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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

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Greece improving border control, cooperation

By Alastair Macdonald BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Greek authorities are stepping up cooperation with EU agencies to better control migrants after threats from some allies to suspend Greece from Europe's Schengen passport-free zone, a senior EU official said. "There are still problems but there are improvements," said Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, who holds the rotating chairmanship of ministerial meetings on migration. ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com

GREEK Volunteers Harvest Olives for Fellow Residents in Need

The pressing of the olives takes place in various elementary and middle schools, so children can have a first-hand look at how GREEK “liquid gold” is ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.pappaspost.com

Community leaders call for diabetes prevention

... in many cases,” said Dr. K.K. Rajamani, chief of endocrinology at Rochester Regional Health's Diabetes and Endocrinology Center in GREECE.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.greecepost.com

NE Exclusive: EU Report on Priority Projects for GREECE

The Greek government on April 7, 2006, signed a concession agreement for the construction of a metro system in Thessaloniki. GREECE has a long ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT neurope.eu

West GREECE an early success in area

West GREECE was a hamlet located half in Parma and half in GREECE, at the intersection of West Ridge and Manitou roads. Settled in the very early ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.democratandchronicle.com

Studio Theatre has modern take on GREEK tragedy

Don't be fooled by the unpronounceable title, Iphigenia et Aulis is not to be judged by the heavy genre of GREEK Tragedy that it falls under. The play ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT thegatewayonline.ca

Rubber bullets and teargas fired in riot on Macedonian border

Desperate Moroccan and Iranian migrants forced back by border guards, while Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi refugees still given access Macedonian border guards used teargas and rubber bullets to repel hundreds of alleged economic migrants gathered on the country’s southern border on Wednesday. Around 300 mainly Moroccan and Iranian migrants were forced back as they tried to breach Macedonia’s border from Greece, the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said. Hundreds of thousands of people from all nationalities have been allowed free passage through Macedonia since the start of the year, but a recent ban on perceived economic migrants has seen around 3,000 people stranded in northern Greece, even as thousands of Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis have been allowed to continue. Continue reading...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com

The Latest: Europol: 23 suspected smugglers arrested

The European Union's police agency says 23 suspects have been arrested in raids targeting an organized crime gang that smuggled thousands of migrants into Europe. Europol, which helped coordinate the raids, says the gang is believed to have earned nearly 10 million euros by smuggling around 100 migrants per day since operations started in 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her country's forces in Afghanistan will do more to train local security agencies to deal with human trafficking and other issues related to people fleeing to seek asylum elsewhere. Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany wants to support the creation of safe areas inside Afghanistan to provide "people who live in places of insecurity with a zone where their security is guaranteed." Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, says his government has filed a complaint to challenge a European Union decision to redistribute 120,000 asylum-seekers among the bloc's 28 nations. Mouzalas says: It's true that our country has come under intense pressure from some European Union member countries who mistakenly believe that the refugee flow can be controlled from Greece. The door is in Turkey. [...] if the flows are not controlled in Turkey, from the coast of Turkey, it is impossible to control the flows from Greece or any other European Union member. Hungary's prime minister says he believe a secret pact led by Germany to bring up to 500,000 Syrians from Turkey directly into the European Union to be revealed soon.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.sfgate.com

Greek bank shares to rebound strongly in 2017

ATHENS Dec 2 Greek bank shares are likely to rebound strongly in 2017 after years of declines as the economy gets back on its feet and confidence returns ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.reuters.com

Clashes erupt between refugees, Macedonian police – GREECE under pressure over migrants; EU ...

ATHENS: GREECE hit back yesterday at threats from some EU states to suspend it from the Schengen zone of open border travel because of its failure ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT news.kuwaittimes.net

Violence erupts between refugees and police at GREECE and Macedonian border

About 200 men mostly from Pakistan and Morocco, attempted to storm into the Balkan country, after being denied legal passage into GREECE'S ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.itv.com

Refugee boats to Greece persist despite winter’s chill

Numbers of arrivals to Lesbos have decreased, but more than 1,000 refugees and migrants still travel to island each day.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.aljazeera.com

Greece seeks EU help with refugees and migrants

… Koutsokosta, Ioannis Mouzalas said the Greek government would request foreign assistance … seek help. Mouzalas denied that Greece faces being booted out of … ,000 migrants have crossed into Greece this year, according to the …


