US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns yesterday expressed Washington’s support for the Ecumenical Patriarchate after meeting with Patriarch Vartholomaios in Istanbul. Burns said that the USA would also continue to support the Patriarchate’s efforts to reopen the theological seminary on the island of Halki but said that the issue needed to be resolved with the Turkish government. “We should leave the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Turkish authorities to discuss the relevant details of the matter. We are sure that with the necessary good will there will be progress.”

The body of a man around the age of 30 was found in the Ano Liosia landfill in northwestern Athens yesterday wrapped in a bedsheet, police said. The man had suffered several head injuries, indicating that his death was likely murder, police added. A truck collecting rubbish from the southern suburbs had picked up the body that had been thrown into a roadside dumpster, according to authorities.

A cruise ship carrying 930 Israeli tourists docked at the Dodecanese island of Rhodes yesterday after beginning to list. The Merchant Marine Ministry said that the Bahamas-flagged vessel listed some 10 degrees due to the failure of an electric pump. The Dream is conducting a cruise of the Mediterranean and is due to travel to Cyprus before returning to Israel.