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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

Friday, July 22, 2016

A Taste Of GREECE!

We went to A Taste of GREECE at the National Geographic Museum. Guests enjoyed Greek culture and cuisine with local DC-area Greek restaurants ...


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Foreign TV Programs to Promote Tourism in GREECE

As the General Secretary of EOT Dimitris Trifonopoulos said “filming trips are organized by EOT and the local offices as part of GREECE'S national ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

An Olympic Odyssey: Where the Games Began

The Temple of Zeus at Nemea, one of the four sites of the ancient GREEK games. Credit Susan Wright for The New York Times ...


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Greece After Turkey's Coup D'état

The failure of the recent coup d'état in Turkey will transform the country in ways that present significant opportunities and challenges to neighboring Greece. Responding to them requires first a clear understanding of the new Turkey that is emerging.


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Greek authorities break up illegal online betting ring run by Taiwanese nationals

Authorities in Greece have broken up what they’re calling a major illegal gambling ring that catered to a predominantly Asian ex-pat clientele. On Friday, Alternate Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection Nikos Toskas held a press conference to ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT calvinayre.com

Greece eases capital controls more as confidence in banks returns

Athens imposed capital controls last summer when it was embroiled in acrimonious bailout talks with its international lenders and almost toppled out of the euro zone. It has gradually eased the controls since then. According to a ministerial decision ...


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Is Menopause Reversible? GREEK Researchers Say: Yes

That's the upshot of new research by a GREEK fertility clinic that has claims to have found a way to rejuvenate post-menopausal ovaries, enabling them ...


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A window on the world

Indeed, nine days later the ocean liner and the GREEK Fulbright fellows arrived in New York on September 12, 1955. The young woman, who had ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com

8 Turkish Army Suspected Coup Plotters Transferred to Athens Olympic Village

The eight Turkish officials implicated for having taken part in the attempted coup in their country before escaping to Greece were sentenced to two months in prison on Thursday for illegal entry to Greece due to mitigating circumstances. Their political asylum cases are now being investigated. Their lawyer, Ilias Marinakis, said that he was informed […]


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Refugees on Lesbos Increase After Failed Coup Attempt in Turkey

Two boats with 100 refugees and immigrants arrived at the isle of Lesbos (Mytilene) on Friday that were gathered by the Greek Coast Guard. The arrival of the new wave of refugees, along with the 430 people that arrived over the last 10 days, shows that the restriction by Turkish authorities to prevent refugees from making […]


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

EU Commission Awards Extra 82.6 Mln Euros in Emergency Funding to Greece

The European Commission has awarded an extra 82.6 million euros in emergency funding to Greece under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF). Through AMIF, emergency funding of 24.2 million euros is awarded to the Greek Ministry of Health, for increasing the capacity to provide primary health care to […]


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Greece and Cyprus to Forge Joint Education Policy

Greece and Cyprus have decided to establish a joint committee to deal with problems in the education and culture sectors, following a decision by the parliamentary education committees of both countries. The decision to jointly formulate policy was taken at a meeting of the two committees at the Greek Parliament during a visit of Cypriot […]


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Turkey increases pressure on GREECE over 8 military officers

The affair of the eight Turkish military officers who escaped to GREECE by helicopter following last weekend's failed Turkish coup is turning into an ...


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GREECE'S Finance Ministry Eases Capital Controls

ATHENS—GREECE'S Finance Ministry said Friday it is easing the country's capital controls, a move aimed at boosting confidence in banks about a year ...


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Greece Faced Steep Choice: Extradite Alleged Turkish Coup Plotters, Or Grant Them Asylum

ISTANBUL ― When Greece promised to return Syrian and other refugees to Turkey under a controversial European Union deal, it probably never thought it would have to consider asylum for the Turks themselves. But that’s exactly the corner Greece found ...


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Greece Goes to EU Court for Unlawful Aid to Hellenic Shipyards

The Commission has decided to refer Greece to the European Court of Justice because it failed to comply with a 2008 Commission decision ordering the recovery of unlawful aid to Hellenic Shipyards. This follows a 2012 ruling by the Court condemning Greece ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Cyprus Greece discuss Cyprus problem and security

The Cyprus problem and in particular the security aspect of a solution was the focus of a meeting, held in Athens, on Friday, between Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides and his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias. Government Spokesman Nikos ...