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com

The Latest: GREEK minister denies any threats from EU partners to eject Greece from Schengen

A woman holds a placard as stranded migrants from Somalia protest in front of the border fence, demanding to cross the GREEK-Macedonian border ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.newser.com

Greeks told to declare THIS in their tax returns

GREEK politicians, journalists, and civil servants are being asked to declare any large sums of cash or precious metals they may have stashed at home ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cnbc.com

Sergey Lavrov: GREEK Pilots Have Shown Great Restraint

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov stated today that GREEK pilots have shown great restraint against the ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Heineken subsidiary handed record GREEK fine

A GREEK subsidiary of Dutch brewer Heineken has been fined €31.5 million for market abuse in the largest such fine ever levied by Greece's ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT in-cyprus.com

23 suspects arrested across Europe in raids targeting migrant smuggling gang

The European Union's police agency said Wednesday that 23 suspects were arrested in raids targeting an organized crime gang that smuggled thousands of migrants into Europe. Europol said the suspects were detained in simultaneous police operations in Greece, Austria, Sweden and Britain. Europol,...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT touch.latimes.com

Is Grexit back on the table?

It has also further soured GREECE'S attitude toward the EU. ... that some EU officials are threatening to suspend GREECE from the Schengen Agreement, ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.fxstreet.com

GREECE Rejects EU Labeling Guidelines After PM Calls Jerusalem Israel's Capital

GREECE became the second European nation to declare its refusal to abide by the European Union's newly issued guidelines on labeling Israeli ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thetower.org

Strikes to halt operations at GREEK ports on Thursday

Another 24-hour strike by transport workers in Greece is expected to halt operations at at many GREEK ports and terminals on Thursday. The strike has ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT splash247.com

Hackers Behind ProtonMail Attacks Now Targeting GREEK Banks for Bitcoins

A hacking group (Armada Collective) which was previously held responsible for launching DDoS attacks on ProtonMail is back and this time targeting ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.hackread.com

Judges accused of taking bribes in GREEK match-fixing scandal

The GREEK public prosecutors who decided not to pursue charges against Olympiacos in the so-called Koriopolis match-fixing scandal have been ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.worldsoccer.com

