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Man suffers burns as wildfire rages on CreteA man was being treated for burns and breathing problems in a hospital in Crete as a wildfire raged out of control in the eastern part o the island on Saturday.According to witnesses, the man fled his home in Mavros Kolymbos during an evacuation order but he is believed to have returned to the village to protect his house. He is being treated in the hospital’s ICU though the extend of his injuries was not immediately clear.Earlier on Saturday, authorities ordered the evacuation of four residential settlements, the fire department said.Authorities ordered the precautionary evacuation of the Achlia, Galini, Agia Fotia and Mavros Kolimpos settlements, home to around 300 people, as the blaze got close to some homes.About 120 firefighters were battling the blaze on the ground, assisted by two helicopters.
Fugitive judge heading to jail after 19 yearsThe fugitive ex-judge Antonia Ilia appeared before a Court of Appeal on Friday after her extradition from the UK and is expected to be transferred to the Eleonas Prison in Thiva.She had been sentenced to 13 years in prison for money laundering in 2005 in absentia as she had already left the country.Seven other judges, two court officials, eight lawyers, the former archimandrite Iakovos Yosakis and a military doctor were also defendants in the trial.She fled to England where she worked as a teacher until she was arrested by British authorities in 2011.
Ibiza locals living in cars as party island sees rents soar
New right to ask for flexible working from first day in job comes into forceNew rights to request flexible working should benefit millions of workers, according to workplace experts.From Saturday, employees will have the legal right to request flexible working from their first day in a new job. Previously, it only applied if someone had worked for their employer for 26 weeks or more.
The Carers Leave Act: New law to guarantee five days leave for unpaid carersA new law giving up to two million employees with unpaid caring responsibilities 'carers leave' has been hailed a "pressure release valve" from the "constant juggle".The Carers Leave Act, which starts on 6 April, will enable unpaid carers to ask for up to five days leave from their employer - with it also protecting them from dismissal for taking the leave.Carer Laura Barnes, from Rochdale, says it will relieve some of the unrelenting pressure.
Mapping Greece’s seabed with brand-new toolsThe Center for Marine Research has recently acquired the instruments to map out faults at least 2 km below the floor of the Aegean and Ionian
TUI announces more flights from Bournemouth AirportAIRLINE TUI has announced it is adding an extra 15,000 seats on planes at Bournemouth Airport for next summer. This additional capacity will see increased frequency for Bournemouth customers and will include flights to Kefalonia in Greece twice a week.
Greece’s fire season hasn’t officially started but large wildfires are already breaking outIn a drill at a 12th century monastery near Athens, a fast-approaching wildfire threatens to trap clergy and a group of people attending a baptism.Volunteers and firefighters race to pull them to safety through clouds of red smoke, as a drone buzzing overhead sends live video of the rescue to a national coordination center.Members of the baptism party are played by actors hired for the day by the Fire Service and the regional authority, and smoke flares are used to mimic fire conditions.The exercise held on Thursday and multiple drills planned this month have taken on added urgency ahead of the fire season that officially starts May 1.Temperatures touched 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in late March and large wildfires are already breaking out weeks earlier than expected.To cope with the crisis, Greece is fast-tracking a 2.1 billion euro ($2.3 billion) program to upgrade its fleet of water tankers and create an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect smoke in the early stages of a fire.But delivery of the new equipment won’t start until next year, leaving planners to scramble to find alternatives to cut response times.Deliveries to Greece of seven new Canadian-built DHC-515 firefighting aircraft, part of a larger European Union order by six member states, will begin in 2027.
Political spam sparks uproar in Greece ahead of EU voteHundreds of Greeks residing in European countries and the United States last month complained after receiving unsolicited emails from EU lawmaker Anna-Michelle Assimakopoulou, a member of the ruling conservative New Democracy party.Two officials resigned over the case, and investigations are underway by the Athens prosecutor's office and the independent Greek data protection watchdog HDPA.HDPA chairman Konstantinos Menoudakos told AFP in an interview that although misuse of personal data is not uncommon during electoral campaigns, the scale of the breach is unprecedented.The case has embarrassed the Greek government at a time when postal voting for the country's sizeable diaspora is to be used for the first time in June.Government officials have been at pains to stress that the voters' email addresses were improperly exchanged long before the postal voting reform was introduced in January, and that adequate safeguards have been enacted since.A senior interior ministry official and the head of New Democracy's diaspora department resigned over the incident. Assimakopoulou also withdrew her candidacy for the June 9 vote.In 2022, the country was shaken by a scandal involving the illegal wiretapping of dozens of politicians and journalists by cellphone spyware called Predator.
