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Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Batang Gilas falls to mighty...

The Batang Gilas national youth team was clobbered by Greece, 85-65, on Saturday, August 9 in Group A action of the FIBA Under-17 World ...


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Moving to Greece From UK

Moving to Greece from UK may not be as widespread as other European countries, but for many expats who move to Greece it's the country's beauty, history and culture that make them decide. There is something special in Greece for expats and often it is a ...


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Moving to Greece From UK

Moving to Greece from UK may not be as widespread as other European countries, but for many expats who move to Greece it's the country's beauty, history and culture that make them decide. There is something special in Greece for expats and often it is a ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT questgreekislands.com

Russian Food Ban Will Hit Greek Goods

After 72 years, the US-funded public broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) plans to terminate its Greek service because END .article-big-block ...


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Greek economy in dire need of reforms

Greece is in need of radical reforms to its pension system if it is to cease being a burden on longer-term fiscal sustainability, and to prevent a rise in pension costs that would otherwise see ...


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Watch List: Vanda Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VNDA), Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN), Microchip ...

According to recent Bloomberg news report, National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG) buy-out unit, is waiting to be lapped through a consortium of ...


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POLITICAL PERCH: From the Greek polis to Cohasset Town Meeting

Cohasset is approximately the ideal size of an Ancient Greek polis. While I do not think Cohasset should become a Greek polis I do think that a large ...


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Online suggestions point to abolishing Greek life

Abolishing Greek life was the most popular submission received online by the "Moving Dartmouth Forward" presidential steering committee, receiving ...


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FIBA World U-17: Gallant Batang Gilas falls to hot-shooting Greece

But Greece ruled the next two quarters, holding the Philippines to just nine and seven points, respectively, in the second and third periods. That gave ...


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Banana Bread Greek Yogurt Parfait

I've got a new favorite way to start my morning…full, tasty and brimming with great textures! This treat I'm alluding to is the every popular Greek Yogurt ...


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Search under way for body of man ordered killed by in-laws

Police over the weekend were looking for the remains of a 43-year-old Albanian national after five suspects gave police evidence suggesting that he had been killed by a hit man. According to reports on Saturday, the victim’s Greek parents-in-law hired a 4... ...


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Greek Colonists in U.S.

I am often challenged when I speak well of the history of Greeks in the United States. “Oh, the Slavs, Italians or Polish immigrants could make the very same claims,” I am told, as if what the Greek’s accomplished is nothing special. If no one group is “exceptional,” then this nation owes its existence to […] The post Greek Colonists in U.S. appeared first on The National Herald.


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Government eyes salary overhaul, tax breaks

As virtually all members of the Greek cabinet leave their posts for a week’s vacation, officials close to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras are putting the finishing touches on a plan to overhaul public sector salaries in line with pledges to the troika ahea... ...


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Where the wealthy unwind: Spetses, paradise for the rich in the Greek Islands

But it's hard to leave the embrace of Bar Spetsa, where the mood is both languid and high-powered. Dressed-down shipping scions, influential Greek ...


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Greece's Older Men May Never Work Again

The unemployment rate among older Greek males is about twice the euro-zone average, causing a financial and psychological struggle for a country in which older men are often families' sole breadwinners.


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Car sales up in July, ELSTAT data show

Car sales in Greece continued to rise in the month of the July, data published by the Hellenic Statistical Authority have shown. The number of new cars to go into circulation in July this year came to 10,744, representing a 13.9 percent rise compared to t... ...


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Thessaloniki coast guard officers make conraband cigarette haul

Coast guard officers in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, have arrested two suspects in connection with a cargo container carrying nearly 9 million packets of contraband cigarettes. The two suspects, aged 64 and 48, were arrested as they took possession of t... ...


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Italian professor reaches Athens, ending campaign for Parthenon Marbles' return

Wrapping up his campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum in London to Greece, Italian professor Salvatore Lo Sicco on Saturday visited the Acropolis Museum, where he met with museum Director Dimitris Patermalis and other of... ...