How Social Media Changed The Way We Read Books

Last week, during a dwindling work day, I scrolled through Twitter for something to engage me, something newsworthy or pithy or both. I felt drawn to the sort of tweet that was neither hackneyed nor too intimate, neither click-baity nor dry. After all, I’d curated a list of Twitter accounts that more or less pandered to my precise interests. News sites that specialize in deep dives into the uncanny, authors who manage to employ their style in 140-character observations. Instead -- and I’m sure you’ll relate to this painful experience -- what I got was a rash of strangely dogmatic tweets from an author I like, Joyce Carol Oates. “This is sad,” the National Book Award-winning author wrote, “Please consider ‘fostering’ these orphans ... ” Embedded in the tweet is another tweet from @citykitties, and a link to adult cats in need of owners. “God,” I wrote a coworker. “Joyce Carol Oates is everyone’s most condescending friend.” What I meant was that this type of tweeting -- sharing something tragic yet too specific to be engaged with meaningfully in quick, offhand conversation -- was uncomfortable to read. What I didn’t say was that I was confused and bothered by the dissonance between the words I was used to reading under her name, and the words she proliferated daily. I’d read _Mudwoman_ and enjoyed it, finding the style Oates used when bringing to life the windstorm of thoughts that accompany a nervous breakdown thoughtful and artistic. I didn’t like it as much as _A Garden of Earthly Delights_, though. It’s hard for me to say whether my opinion on the former was colored by Oates’s truly bizarre Twitter feed, and as much as I’d like for that not to be true, it seems likely. By the time I read _Mudwoman_, Oates had already made a reputation for herself on Twitter. She was an early adopter of the platform, and, just as she writes books prolifically, she tweeted relentlessly about anything that came to mind, sans the artistic filter that’s presumably in place when she writes her fiction. When reading the deliberately chosen words of _Mudwoman_, I couldn’t unsee her weird pontifications on naps and kittens. This is because, for better or for worse, social media has turned Famous Authors into mere mortals, Literary Novels into malleable things that can bend to match our own personal experiences. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the fan pages and social media accounts of authors with huge followings -- J.K. Rowling and George R.R. Martin in particular. Occasionally, Rowling will tweet new details that cast Hogwarts in a new light, infuriating fans who feel their own interpretations of the books have been undermined. To firm up the boundary between writer and reader, Rowling will encourage some debate, but assert that some of her characters’ attributes -- like the pronunciation of Voldemort’s name -- are fixed truths. As the creator of the _Harry Potter_ world, she has every right to share notes about it not included in the books proper. But for readers who’ve devoted hours to exploring her pages, claiming such ownership is a bristly matter. We’re torn by our warring wants: we want _more_ of the books we love, but we want the books we love to remain sacred, fixed things. For the most part, authors seem pleased with the ability to give their readers more to chew on outside of their published stories. In an email exchange with Andy Weir, author of _The Martian_, he told me about the positive impact social platforms have had on his book. "Social media removes barriers for my readers,” he wrote. “They feel a much more direct connection with me because they can message me directly and I answer them. I'm not a faceless entity like authors of the past. My readers know the person behind the story -- my interests, my hobbies, and my concerns. It fosters a much closer connection. Instead of being ‘a book,’ it's ‘a book by this guy I know.’” Here’s the rub: our dream of reducing the author, previously enthroned as a kind of genius, to a pal we can chat with, works better when the author has a palatable personality. Ideally, she should be prone to quip-making, should be mostly apolitical (or at least have straightforward, digestible political opinions), and should be consistent in her mood or beliefs. Anything else is “bizarre”; anything else is Joyce Carol Oates. This doesn’t leave very much room for the sort of grey area so much good fiction lives in -- worlds where opinions are changeable, moods are capricious, and people are human. Worlds where we rant about how sad it is to see so many cats go unadopted, and yet maintain a level of respect in the public eye. This, coupled with the amount of energy it takes to lay one's personality bare publicly, has led plenty of authors to forgo the whole social media thing altogether, or at least cut back on the time they spend interacting. Jonathan Franzen probably won't be taking up tweeting anytime soon, and Celeste Ng, author of _Everything I Never Told You_, recently requested that teachers not ask their students to email her. "It's not fair to us or to them," she wrote. Both Ng and Franzen are making personal choices by abstaining, to some degree, from socializing. Both Ng and Franzen got a lot of flak for their choices.  There’s an upside to all of this, particularly for authors of nonfiction books meant to spark a conversation about the topic at hand, or authors who write books that directly address their readers. One such book, Elizabeth Gilbert’s _Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear_, was actually inspired by the author’s bevy of Facebook fans. Gilbert told The Huffington Post that her latest book “would not exist without my relationship with my Facebook followers.” She added, “When it came time to write this book, I was therefore able to write directly to my readers, because I know them so well. For me, social media dissolved the border between author and reader, replacing that border with real intimacy.” A few other authors I emailed had similar feelings about engaging with their readers on social media platforms, Facebook in particular. Paulo Coelho observed, “My bonds with my audience have never been stronger. Now I can really interact with readers,” but added, “I believe books in the future will change totally, and I need to be ready for this.” Cheryl Strayed, whose memoir inspired a litany of fans well before it was adapted into a blockbuster movie, wrote, “Social media platforms have reduced the distance between readers and authors -- at least authors who are active on social media. It’s also expanded the conversational territory between readers and authors who are active on social media. It’s no longer limited to the books that have been written and read.” Strayed points out the value of the aura that now surrounds a book: “You can talk to Susan Orlean about her pets because she’s tweeting about them or you can get recommendations from Elizabeth Gilbert about where to go in Greece because she’s posting photos of her recent travels there.” Such conversations are fun ways for readers to immerse themselves further into authors’ worlds, generating the deeper sense of intimacy that writing is supposed to be about. The only danger in this is that when that sense of intimacy is established -- when author and reader are put on level playing fields -- the reader sometimes begins to feel ownership of the book’s content. Trust that the author knows what she's talking about can be diminished, as myriad interpretations grow into larger, more emphatic conclusions. The book, once a solid physical object, risks becoming a fluid thing, subject to quick shifts in meaning, tone and content, like a chat with a friend.  The metaphor we choose here matters. The book could also be characterized as an inanimate thing brought to life by the conversation it inspires. It could be characterized, too, as a house with sturdy walls and open doors. As readers, we’re invited in, but we should be polite. We should not track our dirty footprints all over the carpet. After all, it’s not our house. _ALSO ON HUFFPOST:_ -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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Alternate FM Xydakis meets with Hungarian Ambassador Erik Edgar Haupt (Foreign Ministry, 2 ...

