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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, May 18, 2013

Blasts rock Libya's capital and eastern city

Libyan officials say explosions went off in the capital Tripoli and the restive eastern city of Benghazi, but no casualties were reported.

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Police believe second suspect in 1-million-euro Larissa robbery also prison escapee

Police believe that the second man involved in an armed robbery that netted 1 million euros in Larissa, central Greece, on Thursday is also a fugitive from Trikala prison.Officers had already found the fingerprints of one of the suspects at the bank that was raided. They identified him as Klement Kala, one of 11 men who broke out of jail in Trikala, central Greece, in April. Now police believe ...

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Ministry plans to increase university academics working hours

After increasing the working hours of secondary school teachers in order to cut down on the bill for substitutes, the Education Ministry is planning to make university educators spend as much as 50 percent more time teaching in a bid to make up for sliding staff numbers, Kathimerini understands.The plan is expected to face strong opposition from faculties at Greek universities, which are already ...

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Greeces June target of 2000 civil service redundancies may be flexible

Greece may not have to sack 2,000 civil servants by the end of June, as previously thought, but its commitment to remove 4,000 by this year and 15,000 by the end of 2015 still stands.The final version of ...

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As visit to China concludes Samaras offers incentives to invest in Greece

Any Chinese person investing more than 250,000 euros in real estate in Greece will be given a five-year residence permit without having to fulfill any other criteria, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told a business conference in Shanghai on Saturday.The Greek government also aims to offer bigger investors Greek citizenship in a bid to attract investment from China. ...

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Greece to buy 142 ships from China

SHANGHAI - Greek Shipping Minister Kostis Moussouroulis said here Saturday Greek shipowners have recently signed contracts to buy 142 new ships from Chinese shipbuilding companies. The orders, which were signed in April, accounted for more than 60 percent of the recent global orders of Greek shipowners, said the Greek official. The shipping industry, including shipbuilding, is one of the most ...

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No damage or injuries as bomb explodes close to Greek embassy in Libya

A bomb went of on the street where the Greek embassy in Tripoli, Libya, is located but the building was not damaged and there were no injuries, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday."This lunchtime an small explosive device that had been placed next to a car parked on the road where the embassies of Greece, Saudi Arabia and Algeria are located ...

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Greece's Muslims Cite ?Slaughter? Threat


Greek Reporter

Greece's Muslims Cite “Slaughter” Threat
Greek Reporter
The Muslim Association of Greece (MAG) said that it has received a threatening note giving all Muslims, Greeks and foreigners, one month's time to evacuate the country or be “slaughtered like chickens,” according to a statement released by the ...
Neo-Nazis to Slaughter Greece MuslimsOnislam.net

all 3 news articles »

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Pro-drachma party launches in Greece

Greece sees the launch of a new political party, Plan B, which supports leaving the euro and returning to the drachma.

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Armed groups bomb Libyan military posts in Benghazi

Members of the military police and security gather at the scene of an explosion in front of the Greek embassy in TripoliBENGHAZI (Reuters) - Armed groups attacked military posts in Libya's second city Benghazi with bombs and a rocket-propelled grenade, an army commander said on Saturday. Nearly two years after the uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, the government still exerts little control over the armed brigades that helped overthrow him. Oil-producer Libya is largely split into fiefdoms of such brigades that are competing for influence. No one was hurt in the four overnight attacks on three Benghazi army posts, said the military commander, Hamed Belkhair. ...



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Samaras Urges Chinese Invest in Greece


Greek Reporter

Samaras Urges Chinese Invest in Greece
Greek Reporter
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, talking to the Hellenic-Chinese business forum in Shanghai, called Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Greece and to increase their business transactions with Greek entrepreneurs. “Those who invested in Greece's ...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Samaras in China: Greece is developing into 'a success story'


Kathimerini

Samaras in China: Greece is developing into 'a success story'
EnetEnglish
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras speaks during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing (AFP) On the last stop of his five-day visit to China, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Saturday told a Hellenic Chinese business forum in Shanghai that ...
Greece, China forge closer tiesKathimerini
Greece Recession Will Ease, Joblessness Won'tGreek Reporter
As Greece Struggles with Debt Crisis, Its Shipping Tycoons Still Cut a ProfitTIME
China Daily -People's Daily Online
all 67 news articles »

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Crisis not all that bad for Greek mothers


Inquirer.net

Crisis not all that bad for Greek mothers
Inquirer.net
ATHENS—In a society where family ties traditionally play a prominent role, Greece's deep economic crisis apparently offers a few Greek mothers a reason to be happy. While financial hardship may have forced many to seek their fortune abroad, it has ...

and more »

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Muslim Association of Greece receives letter containing sick threats

The Muslim Association of Greece (MAG) has asked authorities to investigate a letter sent to its head offices in Neos Cosmos, central Athens, threatening violence against Muslims in Greece if ...