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The Beauty of Greece is a Joy Forever

When you visit Greece, you notice a discrepancy between the place and its state of affairs: beauty, beaten back by too much misery. The post The Beauty of Greece is a Joy Forever appeared first on The National Herald.


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Last minute holiday bargains to UK, Greece, Morocco, Spain, Canada and USA

Greece for £185pp: Round off the summer with this 14-night holiday to the Greek island of Zante, self-catering at the three-star Ioannis and Danny's ...


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Giannis Antetokounmpo held scoreless in debut as Greece tops Serbia 66-64 in FIBA World Cup ...

Warning: senior international play is not NBA basketball, and it's definitely not summer league basketball. That's the lens through which to view ...


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Greek ruling helps others

Sir: Last week’s ruling by the Supreme Court on the Greek yoghurt dispute (2 August, p42) underlines the position that ‘Greek yoghurt’ is a recognised term in the minds of the public and can only be applied to yoghurt originating from Greece and ...


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Tender for oil drilling targets sector’s giants

The international tender issued by the government last week for oil drilling in 20 areas in the Ionian Sea, Western Greece and off Crete, contains terms that can only be met by very large oil companies. Environment and Energy Ministry officials confirmed ... ...


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Farmers anxious as Russian food embargo looms

Greek diplomats continued their contacts with Russian counterparts over the weekend in a bid to secure an exemption for Greek products from the ...


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Greek soldiers threaten Turks, Albanians, Kosovans

Video footage of the Greek army chanting hateful slogans against Turks, Macedonians and Albanians has appeared on Kosovan national TV. The leaked footage shows around 50 Greek soldiers 'strengthening their national spirit' by singing songs about how they ...


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Greek Australians Most Reluctant to Leave Family Nest

Greek Australians are more reluctant to leave their family home and live on their own, according to a recent study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS). The study of 146,000 young people showed that just over 40% of Greeks, Chinese and ...


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Access to capital markets essential

Greece’s desire to avoid a third bailout loan to fill the projected financing gap in the 2015-2016 period depends to a large extent on its ability to maintain market access at reasonable interest rates. The sell-off in Greek bonds last week was a reminder... ...


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Navy helps coast guard patrol sea borders

The Hellenic Navy has contributed two gunboats and a frigate to the uphill effort by the coast guard to patrol Greece’s sea border with Turkey and manage the waves of migrants fleeing the Middle East and North Africa. According to Merchant Marine Ministry... ...


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Small Growth in Greek Hirings

ATHENS – It’s just a blip on the radar screen during unemployment rates still near record highs, but hirings in Greece in July were more than job losses. Figures published by the Labor Ministry on Aug. 8 on its Ergani database showed hires outpaced job losses by 13,275 although there are no government plans to […] The post Small Growth in Greek Hirings appeared first on The National Herald.


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Reader's Digest

Greek yogurt, a low-calorie source of protein and calcium, proves its versatility in these recipes from The Greek Yogurt Diet: The Fresh New Way to ...


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Bad loans cast a heavy shadow on bank recapitalization plans

The results of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) ongoing stress tests on 128 banks across the eurozone, including four Greek lenders, look like they will not be made public for some time yet. The results are officially scheduled to be announced in October... ...


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Elephant Mosaic In 5th Century Synagogue Uncovered