Food companies face fines over “unfair profiteering” in GreeceGreece’s Ministry of Development has issued fines totalling €380,000 ($413,000) to several local food businesses over their “unfair” profits.Three of the groups penalised have been named: meat products wholesaler Denaxas; frozen fish manufacturer Vassiliou Trofinko; and discount retail giant Lidl.Following an investigation led by the Ministry, the companies were found to be benefiting from “unfair profiteering” – achieving gross profits higher than those recorded in December 2021.Their reported actions violate article 54 of the 5045/2023 law introduced last year by the Greek government that prohibits companies from making gross profits from the sale of goods deemed essential for everyday consumer use, such as food.
Calls for criminal code reform in Greece after woman is murdered outside police stationThere are calls for femicide – the killing of women or girls with a gender-related motivation – to be recognised in Greece’s criminal code following the death of a 28-year-old woman outside an Athens police station.Authorities ordered an investigation into the woman’s fatal stabbing not far from Aghii Anargyri police station, where she requested protection from an ex-boyfriend.A police statement on Tuesday said the victim visited the station with a friend and reported that the 39-year-old man had been loitering outside her home.She had made formal complaints in the past for abusive behaviour and state broadcaster ERT report that past abuse resulted in a miscarriage.The statement read that she requested a patrol car to take her home for her protection, but because she declined to make a formal complaint, she was directed to phone the police emergency line to send a vehicle.She made the call on her way out of the precinct but “while she was talking to a police operator she was suddenly attacked by her former partner, who fatally injured her with a knife.”
Sacred forests are resilient and show capacity for recovery and expansion, Greece study findsNew research has shown that the special status of sacred forests also gives them important ecological characteristics, in particular a high resilience that enables them to recover after periods when they were damaged and degraded.The sacred status of these forests in Epirus, northwestern Greece, is conferred due to their association with the Greek Orthodox Church. Many of the forests have a church building or other religious feature at their cultural core and have been protected from exploitation down the generations by strict prohibitions enforced through the spiritual beliefs of local people and the continuation of sacred rituals.Taking wood cores from the trees in five of these forests and measuring their growth rings has shown big fluctuations in the rate at which new trees have established since the oldest measured tree, which was dated to 1621. A peak in the emergence of new trees was found during periods when human populations were low. There was also good evidence to show that the mature trees of the sacred forests acted as a nucleus from which seeds dispersed enabling new trees to establish and expand the forest cover out into the landscape.
Italian Island’s Goat Bounty: Islanders Offer Free Goats to Anyone Who Can Catch ThemThe small and remote Italian island of Alicudi, home to just 100 residents, is overrun by goats that now outnumber the human population by a ratio of about six to one.Desperate to address the situation, the local mayor, Riccardo Gullo, is urging anyone willing to adopt a goat to take them off the island.Goats were introduced to the island just two decades ago, according to the regional authorities in Sicily. They were released by a local farmer and allowed to roam freely. However, the goats bred and multiplied and have now overwhelmed the inhabitants of Alicudi who are outnumbered by the animals.Mr Gullo explained that the “adopt-a-goat” program was initiated due to the local authority’s decision not to cull the goats.
Dozens of flights cancelled as Storm Kathleen hits UK with 70mph winds
Two planes collide at Heathrow Airport while aircraft being towedAn investigation has been launched after two passenger planes collided while one of the aircraft was being towed at Heathrow Airport.Footage posted on social media shows a Virgin Atlantic plane’s wing touching a British Airways aircraft, surrounded by emergency services.The Virgin Boeing 787-9 plane had completed a flight and was being towed to a different part of the airfield with no passengers on board at the time of the incident, it is understood.Virgin said it has launched an investigation into the collision.The aircraft has been taken out of service and engineering teams are performing maintenance checks on it, the airline added.The British Airways (BA) aircraft was stationary at the time of the incident and is being assessed by engineering teams, the company said.
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Topic: 06/04/24 (Read 924 times)