The Alternate Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Nikos Xydakis, met at the Foreign Ministry today with the Hungarian Ambassador to Greece, Erik Edgar Haupt.The meeting focused on issues of bilateral interest, and special reference was made to the issue of the refugee and migration crisis.Finally, Mr. Xydakis expressed his displeasure at the unfair criticisms leveled at our country by Hungarian political officials.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.mfa.gr

Mail.ru: Bulgaria, GREECE, Spain to be main alternatives to Turkey for Russian tourists

Moscow. Bulgaria, GREECE, and Spain will be the main alternatives to Turkey as a destination for Russian tourists in 2016, according to the Russian ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.focus-fen.net

Macedonian police employed tear gas against Pakistani emigrants at border with GREECE ...

Some 200 people attempted to cross from Macedonia into GREECE, seeking to cross the border at which there is barbed wire,” said Krasimir Uzunov, ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.focus-fen.net

The “Forgotten” Greek Economic Crisis

Europe might seem to have lost interest in the Greek economic crisis due to the latest terrorist attacks and the refugee crisis but this doesn’t mean interest will not return. The same can be said about Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s critical and cautious mood. The German Finance Minister seemingly still believes Greece should exit the


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

GREEK Music Producer Attracts Hollywood to Santorini

music studio santorini Known GREEK sound engineer and music producer with years of experience in the music business Kostas Kalimeris had a very ...


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GREEK Music Producer Attracts Hollywood to Santorini

music studio santorini Known GREEK sound engineer and music producer with years of experience in the music business Kostas Kalimeris had a very ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Macedonian Police Fire Tear Gas to Repel Migrants Storming Border Fence

Macedonian police has used tear gas to push back illegal migrants who tried to storm through the country’s border with Greece on Wednesday. About 1,500 migrants - predominantly from Pakistan, Morocco and Iran - have been stranded in no-man's land between Greece and Macedonia for weeks after non-EU Balkan states decided to grant passage only to people fleeing zones of conflict such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Clashes with police broke out on Wednesday after several hundred of migrants who had been denied entry, tried to storm the newly erected border fence, Reuters reported. Police have fired warning shots in the air to repel the migrants. The migrants attempted to cross the border from Greece through a creek at a point not closed by the fence before Macedonian police pushed them back, according to AP. The Greek government was trying to persuade the stranded migrants to go back to Athens and apply for asylum in Greece, Greek Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas has said, according to Reuters.  


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.novinite.com

Convicted Ex-Minister Claims Donation

A former Greek Transport Minister convicted of receiving a bribe from the German company Siemens told a court that it was a campaign donation. The post Convicted Ex-Minister Claims Donation appeared first on The National Herald.


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Greek Journalists Walk Out

Greek journalists on Dec. 2 held a 24-hour strike a day before a nationwide anti-austerity strike — the country's second in a month.. The post Greek Journalists Walk Out appeared first on The National Herald.


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Kicking GREECE out of Schengen won't stop the refugee crisis

Stranded migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border. 'For many EU officials, GREECE crossed a line when it refused to let Frontex take control of its ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com

GREEK debt: it is “relief,” not haircut

An illustration shows a GREEK euro coin in a water bottle in Schwerin, Germany,, 17 August 2015.A special sitting of the Bundesdag being held over ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT neurope.eu

Journalists in Greece strike over government austerity measures

An elderly woman wrapped in a GREEK flag takes part in a massive demonstration as part of a 24-hour general strike in Athens, Greece, November 12, ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.presstv.ir

BRIEF-Greek banks raise their stakes on Nireus

Dec 2 Nireus Aquaculture SA : * Says Piraeus Bank SA raises its stake on Nireus Aquaculture SA (Nireus) from 0.0 to 33.1 percent * Says Alpha Bank SA ...


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GREECE accuses Turkey of violating airspace

GREECE has alleged that Turkey's fighter jet formation has entered into its airspace over the Aegean Sea. The Greek National Defense General Staff ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.airforce-technology.com

Kinotipp from GREECE: Chevalier and Introduction

After impressive Festival course the acclaimed tragicomedy Chevalier now comes in the Greek cinemas. Six men meet on a luxury yacht in the ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT or-politics.com

National Bank of GREECE (ADR): What's Next for GREECE?