There are many amazing characters and creatures described in the Hebrew Bible, but elephants are not among them. Imagine the surprise of a team of archaeologists who were in the midst of their fourth summer of excavations at an ancient synagogue in Israel’s Lower Galilee when they discovered elephants in a mosaic panel where they expected only to find biblical scenes. There on the floor of a 5th century synagogue in the ancient Jewish village of Huqoq was an entire mosaic panel depicting non-biblical scenes, uncovered for the first time in 1,600 years. Until now, every other decoration archaeologists have discovered on an ancient synagogue has depicted scenes from the Hebrew Bible, as Director of the Huqoq excavations Jodi Magness from the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) told HuffPost. Three previous summers of excavations unearthed some fascinating but traditionally biblical discoveries, but during the 2014 dig season Magness and her team discovered an entire mosaic floor panel in the synagogue that depicted a three-part scene, which Magness said the creators likely intended as a story-telling decoration. "The three registers probably depict a story that was meant to be 'read' from bottom to top," Magness told HuffPost, "with the top register representing the culmination of the story." At the bottom of the panel is a depiction of a dying soldier pierced by a spear and holding a shield and a dying bull, who is also pierced by spears. The middle section shows a row of male figures dressed in ceremonial white tunics and mantles, Magness said, each framed by an arch. The central figure is elderly and bearded and holds what Magness said appears to be a scroll. The other men are young and hold swords or daggers. At the top of the panel there are two large, bearded male figures depicted in the center. One is a Greek military commander and ruler, which Magness said is indicated by his elaborate military attire, purple cloak and corded diadem, leading a bull by the horns. The other is an elderly bearded man -- apparently the same one depicted in the middle scene. To the left of the elderly man are young men in white tunics and mantles, as in the middle section. To the right of the commander is a row of soldiers and, surprisingly, battle elephants with shields tied to their sides. Because there are no stories from the Hebrew Bible involving elephants, Magness said, her team deemed the entire mosaic, which has been removed from the field for conservation, to be representative of a non-biblical story. The question is, what story was it depicting? Though Magness said she could not yet speculate on the mosaic's meaning, she did offer some suggestions. "The possibilities that we are considering include that this panel depicts the meeting between Alexander the Great and the Jewish high priest (a legend told in different versions by the ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and in rabbinic literature), or that it depicts a story based on the Maccabean martyrdom traditions," Magness told HuffPost by email. The Greek military commander and ruler. Whatever the mosaic's significance, Magness said the experience of seeing it for the first time was a highlight of her career. Orna Cohen, the site conservator, did the final work of uncovering the floor while the rest of the team looked on incredulously. "We knew we were coming down on a mosaic because we had found other mosaics nearby at the same level," Magness told HuffPost. "However, we did not know to what extent the mosaics were preserved, or what their content was. I gathered all of the staff and students that morning, and we stood around watching as Orna slowly and carefully cleaned the mosaic, bringing to light these images for the first time in 1600 years. It was amazing!" Huqoq voluteers watch as the mosaic is unveiled. Magness' team had encountered biblical scenes every summer preceding 2014, but even those were by no means generic, Magness said. First was Samson and the foxes, recounted in Judges 15:4, in which Samson takes revenge on the Philistines by using 300 paired foxes with lighted torches between their tails to burn down the agricultural fields of the Philistines. The other depicts Samson carrying the gate of Gaza, described in Judges 16:1-3. After visiting Gaza to sleep with a prostitute, Samson discovers that the townspeople have planned to attack him, but he fools them by pulling up the gate of Gaza and putting it on his shoulders as he walks towards Hebron. Samson carrying the gate of Gaza. Few decorations on ancient synagogues depict scenes with Samson -- in fact Magness said that so far only one other in Israel has been found with such a scene. Given that Jews in the 5th century were living under Byzantine Christian rule, Magness said, these congregations may have been looking for a messiah figure. "We believe that these Jewish congregations may have viewed Samson as a prototype of a messianic figure - a mighty warrior and redeemer who did great deeds on behalf of Israel," Magness told HuffPost. "In other words, these congregations might have thought that the future messiah will be a Samson-like figure."


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Chios Is The Most Magical Greek Island You Didn't Know Existed

This lesser-known isle sits happily in the northeastern area of the Aegean Sea. Chios is most famous for its cultivation and production of mastic, ...


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The wrong foreign policy stance

Back when socialism was flourishing in Greece – despite being a local version of Tony Blair’s Third Way – we still found it hard to give up our exceptionalist habits concerning foreign policy. It was the time when PASOK began to gravitate toward realism, ... ...


