ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis insisted Friday there was no “immediate danger” from an unprecedented wave of quakes on the tourist island of Santorini that has forced thousands of residents to leave.
The state was “fully deployed not because we believe... that something disastrous is going to happen, but because we must be ready for any eventuality,” Mitsotakis said during a meeting on the island with local officials.
Santorini — which is part of a spectacular volcanic caldera — and the neighboring Aegean Sea islands of Amorgos, Ios and Anafi have been hit by hundreds of tremors since the weekend.
The activity has baffled scientists, who say that the region has not experienced seismic activity on this scale since records began in 1964.
The seismology laboratory of Athens University on Friday said over 7,700 tremors had been recorded since Jan. 26.
One of the experts advising the government on the phenomenon, seismologist Costas Papazachos, told the Kathimerini daily Friday that the activity “will continue for two to three weeks” based on the latest data.
The barrage was weaker Friday, but was still punctuated by a 4.8-magnitude tremor. The strongest was a 5.2-magnitude quake on Thursday.
No injuries or damage have been reported.
Over 11,000 residents and seasonal workers have left Santorini since the weekend by sea and air, with operators adding extra flights and ferries.
Schools on more than a dozen islands in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea were shut this week as a precaution, prompting many people with children to leave Santorini until the quake scare eases.
Santorini lies atop a volcano which last erupted in 1950.
Mitsotakis on Friday said that volcanic activity in the area was “not unusual” and did not entail any “immediate, particular danger.”
“We hope this sequence will dissipate without producing a major earthquake,” Mitsotakis said.
One of Greece’s top travel destinations, Santorini attracted about 3.4 million visitors in 2023. Upwards of a million of those were cruise ship passengers.
Greek PM insists no danger from Santorini quake swarm
https://arab.news/9dcsc
Greek PM insists no danger from Santorini quake swarm
- The activity has baffled scientists, who say that the region has not experienced seismic activity on this scale since records began in 1964
- The seismology laboratory of Athens University on Friday said over 7,700 tremors had been recorded since Jan. 26
Bangladesh’s leading contender for PM returns after 17 years in exile
DHAKA: Millions of supporters crowded the streets of Dhaka on Thursday to welcome Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who has returned to his country after more than 17 years in exile.
Rahman, the son of ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, waved to the large crowds from the front of a BNP bus escorted by security, as people lined the route from the capital’s airport to a reception venue, waving national and party flags, chanting slogans and carrying banners and flowers.
His return comes in the wake of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster last year and as Bangladesh gears up to hold general elections in February, for which he is emerging as a leading contender to become prime minister.
“As a member of the BNP, I want to say in front of you that I have a plan for the people of my country, for my country,” Rahman said as he addressed a throng of supporters in Dhaka.
“This plan is for the interest of the people of the country, for the development of the country and for changing the fate of the people. For this, I need support from each and every one of this country. If you people stand beside us, God willing, we would be able to implement those plans.”
The 60-year-old lived in London after he fled Bangladesh in 2008 over what he called a politically motivated persecution.
After facing multiple criminal convictions in Bangladesh, including money laundering and charges linked to an alleged plot to assassinate Hasina, courts acquitted him following Hasina’s removal from office, clearing the legal obstacles that delayed his return.
Rahman’s homecoming is “significant” as it comes as Bangladesh is going through a “very critical political crisis,” said analyst Prof. Dilara Choudhury.
“People of Bangladesh, they are expecting that there will be free and fair elections, and whoever wins will form the government and forward to the transition. In that sense, his return is significant.”
Bangladesh will hold parliamentary elections on Feb. 12, its first vote since a student-led uprising removed Hasina and her Awami League-led government from power in August 2024.
The South Asian nation of nearly 175 million people has since been led by interim leader Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, who took over governance after Hasina fled to India, where she is now in self-exile.
As the Yunus-led administration has banned Awami League from all activities, meaning the former ruling party would not be able to join the upcoming race, the BNP is on course to win the largest number of parliamentary seats, according to a survey published in December by the US-based International Republican Institute.
“I believe a new era in our politics will start with the arrival of Tarique Rahman in the country,” political analyst Mahbub Ullah told Arab News.
“He will take the realms of his party with his own hand and he will do all kinds of things to organize the party and lead the party to victory in the next election.”
