The close defense relations between France and Greece were affirmed Monday during the visit of French Minister of Defense Sebastien Lecornu.

A Cyprus court has sentenced a Syrian national to five years in prison for helping 31 Syrian migrants reach the east Mediterranean island nation aboard an overloaded boat, the attorney general’s office said Monday.

The government’s policy operates on two levels, preserving fiscal stability, on the one hand, while also unleashing growth enclaves, on the other, National Economy and Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said on Monday at the start of a press conference on the “Utilization of Financial Tools to Support Society and the Economy.”

The priority is the financing of housing programs, within the framework of the revision of the National Strategic Reference Framework, Alternate Minister of National Economy Nikos Papathanasis said on Monday, essentially announcing a new housing program from the fall, when the relevant negotiations will be completed.

Vassilis Nakkas, Christina Papakyritsi, Sotiris Tsoukarelis and Thaleia Pantoula stand in the courtyard of the old school in Demati, a village in the Zagori cluster in Epirus, northwestern Greece.