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Greek Products Will Take Russian Food Ban Hit

ATHENS – Despite assurances Greek foodstuffs may be exempted from a Russian food commodities ban on European countries and the US in retaliation for sanctions over Ukraine, Greek officials are preparing for what could be 180 million euros in losses. Earlier, Greek officials said they were hopeful that Russia, an ally and fellow Orthodox country […] The post Greek Products Will Take Russian Food Ban Hit appeared first on The National Herald.


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Turkey: Sumela Monastery Preparing for August 15 Celebrations

The Greek Orthodox Sumela Monastery has almost completed its preparations for the Divine Liturgy of August 15, the feast day of the Assumption of ...


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Greek classic is updated at Derby Theatre

Playwright Roy Williams said on adapting the classic Greek play: “I was intrigued to know if it was possible to set Antigone in a world that I have written ...


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Queen Elizabeth in Piraeus Port

One of the most luxurious cruise ships in the world, Queen Elizabeth, laid anchor in the Greek port of Piraeus. The ship was named by Queen Elizabeth of England herself in October 2010. The cruise ship will start its journey from Greece to finally arrive in Istanbul, Turkey. Queen Elizabeth displaces 90,400 tons, has a length of 294 meters, a width of 32 meters, a draught of 8 meters and can accommodate 2,058 passengers and 1,000 crew members. The ship is sailing around the Mediterranean for the last two months offering  7 and 14 day cruises.  A windowless cabin on a 7-day cruise costs 499 euros per person while a cabin with a private balcony costs 1099 euros. The ship left Greece on Friday morning for a 7 day cruise which will include many Greeks who prefer a luxurious floating five star hotel, than spending their holidays in Greece or abroad.


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Athens Airport Passenger Throughput at Record 8.24 Million

Greece, and Athens in particular, hit a new record this summer according to data released by the Athens International Airport (AIA), the only international airport of the Greek capital. July was a record-breaking month for passenger throughput that had an increase of 22 percent compared to July 2013, totaling an impressive 1.77 million passengers. AIA also said July was its best month for 2014, so far. The increase in passenger traffic came from domestic (+21.9 percent) and international (+23.0 percent) passengers, alike. July’s domestic passenger traffic rose to 586,947 passengers, with international traffic increased to 1,185,556 passengers. AIA saw a significant increase of 18.1 percent in total passenger throughput in the first seven months of 2014, to reach 8.24 million passengers at the end of July, 1.26 million passengers more compared to the corresponding period in 2013. International passenger throughput increased by 19.3 percent, while domestic passenger throughput rose by 15.9 percent.


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More Greek Property Tax Bill Anxiety

As Greek officials try to correct flawed property tax bills, taxpayers may have to make two payments in September. The post More Greek Property Tax Bill Anxiety appeared first on The National Herald.


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World War I and the arts: Carnage, tragedy produced new art conveyed in a jarring, new way