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Greek Enterprise Federation (SEV) Drops the ‘Bomb’ on Workers Rights

The Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) dropped the bomb by demanding the liberalization of group dismissals, a drastic restriction of strike action and more strength for corporate contracts over agreements concerning workers sectors. The legislation ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

EC Refers Greece to the EU Court of Justice for Single Market Rail Violations

The European Commission decided to refer Greece, Luxembourg and Romania to the Court of Justice of the EU on Friday for failing to transpose into national law Directive 2012/34/EU establishing a single European railway area. The Directive aims at ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Mediterranean Tourism Comparison: Croatia v GREECE

How does Croatian tourism compare with one of its main competitors, GREECE? After working in tourism in both countries, TCN's Danni Matijaca offers ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.total-croatia-news.com

GREECE to lower voting age, change electoral system

A bid to lower the Greek voting age and reform the electoral system has been passed by MPs but will have to wait to become law. Greek lawmakers ...


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GREEK prosecutor on Vgenopoulos case sues Cyprus authorities

Tsatani has also resorted to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming GREEK justice authorities violated the principle of a fair trial, in accordance ...


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Cypriot and Greek FMs discuss security aspect of CY solution

Eide underestimates Turkey's violation on Cyprus'... The Cyprus problem and in particular the security aspect of a solution was the focus of a meeting, held in Athens, on Friday, between Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides and his Greek counterpart ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.sigmalive.com

Greek Stocks Stage Rally: No Debt Default Fear?

Greece needs debt relief, but there is no fear that Greece will default on its financial obligations, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in Athens Thursday. “Lew said the Greek government ‘has made significant progress’ in stabilizing the ...


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Greek Fest draws thousands to Niles

The Event: More than 16,000 hungry visitors descended on the Big Greek Food Fest hosted by Holy Taxiarhai & Saint Haralambos Greek Orthodox Church of Niles over the weekend of July 15-17. The 3-day smorgasbord offered Greek traditional delicacies from ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT my.chicagotribune.com

Angie Harmon Celebrates 'Rizzoli and Isles” 100th Episode

The GREEK-American actress opened up to TV Guide about the episode, as well as a very special guest star she will appear with. In the episode ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT hollywood.greekreporter.com

Visiting GREEK Wineries: Lafazanis of Nemea

Lafazanis Winery utilizes some of the interesting varieties of GREEK vineyards to offer a wide range of wines that are representative of the terroir and ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.indianwineacademy.com

Greece Lowers Voting Age To 17

Athens: Greek lawmakers voted on Thursday to amend electoral law to lower the voting age by a year to 17 and eventually eliminate a 50 seat bonus for the winning party. While the drop in voting age will take effect in the next election, the seat bonus will ...


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6 disastrous 'black swan' events that could happen by 2030

[scott kelly iss hurricane patricia]Twitter.com/Scott Kelly Early on in a 2012 report from the National Intelligence Council, essentially the US government's futurism department, is a bleak series of predictions for the year 2030. The report outlines six "black swans," a term coined by former Wall Street trader Nassim Taleb to describe events that deviate wildly from people's expectations and then get rationalized later on. The Internet and the attacks on September 11th are two well-known black swans. According to the NIC report, the black swans of 2030 could mean the end of civilized, modern society. They range from major economic collapse to natural disasters on a world-ending scale. They are worst-case scenarios. 1. SEVERE PANDEMIC Aurelie Marrier d'Unienville/AP A disease that kills or incapacitates just 1% of its victims "is among the most disruptive events possible," the NIC states. "Such an outbreak could result in millions of people suffering and dying in every corner of the world in less than six months." This isn't Ebola or Zika. This is multiple plagues happening all at once, all around the world. 2. RAPID CLIMATE CHANGE Reuters The big number in climate change is 2 degrees Celsius. Experts say that if the Earth warms by that amount, humanity will feel the full wrath of climate change: droughts, flooding, rising sea levels. Right now, estimates suggest we're hovering near 1.1 to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. "Dramatic and unforeseen changes already are occurring at a faster rate than expected," the NIC states. "Rapid changes in precipitation patterns — such as monsoons in India and the rest of Asia — could sharply disrupt that region's ability to feed its population." 3. EURO/EU COLLAPSE REUTERS/Francois Lenoir The fate of the Eurozone, a 19-country experiment launched in 1999 featuring a brand-new currency, could rest with Greece. For several years now, the nation has expressed interest in exiting the Eurozone. It's a decision NIC says would have serious ripple effects through Europe and the rest of the world. "An unruly Greek exit from the Eurozone could cause eight times the collateral damage as the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, provoking a broader crisis regarding the EU's future," the report states. The prediction bears an uncanny similarity to Brexit, Britain's recent vote to leave the United Kingdom, which was also deemed a black swan and which economists say would inevitably rock global markets. SEE THE REST OF THE STORY AT BUSINESS INSIDER


