Tag Archives: Mediterranean

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan redoubled his call Monday for the international recognition of northern Cyprus, making the Mediterranean statelet his first port of call since his re-election. Erdogan met the north’s leader Ersin Tatar, whose rule is recognized only by Turkey, two weeks after extending his two-decade rule until …

Thirty people are missing and 17 were rescued in the central Mediterranean on Sunday after the boat in which they were travelling from Libya capsized in bad weather, Italy’s coastguard said. Alarm Phone, a charity that picks up calls from migrant vessels in distress, assumed the 30 people were dead …

An Algerian court Thursday sentenced 49 people to death over the lynching of a man falsely accused of starting deadly forest fires during an extended heatwave last year, state media reported. The North African country has, however, maintained a moratorium on carrying out death sentences since the last executions in …

Egypt and Greece on Sunday said a deal allowing Turkish hydrocarbon exploration in Libya’s Mediterranean waters was “illegal” as Athens said it would oppose it by all “legal means.” On Monday, Turkey said it had signed a memorandum of understanding on exploration for hydrocarbons in Libya’s seas with the authorities …

A violent and unexpected storm battered the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on Thursday, killing at least six people including a teenage girl, and meteorologists predicted more bad weather to come. Hail, heavy rain, and winds peaking at 224 km per hour (140 mph) swept the island early in the …

At least four migrants have died after their boat was wrecked on an islet north of the island of Antikythera on Thursday, the Greek coastguard said, adding that rescue crews had mounted an operation to rescue about 90 other people. Greece is one of the main routes into the European …

A boat carrying the bodies of 10 migrants found dead at sea arrived in Sicily on Friday, along with dozens of people it rescued this week as they tried to cross the Mediterranean. The crew of the Geo Barents vessel, run by charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), found the corpses …

An earthquake struck off the Greek island of Karpathos early on Tuesday, shaking towns and cities across the eastern Mediterranean, witnesses and media said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, however. “Really felt that one… Lasted for 30 seconds,” a witness in Lindos, Rhodes, said in …

Angela Merkel’s final visit to Turkey as German chancellor on Saturday saw two of Europe’s longest-serving leaders pay tribute to one another as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted her for farewell talks overlooking the Bosporus. Erdogan had been in office for more than two years when Merkel came to …

Turkey and Greece will hold the next round of bilateral talks aimed at addressing differences in the Mediterranean and elsewhere in Ankara on Oct. 6, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday, as the NATO members seek to repair their frayed ties. Greece and Turkey are at odds over issues …

Unusually strong winds and high late-summer temperatures hindered efforts on Friday to tame a wildfire near a popular resort in southern Spain that has forced over 1,000 people out of their homes and killed an emergency worker. Since erupting on Wednesday evening, the blaze has burned through around 3,600 hectares …

Iran’s first fuel tanker that set sail toward Lebanon two weeks ago has entered the Mediterranean Sea, as a second ship also begins its journey to assuage the sufferings endured by the Lebanese people under severe fuel shortages and American sanctions. Data from TankerTrackers, a global tanker tracking website, showed …

A large forest fire in the Greek island of Rhodes was taken under control early Monday morning, as the country continues to struggle with extreme temperatures and intense fires. #Rhodes seems to be calmer today. The smoke and ash cloud from Turkey seems to have blown away too. Not that …

Two humanitarian rescue ships pulled 394 migrants from a dangerously overcrowded wooden boat in the Mediterranean overnight on Sunday in an operation lasting about six hours, a Reuters witness said. The German and French NGO ships Sea-Watch 3 and Ocean Viking rescued the migrants in Tunisian waters 68 km (42 …

The death toll from wildfires on Turkey’s southern coast has risen to four and firefighters were battling blazes for a third day on Friday after the evacuation of dozens of villages and some hotels. More than 60 wildfires have broken out across 17 provinces on Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coasts …

At least 57 people drowned on Monday after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast near Khums, the latest tragedy in the central Mediterranean, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. “According to survivors brought to shore by fishermen and the coast guard, at least 20 women and two …

A tourist area in Spain’s resort city of Marbella turned into a scene of horror as a car veered into a pedestrian area, plowing through sidewalk cafes and reportedly injuring about a dozen people. Graphic footage from Monday’s crash site shows wounded people along the sidewalk, overturned chairs and tables, …

Divers have discovered rare remains of a military vessel in the ancient sunken city of Thônis-Heracleion – once Egypt’s largest port on the Mediterranean – and a funerary complex illustrating the presence of Greek merchants, the country said on Monday. The city, which controlled the entrance to Egypt at the …

A bus carrying Afghan, Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrants crashed in eastern Turkey early on Sunday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 26 others, local authorities said. The crash occurred in Van province’s Muradiye district near the Turkish border with Iran, where the vehicle caught fire after tumbling into a …

At least 43 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off Tunisia as they tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy, while another 84 were rescued, the Tunisian Red Crescent told Reuters on Saturday. The boat had set off from Zuwara, on Libya’s northwest coast, carrying migrants from Egypt, Sudan, …