by  Associated Press World War I: the war that inspired innovative art by HILLEL ITALIE, Associated Press - 9 August 2014 05:00-04:00 NEW YORK (AP) — In the summer of 1914, with the war in Europe just two weeks old, Henry James knew that something had been lost forever. "Black and hideous to me is the tragedy that gathers, and I'm sick beyond cure to have lived on to see it," the American author, an expatriate in London at the time, wrote to a friend. "You and I, the ornaments of our generation, should have been spared this wreck of our belief that through the long years we had seen civilization grow and the worst become impossible. ... It seems to me to undo everything, everything that was ours, in the most horrible retroactive way." James died in 1916, two years before the armistice was declared between the allies and the Germans, and the wreckage of World War I was beyond even his imagination. Millions were dead, empires dissolved, centuries-old beliefs upended. Many survivors wondered how the world had been caught up in a war fought not for any identifiable cause, but because no one knew how to stop it. Prolonged conflicts destroy the worlds they were born in, and few did so as thoroughly and as terribly as World War I, which began 100 years ago this month. Among writers, World War I changed both the stories they told and how they told them. Artists in general left behind an extraordinary legacy of painting, music, literature and film and many of the defining achievements of a movement, Modernism, that challenged our very identities and raised questions still being asked today. "If you look at the 19th century, you have this whole notion of progress through technology — the notion of science, the increasing organization of society," says Jan Schall, an art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo. "What the war did was turn this ideal upside down. You had mass death through mass technological warfare — the use of chemicals, the use of machinery. And you see the impact on the kind of art that is being turned out, a sense of discontinuity and fragmenting." World War I was unique for the art it inspired, and for the art's disillusion with war itself; winners and losers both despaired. In an essay written for an ongoing World War I exhibit at the New York Society Library, the literary critic Adam Kirsch notes that poetry had a history dating back to ancient Greece of treating war as a tragic, but essential rite of passage and proving ground. World War I broke the spell. "Wars keep being fought, of course, but now they are justified on the grounds of necessity, self-defense, even human rights — never on the grounds that war itself is a splendid achievement or the true calling of men," Kirsch wrote. Poets and writers on both sides of the Atlantic at first cheered on the battle. Carl Sandburg's "Four Brothers" hailed the "Ballplayers, lumberjacks, ironworkers, ready in khaki/A million, ten million, singing, 'I am ready.'" The New York Society Library exhibit features releases from the British publisher, Wellington House, which specialized in a line of pro-war literature. Contributors included J.M. Barrie, Thomas Hardy and Arthur Conan Doyle, who met with troops in the spring of 1916 and completed "A Visit To Three Fronts" over the summer. "If there are pessimists among us they are not to be found among the men who are doing the work," Doyle wrote. "There is no foolish bravado, no underrating of a dour opponent, but there is a quick, alert, confident attention to the job in hand which is an inspiration to the observer. These brave lads are guarding Britain in the present. See to it that Britain guards them in the future!" The war overran and destroyed the dream. The German artist and sculptor Kaethe Kollwitz turned out a series of deathly statues, woodcuts and posters. American painter John Singer Sargent also spent time at the front and responded with an epic testament to the crimes of war, the 20-foot-long (6 meters) painting "Gassed," in which blinded soldiers form a procession that mocks the ideal of military discipline. Among anti-war poems, few were so bitter, or indelible, as the British poet Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est," with its wretched images and scorn for the venerable adage "Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori": ("It is sweet and proper to die for your country"). If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori. In "A Farewell to Arms," Ernest Hemingway declared that "Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates." T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men," one of the touchstones of post-war literature, sketches a ravaged, barren landscape: In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms In this last of meeting places We grope together And avoid speech Gathered on this beach of the tumid river _____ Soldiers returned maimed, traumatized, bewildered, a "lost generation," as Gertrude Stein called them. In Erich Maria Remarque's famous anti-war novel, "All Quiet On the Western Front," a German soldier rejects his patriotism, abandons his humanity and loses his life. Hemingway's short story "Soldier's Home" tells of a veteran named Krebs who finds that no one in his community wants to hear what really happened. "Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie and after he had done this twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it," Hemingway wrote. "A distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war set in because of the lies he had told." World War I was the last major conflict presided over by kings and Kaisers and the last to begin with even the pretense of old-fashioned rules of battle. Jean Renoir's "La Grande Illusion," released in 1937, was a classic portrait of how the war destroyed old beliefs in hierarchy and honor, embodied in the film by the bond between the aristocratic German captain played by Erich Von Stroheim and the captured French officer played by Pierre Fresnay. The officers "were at home in the international sportsmanship of the prewar world, but the skills, maneuvers, courage and honor that made military combat a high form of sportsmanship are a lost art, a fool's game, in this mass war," The New Yorker's Pauline Kael later wrote of the film. World War I was a severing of history, and a violation of logic, that justified the skepticism of Modernists who had questioned whether a book needed a beginning, middle and end, whether a song needed a melody, whether a picture needed to faithfully reproduce its subject — or even have a subject. James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and other Modernist authors rejected conventional narrative and grammar. Dadaist artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Hans Richter turned out jarring, surreal paintings, plays and sculptures that mirrored their feelings about the war, while composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg produced disjointed, "atonal" works. "War proved that everything was temporary, fleeting, and the art world reflected it," says Doran Cart, senior curator of the National World War I Museum in Kansas City. "And it helped inspire works of Modernism because the war itself was so modern and changed how people saw their communities and saw each other." Ironically, one of the war's most enduring legacies was not a protest, but a call to service. In 1917, commercial artist James Montgomery Flagg was asked by the U.S. government to create a poster that would encourage young people to join the military. He sketched a furrowed, red-cheeked man with a starred top hat and white goatee, the face based in part on Flagg himself. He added a simple caption: "I Want YOU For U.S. Army," shortened in popular memory to "UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU." News Topics: Arts and entertainment, General news, World War I, Art museums, War movies, Visual arts, Painting, Sculpture, Books and literature, War and unrest, Music, Events, Museums, Recreation and leisure, Lifestyle, Leisure travel, Travel, Movies, Entertainment People, Places and Companies: Carl Sandburg, J.M. Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Erich von Stroheim, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Chagnon, United Kingdom, United States, Kansas City, Western Europe, Europe, North America, Missouri Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Voice of America Leaves Greece