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Greek lawyers start submitting case files electronically

The Athens Bar Association has begun handing out memory sticks to its members that will allow them to electronically sign case files which can now be submitted via an online system that is to be expanded to include all courts in major Greek cities.Some 500 e-signatures have been given out so far, allowing lawyers to provide courts with case documents electronically.The scheme is part of the ...

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Greek pro-drachma party Plan B to hold first meeting


BBC News

Greek pro-drachma party Plan B to hold first meeting
BBC News
A new political party supporting Greece's exit from the euro is due to hold its first meeting. "Plan B" only has about 400 members but its leader, Alekos Alavanos, believes it can offer a new way out for Greece. Mr Alavanos has told the BBC he wants a ...


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Top Chinese political advisor meets Greek PM


Top Chinese political advisor meets Greek PM
Xinhua
HANGZHOU, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese political advisor Yu Zhengsheng on Saturday met with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The meeting came ahead of the second annual conference of ...

and more »

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Greek Me-First Attitude Drove One Man To Leave

Smoking in No Smoking areas is prevalent in Greece, as five smoking bans in 10 years have been ignored a sign some believe of the disregard for law that has helped create the country's economic crisis. Greeks routinely violate laws they don't like, park on sidewalks, run red lights, and often don't wear motorcycle helmets. TORONTO - On an early morning bike ride this week I saw a ...

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Holocausts Dark Corner The Jews Of Greece

Leo Mallah, a concentration camp survivor, around 1946, one of the relative few who made it out of the Holocaust alive as most of Greece's Jews were killed. GLEN COVE, N.Y. - The photographs of proud Greek Jewish families in the early 1900's and the richly decorated artifacts from centuries past on display at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County reflect a vibrant ...

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Greece's Piraeus hire banks to advise on share issue

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's second-largest lender Piraeus Bank (BOPr.AT) has hired four international investment banks as advisers on its 7.33 billion euro (£6.2 billion) share issue, two bankers close ...

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Women in Greece aren?t giving up on childbirth?they?re just waiting till 40

It’s been a while now since I wrote this article on how Greece’s fertility bust and our unenlightened response to it helped build our mountain of debt in the ’80s and set us on course for the sovereign ...

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Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner Do Water Cheerleading in Greece: GIF


Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner Do Water Cheerleading in Greece: GIF
Us Magazine
On the last day of their family vacation to Mykonos, Greece, the stepsisters got a little silly and decided to try out their cheerleading skills in the chilly water on Apr. 29. "Kylie told Khloe, 'YOLO!' as in 'You only live once,'" an onlooker ...

and more »

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Greece Recession Will Ease, Joblessness Won't


Kathimerini

Greece Recession Will Ease, Joblessness Won't
Greek Reporter
Raining on Samaras' parade while he was in China selling the Chinese that he's engineering a “success story,” a report from the European Commission after a second bailout of $173 billion runs out that Greece will be on its own and hope to woo investors ...
Greece, China forge closer tiesKathimerini
As Greece Struggles with Debt Crisis, Its Shipping Tycoons Still Cut a ProfitTIME
China, Greece pledge closer parliamentary exchanges, economic cooperationPeople's Daily Online
China Daily -New Tang Dynasty Television
all 65 news articles »

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com

Greece man excited to take his place alongside baseball greats


Greece man excited to take his place alongside baseball greats
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
“Rickey Henderson in left, Reggie Jackson in right – and my brother (Jesse) in center,” the Greece resident says. He laughs more when he thinks about the infield. “(Hall of Famer) Wade Boggs at third and (future Hall of Famer) Frank Thomas at first ...

and more »

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New drug called Sisa is killing austerity-hit Greek youths


DigitalJournal.com

New drug called Sisa is killing austerity-hit Greek youths - Digital Journal
DigitalJournal.com
Athens - A new and very cheap drug is killing Greek youth who no longer can see a future for themselves. Sisa is a form of crystal meth being mixed with filler ingredients such as battery acid and engine oil. It makes users violent and kills within six ...

and more »

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Mallias Book Goes Deep Inside Greek Diplomacy

Alexandros Mallias is in a better position than almost anyone to understand the many tightropes that Greek diplomats have had to walk in dealing with tension and crises in foreign affairs, particularly in the Balkans, and he notes them in his book published by Infognomon, entitled The Other Crisis: An Ambassador's Account Following a 35-year career with the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ...

