130 people in Paris last November, prosecutors said today. 
 
The Algerian and Pakistani men, now aged 29 and 35 and who have not been named, were arrested in Austria on December 10. 
Austrian and French authorities believe they travelled to Greece along with two men involved in the November 13 atrocities, posing as refugees. 
 
While the eventual assailants continued on to France, the two were detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had falsified Syrian passports. 
 
Once let go, they made it to Salzburg at the end of November -- after the Paris atrocities -- and Austrian police arrested them at a migrant centre. 
 
Following a French request, a court in Salzburg in western Austria approved at the beginning of July their transfer to France. 
 
&quot;Both suspects have now left the country,&quot; prosecutors said in a statement on Friday. 
 
They had said in April that they were looking into &quot;leads&quot; suggesting that the Pakistani may have been involved in attacks in 2008 in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people. 
 
He unsuccessfully appealed against his transfer, saying he would not get a fair trial in France and that he feared for his safety. 
Salzburg prosecutors added Friday that two more men, a Moroccan and an Algerian arrested eight days after the others, remained in custody. 
 
In December, prosecutors had said that the men, aged 25 and 40 at the time, were being held &quot;because of indications of close contact&quot; with the two who have now been transferred to France. 
&nbsp;

Austrian and French authorities believe the men travelled to Greece along with 2 men involved in November 13 atrocities, posing as refugees

Austria has handed over to France two suspected members of the same Islamic State (IS) cell that massacred 130 people in Paris last November, prosecutors said today. The Algerian and Pakistani men, now aged 29 and 35 and who have not been named, were arrested in Austria on December 10. Austrian and French authorities believe they travelled to Greece along with two men involved in the November 13 atrocities, posing as refugees. While the eventual assailants continued on to France, the two were detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had falsified Syrian passports. Once let go, they made it to Salzburg at the end of November -- after the Paris atrocities -- and Austrian police arrested them at a migrant centre. Following a French request, a court in Salzburg in western Austria approved at the beginning of July their transfer to France. "Both suspects have now left the country," prosecutors said in a statement on Friday. They had said in April that they were looking into "leads" suggesting that the Pakistani may have been involved in attacks in 2008 in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people. He unsuccessfully appealed against his transfer, saying he would not get a fair trial in France and that he feared for his safety. Salzburg prosecutors added Friday that two more men, a Moroccan and an Algerian arrested eight days after the others, remained in custody. In December, prosecutors had said that the men, aged 25 and 40 at the time, were being held "because of indications of close contact" with the two who have now been transferred to France.

Austria hands over November 13 Paris attack 'accomplices' to France

greece

Greece, News on Greece, stories on Greece, articles on Greece, Greece stories at Wion, Greece news, Greece latest news