After 72 years, the US-funded public broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) plans to terminate its Greek service because of budget cuts. The post Voice of America Leaves Greece appeared first on The National Herald.


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2014 U17 Men's USA 83, Greece 73

2014 U17 Men's USA 83, Greece 73. Jayson Tatum. Photo 1 of 15. Facebook; Twitter; Google Plus; Email; Other. Jayson Tatum looks to pass to a ...


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Serbia Stay Up With Win Over Greece

Serbia consigned Greece to their sixth consecutive loss with a 52-43 victory in classification action at the U16 European Championship Women in ...


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Another day of fun in the sun! Lindsay Lohan covers up with white top and pink cardigan as she enjoys a boat ride in Greece

She is making the most of her time in Europe on what seems to be a never-ending vacation. And Lindsay Lohan was pictured enjoying yet another fun day out as she opted to go on a boat ride with pals on Friday. The 27-year-old actress was seen making her way ...


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Armenia and Its Russian-Imperialism Problem

Earlier this summer, a minor kerfuffle over an exhibition of artworks by famed Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) underscored a more serious problem facing Armenian culture and Armenia in general -- and, by extension, many of the former Soviet republics. Parajanov, born Sarkis Hovsepi Parajaniants, was one of the great Soviet-era filmmakers and an important force in 20th-century cinema. Simply put, the dispute lay in the fact that the exhibition at GiIbert Albert in New York City (June 16-30) was sponsored by the Russian American Cultural Foundation (RAF) as part of its Russian Heritage Month, although Parajanov was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to an Armenian family. He is buried at the Pantheon in Komitas Park, Yerevan's equivalent of Père Lachaise. Members of the Armenian diaspora were particularly incensed by what they perceived as an act of overt cultural imperialism on the part of "the Russians," made seemingly worse by the fact that the works were presented under the auspices of the Republic of Armenia's first lady, Rita Sargsyan. In their view, the contemporary Republic of Armenia was being complicit in undermining its own people's history and culture. Art historian Tamar Gasparian-Hovsepian wrote an impassioned and well-reasoned letter titled "Parajanov Rolling in his Grave": The irony, of course, is that Parajanov ... was neither an ethnic Russian nor did he ever consider himself Russian. Actually, it was the Russian-Soviet state that condemned him as a public enemy and a criminal, primarily due to his sexual orientation and also his art. He was imprisoned and sent to work in hard labor camps. ...Today, we know what Russia did to Parajanov's three Motherlands. Without having to go too deep into history, one can consider the Russian-Georgian relationship and the war, as well as the recent developments in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by Russia. And then there is Armenia, also under pressure to join the Putin-led Eurasian Customs Union. With Putin's stated longing for the return of the good old days of the USSR, bringing small, landlocked republics like Armenia back into the fold is one more step in that direction.True, Parajanov lived and created during the Soviet period. Yet that doesn't automatically make his art and legacy a part of the Russian culture.... Worse yet, lovers of Parajanov might have taken issue with the fact that the show took place in a Midtown jewelry store, of all locations, rather than in a proper art gallery. (Are you listening, Larry Gagosian?) Not surprisingly, the works, encased in glass, were difficult to view and lost much in their presentation. To many people looking in on this particular cultural skirmish, it all seemed like a tempest in a Russian teapot of sorts. James Steffen, a film historian at Emory who wrote the catalogue essay for the exhibition, does in fact mention that Parajanov was Armenian. And Parajanov Museum curator Zaven Sarkissian noted in a separate interview that he had tried to mount a show of Parajanov's