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Greece-Cyprus to formulate joint policy on education issues

The parliamentary education committees of Greece and Cyprus have decided to establish a joint committee aiming to deal with problems arising in the areas of education and culture and to jointly formulate policy. The decision was taken at a meeting the two ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT in-cyprus.com

Fine frenzy in GREECE over illegal state aid

In a long-running legal battle with GREECE, the European Union is trying to impose a 6 million-euro fine against the cash-strapped Mediterranean ...


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During Coup, Erdogan Urged to Flee to Greece

As a coup against him was raging, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was pushed by associates to go to a Greek island.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

EU Sues Greece Over Unrecovered Shipyard Aid

The European Commission said has referred Greece to Europe’s top court failing to recover state aid given Hellenic Shipyards,.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com

GREEK islands VAT plans half-baked

Last year the GREEK government said it planned to abolish the 30% discount on the standard VAT rate which applied to the islands in three stages.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cchdaily.co.uk

Olympics-GREEK swimmer gets Rio spot after FINA U-turn

GREEK 100 metres butterfly champion Kristel Vourna has spoken of her "relief and joy" after an unlikely U-turn by the World Swimming Federation ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.eurosport.com

Turkey’s President Erdogan was offered to flee to Greece’s islands

On Coup night, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was allegedly advised to flee to some Greek island. This has been claimed by Serkan Yazici, the owner of the hotel where the Erdogan and his family were spending summer holidays in Marmaris in south-west Turkey. The Turkish President had apparently left   […]


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com

No room for half-measures in Cristiano Ronaldo’s gilded world of 110%

Unlike José Holebas’s unfinished tattoo and Chesterfield’s raffle farce, the Portugal star and new hotelier shows success demands total commitment A while ago Watford’s German-born Greek left-back José Holebas went into a tattoo studio, raised his fists and asked for the words “Don’t hate, care love” to be tattooed across his fingers. It is not easy to create a message of optimism and unity in a foreign language using no punctuation and while restricted to words that are four letters long – perhaps replacing “care” with “only”, “just” or even “make” would have been slightly better – but this was not a disastrous attempt. The problem was that, despite being heavily tattooed across his torso, Holebas was not prepared for the pain involved in inking his fingers. For a while he suffered in silence but with the job only halfway through he decided he could bear no more, told the artist to lay down his needle and departed. And so it is that Holebas’s hands now carry the considerably less inspiring legend “don’t care”. Continue reading...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com

Kingsbury Greek School Summer Dinner & Dance

2nd July 2016. The event took place in the school hall which had been decorated with bright colourful balloons. The nice and plentiful food was provided by its new committee. The music was provided by George Charalambous who added his personal bouzouki ...


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Cyprus-Greece join forces for intensified pressure on Turkey

Prokopis Pavlopoulos will pay an official visit... Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues and Overseas Cypriots Photis Photiou has said that Cyprus and Greece join their forces so that intensified international pressure is exerted on Turkey to ...