Stakeholders in GREECE are closely watching developments on the country's economic and political front, to decode its future outlook. In the recent past ...


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Heineken subsidiary handed 31.5 million euro record Greek ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek subsidiary of Dutch brewer Heineken (HEIN.AS) has been fined 31.5 million euros (22.29 million pound) for market abuse in the ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT finance.yahoo.com

Greece denies it faces Schengen suspension over migrants

Greece's top migration official on Wednesday denied suggestions that its place in the EU's passport-free Schengen zone is in jeopardy because of failings in its handling of the migrant crisis.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com

More Brussels raids in Paris attacks manhunt

Belgian authorities have held two people for questioning following raids on five premises as part of the search for suspects linked to the Paris attacks, according to a statement from Belgian prosecutor’s office.  Authorities confirmed that the searches relate to the investigation into Mohamed Abrini, 30 and Ahmed Dahmani, 26, a Belgian national of Moroccan descent with ties to Salah Abdeslam, who is currently detained in Turkey. “We did not find anything special, not explosives, nor chemicals, nor money,” Eric Van Der Sypt, the prosecutor’s spokesman told POLITICO. Both Abrini and Dahmani had close ties with Salah Abdeslam, currently Europe’s most wanted man. Abrini was filmed with Salah two days before the attacks, in a gas station in Ressons in northern France. He was driving the Renault Clio that was used in the massacre two days later. “Dahmani was known to us; we knew he could have left for Syria,” Van Der Sypt said. “[Dahmani] had communication with the terrorists who committed the Paris attacks,” a Turkish official told POLITICO. Italian police also believe that Dahmani traveled with Salah on a ferry from Italy to Greece on August 1 in a car with a Belgium number plate. The pair returned to Italy from Greece on August 5.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.politico.eu

GREEK films on the international stage

Making movies in the gloom of an economic crisis. The GREEK cinema has continued to gain critical acclaim beyond the countries borders in 2015.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.euronews.com

The Latest: Germany to work with Afghanistan on refugees

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The latest news as tens of thousands of people slip into Europe and head to wealthy European Union countries in search of a better life. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says her country's forces in Afghanistan will do more to train local security agencies to deal with human trafficking and other issues related to people fleeing to seek asylum elsewhere. Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany wants to support the creation of safe areas inside Afghanistan to provide "people who live in places of insecurity with a zone where their security is guaranteed." Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, says his government has filed a complaint to challenge a European Union decision to redistribute 120,000 asylum-seekers among the bloc's 28 nations. Mouzalas says: It's true that our country has come under intense pressure from some European Union member countries who mistakenly believe that the refugee flow can be controlled from Greece. The door is in Turkey. [...] if the flows are not controlled in Turkey, from the coast of Turkey, it is impossible to control the flows from Greece or any other European Union member. Hungary's prime minister says he believe a secret pact led by Germany to bring up to 500,000 Syrians from Turkey directly into the European Union to be revealed soon.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.sfgate.com

Greece Denies Warned Ouster from EU Open Borders Over Refugees

Greece's migration minister says his country has come under "intense pressure" from some European countries over the migration crisis, but he says that's unfair as warnings came the country could be forced out of the open border program. The post Greece Denies Warned Ouster from EU Open Borders Over Refugees appeared first on The National Herald.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

Greek Pension Reforms Stuck

Greece's shaky coalition government is trying to find ways to avoid imposing more pension cuts but is getting nowhere fast so far. The post Greek Pension Reforms Stuck appeared first on The National Herald.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

The Greek System: Should A College Student Join a ...

Since I began writing and speaking about higher education in preparation for my forthcoming book, How to Succeed at College and Beyond: The Art of Learning ...


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GREECE Threatened With Schengen Zone Suspension Over Refugee Crisis

Months after GREECE was threatened with expulsion from the Eurozone at the height of the country's debt crisis, Athens is reportedly now being ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT sputniknews.com

Greece 'warned of Schengen suspension'

… on the Greek islands despite increasing restrictions across the Balkans Greece has … offer is particularly sensitive in Greece because of concerns over its … route between Greece and Hungary are part of Schengen. Greek businesses are …


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com