Education Minister Hekia Parata leaves for Greece today to represent New Zealand at the 75th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Crete.

Greek-American Professor Lydia Kavraki, the Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, received the 2016 Presidential Award for Mentoring.

The National Meteorological Service on Thursday warned that a veil of North African dust that has covered much of Greece since Wednesday is expected to get worse on Friday before dissipating over the weekend.

Having reached a staff level agreement with Greece’s creditors, the government is now focused on legislating prior actions as well as its proposed contingency mechanism to complete the review of its third bailout, ahead of the May 24 Eurogroup meeting.