work for several years outside Armenia, without any Armenian organizations or philanthropists lending a hand, financial or otherwise. Fair enough. For better or worse -- mainly worse -- Armenians are notoriously practical and mercantile in their undertakings and neglect cultural funding to a deplorable degree. But for diasporan Armenians, the issue is serious. Armenians depend, to an alarming and increasing degree, on Russia for everything from military assistance to basic goods and, to a certain extent, for leverage against traditional enemies Azerbaijian and Turkey -- this in spite of the fact that Russia sells copious amounts of arms to both Azerbaijian and Armenia. There are also 1 million Armenians in self-imposed exile in Russia, where work is easier to find than in the beleaguered Armenian Republic. Ties between Armenia and Russia run deep: Armenia is, for all intents and purposes, a vassal state of its northern neighbor; in fact, Russia's current foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is of Armenian descent. Christian Armenia is surrounded by unfriendly and mostly Muslim states (with the exception of Georgia and Iran, with whom it has tenuous and strong relations, respectively). Armenia does not, to the best of anyone's knowledge, possess a hydrogen or nuclear bomb. However, it is technologically advanced and does possess a large nuclear reactor in Metsamor and an army that punches way above its weight. So Armenia remains vulnerable. After the Armenian Genocide of 1915, in which 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman Turkey along with 1.5 million Assyrians, Pontic Greeks and Alevis, Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union against its will, initiating a 70-year period during which the motto "Better red than dead" generally prevailed in the Armenian diaspora. The Armenian government finds itself between the proverbial rock and a hard place, a political Scylla and Charybdis. The official policy that it has followed since independence, which it termed "complementarity," is a delicate balancing act meant to take advantage of Western and Russian support, or at least not overtly take sides. The idea is to avoid the fate of neighboring Georgia, whose one-sided, pro-Western orientation eventually led to that republic losing key territory to Abkhazians and South Ossetians after Russia bombed it into submission in 2008 during what is now referred to in the West as the Russian-Georgian War. And Vladimir Putin has recently flexed his muscles and is more or less forcing Armenia to join the Eurasian Customs Union (which it sponsors) rather than that of the European Union -- against almost everyone's better advice. Armenia has seen what happened in Georgia and the Ukraine, former republics that have chafed at Russian concerns and angered the Great Bear Up North. As with all small countries, the obvious answer for Armenia is to become truly self-sufficient. But in contravention to the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres and Woodrow Wilson's "Mandate for Armenia," the country was carved out by Lenin and Ataturk in 1921 after the Armenian Genocide, with only 10 percent of its historic homeland, and in such a way that it is now a long, almost indefensible sliver of land lacking a coastline. Natural resources are scarce, so, like Israelis or Singaporeans, Armenians must rely on their brain power -- and they have plenty of it -- and a powerful diaspora as its primary resources. As one might expect, these aren't exactly the strongest bargaining chips when compared with Baku's huge oil reserves. Like Jews, though, Armenians seem hellbent on survival and won their most recent conflict with the Azeris over the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno Karabagh. In the end, the New York Parajanov exhibit seems to have gone off without much of a hitch. A solution might have been to have presented him in a more fitting context -- say, as part of an Armenian Cultural Week or by presenting Parajanov as an Armenian artist who studied and resided in Russia for part of his life. The fact that much of this time was spent in a prison in Siberia, where he was imprisoned for being gay and a troublemaker of the most laudable sort, is an irony, I am sure, that would have been lost on no one.


