ATHENS: Greece has suspended flights from Britain and nearly all incoming travel from Turkey, an official said Monday as the official coronavirus death toll rose to 17.
Flights from Britain and all travel from Turkey, except that by Greek nationals, residents and goods, are suspended to April 15, acting government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni told reporters.
The announcement came hours after Greek authorities began enforcing a nationwide lockdown, limiting people to their homes except for essential outings.
Greece has already suspended flights from Italy, Spain and non-EU countries.
Special flights have brought back over 1,000 Greeks, the foreign ministry said Sunday.
Those returning, mainly from other European countries, are going into compulsory 14-day quarantine.
There are 17 recorded deaths and 624 officially announced infections from the coronavirus in Greece, which has a population of 11 million.
The tough new measures mirror similar restrictions rolled out in other European nations, including hard-hit Italy, Spain and France.
Since reporting its first death from the virus on March 12, Greece has gradually rolled out measures to limit gatherings and non-essential travel along with closing schools, shops and entertainment venues.
Greece severs contact with Turkey, suspends UK flights
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Greece severs contact with Turkey, suspends UK flights
- Flights from Britain and all travel from Turkey, except that by Greek nationals, residents and goods, are suspended to April 15
- There are 17 recorded deaths and 624 officially announced infections from the coronavirus in Greece, which has a population of 11 million
Venezuela parliament unanimously approves amnesty law
CARACAS: Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday unanimously approved a long-awaited amnesty law that could free hundreds of political prisoners jailed for being government detractors.
But the law excludes those who have been prosecuted or convicted of promoting military action against the country — which could include opposition leaders like Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who has been accused by the ruling party of calling for international intervention like the one that ousted former president Nicolas Maduro.
The bill now goes before interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who pushed for the legislation under pressure from Washington, after she rose to power following Maduro’s capture during a US military raid on January 3.
The law is meant to apply retroactively to 1999 — including the coup against previous leader Hugo Chavez, the 2002 oil strike, and the 2024 riots against Maduro’s disputed reelection — giving hope to families that loved ones will finally come home.
Some fear, however, the law could be used by the government to pardon its own and selectively deny freedom to real prisoners of conscience.
Article 9 of the bill lists those excluded from amnesty as “persons who are being prosecuted or may be convicted for promoting, instigating, soliciting, invoking, favoring, facilitating, financing or participating in armed actions or the use of force against the people, sovereignty, and territorial integrity” of Venezuela “by foreign states, corporations or individuals.”
Venezuela’s National Assembly had delayed several sittings meant to pass the amnesty bill.
“The scope of the law must be restricted to victims of human rights violations and expressly exclude those accused of serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity, including state, paramilitary and non-state actors,” UN human rights experts said in a statement from Geneva Thursday.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Venezuelans have been jailed in recent years over plots, real or imagined, to overthrow the government of Rodriguez’s predecessor and former boss Maduro, who was in the end toppled in the deadly US military raid.
Family members have reported torture, maltreatment and untreated health problems among the inmates.
The NGO Foro Penal says about 450 prisoners have been released since Maduro’s ouster, but more than 600 others remain behind bars.
Family members have been clamoring for their release for weeks, holding vigils outside prisons.
One small group, in the capital Caracas, staged a nearly weeklong hunger strike which ended Thursday.
“The National Assembly has the opportunity to show whether there truly is a genuine will for national reconciliation,” Foro Penal director Gonzalo Himiob wrote on X Thursday ahead of the vote.
On Wednesday, the chief of the US military command responsible for strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats off South America held talks in Caracas with Rodriguez and top ministers Vladimir Padrino and Diosdado Cabello .
All three were staunch Maduro backers who for years echoed his “anti-imperialist” rhetoric.
Rodriguez’s interim government has been governing with US President Donald Trump’s consent, provided she grants access to Venezuela’s vast oil resources.