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AHI in Athens Honors Amb. Smith Arvaniti

ATHENS - Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Greece Daniel Bennett Smith and philanthropist Isabella Arvaniti, who has built shelters for needy children and is known for her charitable works, received this year's Hellenic Heritage Achievement awards from the American Hellenic Institute before a packed audience in the capital city. This year's event was characterized by optimism for Greece in ...

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Lesbian kiss and debt crisis set to feature in Eurovision

Glitzy and kitsch acts ranging from euro-pop, to a song inspired by the Greek debt crisis and a gay marriage anthem featuring a lesbian kiss are set to tussle it out for Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest crown.

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Exit Europe from the left

Most Britons dislike the European Union. If trade unions don't articulate their concerns, the hard right will

For years the electorate has overwhelmingly opposed Britain's membership of the European Union – particularly those who work for a living. Yet while movements in other countries that are critical of the EU are led by the left, in Britain they are dominated by the hard right, and working-class concerns are largely ignored.

This is particularly strange when you consider that the EU is largely a Tory neoliberal project. Not only did the Conservative prime minister Edward Heath take Britain into the common market in 1973, but Margaret Thatcher campaigned to stay in it in the 1975 referendum, and was one of the architects of the Single European Act – which gave us the single market, EU militarisation and eventually the struggling euro.

After the Tories dumped the born-again Eurosceptic Thatcher, John Major rammed through the Maastricht treaty and embarked on the disastrous privatisation of our railways using EU directives – a model now set to be rolled out across the continent.

Even now, the majority of David Cameron's Tories will campaign for staying in the EU if we do get the referendum the electorate so clearly wants. And most of the left seems to be lining up alongside them. My union stood in the last European elections under the No2EU-Yes to Democracy coalition, which set out to give working people a voice that had been denied them by the political establishment. We also set out to challenge the rancid politics of the racist British National party, yet the BNP received far more media coverage. Today it is Ukip that is enjoying the media spotlight. Its rightwing Thatcherite rhetoric and assorted cranky hobby horses are a gift to a political establishment that seeks to project a narrow agenda of continued EU membership.

But the reality is that Ukip supports the EU agenda of privatisation, cuts and austerity. Nigel Farage's only problem with this government's assault on our public services is that it doesn't go far enough. Ukip opposes the renationalisation of our rail network as much as any Eurocrat. Yet Ukip has filled the political vacuum created when the Labour party and parts of the trade union movement adopted the position of EU cheerleaders, believing in the myth of "social Europe".

Social EU legislation, which supposedly leads to better working conditions, has not saved one job and is riddled with opt-outs for employers to largely ignore any perceived benefits they may bring to workers. But it is making zero-hour contracts and agency-working the norm while undermining collective bargaining and full-time, secure employment. Meanwhile, 10,000 manufacturing jobs in the East Midlands still hang in the balance because EU law demanded that the crucial Thameslink contract go to Siemens in Germany rather than Bombardier in Derby.

Today, unemployment in the eurozone is at a record 12%. In the countries hit hardest by the "troika" of banks and bureaucrats, youth unemployment tops 60% and the millions of personal tragedies of lost homes, jobs, pensions and services are testament to the sick joke of "social Europe".

The raft of EU treaties are, as Tony Benn once said, nothing more than a cast-iron manifesto for capitalism that demands the chaos of the complete free movement of capital, goods, services and labour. It is clear that Greece, Spain, Cyprus and the rest need investment, not more austerity and savage cuts to essential public services, but, locked in the eurozone, the only option left is exactly that.

What's more, the EU sees the current crisis as an opportunity to speed up its privatisation drive. Mass unemployment and economic decline is a price worth paying in order to impose structural adjustment in favour of monopoly capitalism.

In Britain and across the EU, healthcare, education and every other public service face the same business model of privatisation and fragmentation. Indeed, the clause in the Health and Social Care Act demanding privatisation of every aspect of our NHS was defended by the Lib Dems on the basis of EU competition law.

But governments do not have to carry out such EU policies: they could carry out measures on behalf of those who elect them. That means having democratic control over capital flows, our borders and the future of our economy for the benefit of everyone.

The only rational course to take is to leave the EU so that elected governments regain the democratic power to decide matters on behalf of the people they serve.

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