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France, Turkey and human rights: is a state of emergency the new normal?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared a state of emergency in the wake of the failed coup of July 15. It’s not yet clear how the President intends to interpret the powers awarded to him in this situation but there are ongoing concerns that his government will clamp down on human rights. Indeed, explaining the decision, deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmuş said: > Turkey will derogate the European convention on human rights insofar > as it does not conflict with its international obligations. Kurtulmuş added that Turkey was acting “just like France” in taking this action – referring to the extended state of emergency that has followed the terrorist attacks of the past year there. A situation that was originally meant to last three months following the Paris attacks of November 2015, has been extended to last another six months following the July attack in Nice. Both cases raise serious questions about how long a state of emergency is supposed to last in this day and age, and how ordinary people are affected while they are in place. WHAT IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY? Under Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) a country can declare a state of emergency, “in time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation”. Once an emergency is declared, however, a state is not given free rein to do as it sees fit. The measures taken must still be “proportionate to the exigencies of the situation”. To protect human rights, Article 15 has a triple lock. To derogate from the convention, an emergency must exist; the measures being proposed must be proportionate; and some rights can never be violated. Torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, for example, are never permissible, no matter how extreme the emergency. The ECHR is vague about the conditions that constitute an emergency, so in some ways, it’s not clear whether what is happening in Turkey constitutes one. The European Court of Human Rights has never found that an emergency did not exist in a state that declared one. It has taken a very hands off approach to this issue, deferring instead to each government’s assessment of the situation in their country. A large amount of trust is placed in a state’s government on this question. Emergencies, however, are not just about the facts on the ground that give rise to an extreme crisis; they also reveal a lot about the person or body declaring a state of emergency and what their motivations are. While the European Court of Human Rights has never found that a state of emergency did not exist in a country, the now defunct European Commission of Human Rights (a tribunal body that prior to 1998 would make preliminary decisions on a case before the Court heard it) has. The Commission rejected a 1967 declaration of a state of emergency in Greece by the military dictatorship that governed at the time. The Commission found that no “threat to the life of the nation” existed and that the military dictatorship had fabricated the emergency in order to crack down on the communist opposition. Unlike the government in the Greek case, Erdoğan was democratically elected. But we have to ask ourselves whether we can simply assume that because a state’s government has been elected, it will protect human rights. Indeed, faced with an emergency, a government might clamp down on human rights to prove to a fearful public that it is “doing something”, whether that something is effective or not. Emergencies are precisely when human rights are needed most. Democracy also requires respect for the rule of law. All state power is exercised through the law, and nobody is above the law. An independent and functioning judiciary is fundamental to this. Erdoğan’s purging of the judiciary in Turkey is deeply worrying, to say the least. Democracy likewise requires free speech and the communication of ideas. While Article 10 of the ECHR, which protects freedom of expression, can be derogated from in an emergency, any infringement must still be proportionate. The decisions to fire and detain academics, and prevent people from travelling abroad are an unprecedented violation of academic and democratic values in Turkey. And it didn’t start with the failed coup. HOW LONG CAN THIS LAST? Erdoğan’s declaration of a state of emergency is deeply suspect. Turkey’s emergency has an initial time limit of three months; however, emergencies tend to be perpetuated. France’s experiment with emergency powers – which Turkey is drawing parallels to – is a case in point. The nature of the terrorist threat facing France makes assessing when it has been defeated incredibly difficult. The terrorist attacks that have caused this situation are not committed by an army in uniform but people only connected in the loosest sense by an ideology. That makes them hard to identify or engage. In light of the challenges posed by Islamic extremist terrorism, the European Court of Human Rights, in a case involving the UK’s declaration of a state of emergency following 9/11, has said that an emergency may be perpetual. Again, this is reflective of the court’s deferential approach to the existence of a state of emergency. It undermines the entire justification of declaring a state of emergency in the first place, which is to restore the status quo that existed prior to the declaration. With the introduction of emergency powers comes the temptation for misuse. France’s state of emergency was less than a month old when its emergency powers were used, not in the fight against suspected IS terrorists, but to place climate change protesters under house arrest during the Paris Climate Summit in December. And while the state seems to have made the most of its extended powers in this case, it still wasn’t able to prevent the attack in Nice. It will take some time before the European Court of Human Rights will get to examine Turkey’s emergency. However, even if the emergency is eventually lifted, it is hard to imagine that “normal life” after the emergency will be the same as “normal life” before it. States of emergency have a dark history of being used in a transformative sense to usher in tyrannical regimes in the guise of confronting a threat to the life of the nation. It would be wise to recall the warnings of British judge Lord Hoffmann that the real threat to the life of the nation comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these. [The Conversation] _Alan Greene does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above._