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Young Artists Festival 2014 in Samos

The Greek island of Samos is hosting the Young Artists Festival for the fifth consecutive year. The week-long festival aims to bring together young artists from around the world and help them understand the cultural differences between all folk, through art. The Young Artists Festival, organized by the Schwarz Foundation, is a creative work platform where young people can exchange cultural views through art and dialogue. The Greek island of Samos was chosen due to its connection with both Europe and Asia. This year, the festival will take place at the Ancient Theater of Pythagorion Port, from August 7 to 13 and it will host artists from Greece, Germany, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Hungary, Argentina and USA. The Ancient Theater of Pythagorion is a place where Pythagoras first established the laws of Music and Physics 2,500 years ago. “This year, again, we will have the chance to connect contradictions and contrasts. You will hear classical Music and Jazz, Opera, Tangos and a percussion solo,” noted the festival’s organizers on their website. “Here in Samos, within sight of the formal edge of Orient and Occident, we would like to overcome borders and build bridges over national and musical borders, bringing together the established and the new. Music connects people across cultural, religious and linguistic borders like no other. Join us on an exciting musical journey around the world in seven days,” they added.  


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Golden Dawn Members Trial in November

According to Greek court sources the trial of Golden Dawn members will begin in mid-November, as all the investigating and preparatory work has already been completed. Greek authorities are looking for the most appropriate large court room, as the defendants are many. The special investigators, Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou closed the case file last week and launched legal proceedings leading to the trial. During the last few weeks,  several Golden Dawn attacks against immigrants have been reported to the authorities, while the party is denying any participation in the incidents.  


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Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss Vacationing on Patmos (Photos)

Every year many international celebrities choose Greece and especially the beautiful Greek islands for their holidays. This year, supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss visited the mystifying island of Patmos. The golden girls of catwalks are charmed by the Island of the Apocalypse, as Patmos is called because St. John wrote the Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic text forming the final chapter of the New Testament. The residents of the island were pleasantly surprised when they saw the two top models walking around on the island and enjoying a coffee at “Loza” café. “At around 2 pm, Kate Moss with her ​​husband, Jamie Hince, her 11-year-old daughter, Lila Grace, a friend of her daughter and Naomi Campbell arrived at the café and enjoyed their drinks. They sat for about an hour and then they left to go to their yacht,” said a local resident, noting that there were no bodyguards. On Thursday, the two models made a day-trip to the small neighboring islands of Arki and Marathi by boat. The two friends seem to enjoy spending their holidays together, as they they had also been together in Ibiza last May. The holiday destination was “exposed” after Naomi Campbell posted photographs of herself and Kate Moss on Instagram on 7 August. This is Naomi Campbell’s second consecutive visit to the Greek islands. Last summer she spent part of her vacation on Mykonos. See photos from their vacation below: Naomi herself confirmed that she was on Patmos via her personal account on Instagram. The famous top model posted also a photo of the daughter of Moss who also enjoys the Aegean Sea with a friend of hers.


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One Billion Tranche to be Disbursed by August 15

The release of the next installment of one billion euros according to the Greek bailout program is expected to take place by August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, a major holiday in Greece. On Thursday, during a teleconference with the troika, Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis and close associate of Prime Minister Stavros Papastavrou agreed that after the law on the prerequisite is ratified, then the Euro Working Group would convene within two to three days and approve the next tranche to Greece. Currently, total liabilities for bonds maturing, interest and repayment of capital given under the first loan from the IMF, amount to 6.7 billion euros. However, even if the payment of the next installment was delayed, the General Accounting Office is able to cover the needs of the Greek state thanks to 1.5 billion euros that the government has earned through the three-year bonds they issued in July.  


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