Greece is pressing ahead with plans to start deporting migrants and refugees back to Turkey next week, despite mounting concern from the UN and human rights organisations that Syrians could be denied proper protection.

Monitors from Turkey have arrived on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios to help supervise an agreement aimed at limiting the number of refugees and migrants travelling to the European Union.

Eight people are missing after a wooden boat carrying migrants or refugees attempting to reach the Aegean island of Lesbos sank after colliding with a patrol boat during a rescue operation.

Greece’s coastguard says it has rescued 922 people over the past three days as they attempted to reach eastern Aegean islands clandestinely from the nearby Turkish coast.

Greece’s coast guard has rescued 922 people over the past three days as they attempted to reach eastern Aegean islands from the nearby Turkish coast.

Another child’s body has been washed up on a beach in western Turkey. The body of a four-year-old Syrian girl’s body was discovered yesterday.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Call on all member states to support under-pressure countries.

Jennifer Johnston was anything but confident when writing her new novel she tells Caroline O’Doherty , despite having firm views on its subject matter

Marine archaeologists have salvaged ancient wine vases piled on the hull of a 2,350-year-old cargo ship lying on the seabed off Cyprus’ southern shore, the island’s Antiquities Department said today.

Survivors from a 40-member group of illegal migrants have accused Greece of throwing them into the sea off the Turkish coast, Turkey’s coastguard said today.

A blanket ban on the import of live birds into the European Union is expected to be agreed today as more cases of the most deadly strain of avian flu are confirmed.

THE European Commission yesterday banned imports of pet birds and feathers from most of Russia in the latest move to combat the spread of avian flu.

Greece today said it had banned the export of live birds, poultry meat and products from Aegean Sea islands neighbouring an islet where the country’s first bird flu case was detected yesterday.

European Union foreign ministers are holding emergency talks today on the widening bird flu scare, a day after tests in Greece indicated the virus had reached the EU for the first time.

Two sailors were killed and five others were missing today after a North Korean flagged cargo ship sank in a storm in the eastern Aegean Sea, authorities said.

Falling off a bicycle is not only dangerous for your health; in Greece it could also land you in court.