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT theconversation.com

Greece faces millions of euros in EU fines for shipyard aid

Brussels (dpa) - The European Union is taking Greece back to court over its failure to claim back illegal aid from a shipbuilder, the bloc‘s executive said Friday, in the latest trouble facing the crisis-plagued Mediterranean country. The European ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.europeonline-magazine.eu

Turkish Officers in GREECE Transferred for Security Reasons, Government Says

ATHENS—The eight Turkish military officers who sought shelter in GREECE after participating in their country's coup attempt were transferred on Friday ...


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Romanian, Greek, U.S. air forces train in Bulgaria

The air forces of Romania, Greece and the United States took part in the annual multinational air exercise "Thracian Star 2016" in the Bulgarian skies, NATO said in a press release Friday. Led by the Bulgarian Air Force, the 11-day flying activity during ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT famagusta-gazette.com

My holidays: Pam Ann

I was whisked away to Mykonos by a GREEK Aussie supermodel of a man back in 1992. It was the first time I had travelled overseas and I was madly in ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.nzherald.co.nz

Home Cyprus Anastasiades: UN has Shown a 'Positive shift' in Attitude on Missing Persons...

As a result of the invasion, many GREEK Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured on the battlefield.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Commission pursues Greece over island wine rules

The European Commission is pushing ahead with a legal case against Greece for its failure to change rules affecting wine growers on the island of Samos. Individual producers on the island are currently obligedto be members of local co-operatives, which in ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.agra-net.com

Turkish coup suspects moved to Athens for asylum verdict

[A Turkish officer who fled after the coup is escorted by police officers into the courthouse of Alexandroupoli, northern Greece, on July 21, 2016, to face trial for illegal entry]Eight Turkish military officers who fled last week's failed coup to Greece were moved to Athens on Friday, a police source said, where authorities will examine their asylum pleas.


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Statements of Foreign Minister Kotzias and the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cyprus, ...

I. KASOULIDES: It is a great pleasure to be in Athens again. Our talks today with Foreign Minister Kotzias were a working meeting, because together we worked on the ideas that will have to be submitted in the negotiations on the issue of Security. We are talking about the need for a system that will make all Cypriots – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – feel equally secure. Certainly, in such a system there is no room for treaties of guarantee or the presence of Turkish troops. We had a productive meeting. We based our work on a document prepared...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.mfa.gr

The Latest: July 15 to be national holiday in Turkey

The government says 246 pro-government people — forces and civilians — died while confronting the attempted military coup. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert says several people detained in the wake of the failed coup had been shown on camera and appeared to have been mistreated. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency says a colonel under investigation for alleged involvement in last week's failed coup appeared ready to jump off Istanbul's Bosporus Bridge, but was talked down by police hostage negotiators. The agency reports that authorities had been searching for the 44-year-old colonel as part of the investigation into last week's failed coup, which killed an estimated 270 people. Turkey is seeking the extradition of the eight, who received two-month suspended prison sentences in Greece Thursday for illegal entry into the country. The streets of Turkey's major cities were quiet Friday, a day after Turkish lawmakers approved a three-month state of emergency that allows the government to extend detention times and issue decrees without parliamentary approval. [...] in a sign of the underlying tensions in the country, protesters went to the Etimesgut military base in Ankara late Thursday and parked trucks and a bulldozer outside — possibly for fear that tanks might try to leave the facility.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.sfgate.com

Can Greece copy Morocco, and stop sulking?

DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this column reflect the views of the author(s), not of EurActiv.com PLC. Anyone ever tried to get from Athens to Skopje or Pristina? It’s a journey from hell as the excellent Aegean Airlines, which links all the region’s ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.euractiv.com