“Greece isn't a beggar asking different countries to solve its financing problems for an economic crisis that doesn't concern only Greece but is ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theaustralian.com.au |
How the world sees Greece
Friday, April 10, 2015
The changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of parliament in Athens ...
Greece, Sovereign Debt: Faith In Chaos
Nowhere is economic policy divergence more strained than in Europe, Greece specifically. Grant Williams, who graciously spent the better part of the ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.valuewalk.com |
Ore crash could make us Greece of south: Rinehart
Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, believes the federal government is not facing up to the crash in commodity prices threatening to blow a hole ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theaustralian.com.au |
Greece Police searching for robbery suspect
Greece, NY (WROC)- Greece police is asking for the community's help to track down a robbery suspect. The attached video contains footage of an ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.rochesterhomepage.net |
Greece makes key bailout payment to IMF
LONDON (CNN) - Phew. Europe can breathe again. Greece has made a crucial payment to the International Monetary Fund, the Greek finance ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.wdam.com |
EU chair denounces Greek criticism of Russia sanctions
Latvia, current holder of the EU presidency, said on Friday it was surprised by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's criticism of European Union sanctions against Russia.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Germany welcomes Greece's IMF loan payment
Germany on Friday welcomed a 459-million-euro loan payment by Greece to the IMF as a good sign and noted progress in talks between Athens and its creditors.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Eurozone spent billions on bank bailouts Ireland and Greece hardest hit
Cash-strapped Greece was second on the list spending the equivalent of close to 25 percent of its GDP on bailouts. Across the eurozone as a whole ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.euronews.com |
French PM Valls Calls for More Thorough Reform List
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called on Greece to make more thorough reforms if it wants to receive new European assistance, during an interview to Portuguese paper Diario Economico on Friday. “The position of France has never varied,” Valls, who’s on a visit to Portugal, was quoted as saying. “We have to take account of […] The post French PM Valls Calls for More Thorough Reform List appeared first on The National Herald.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
One Week in Europe: Tsipras’ visit to Moscow, Polish watchtowers and Uber complaints
Russia might make an exception for Greece on its imports embargo from the European Union. This is at least what Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras obtained after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin. Poland decided to put watchtowers along the border with the Russian enclave at Kaliningrad whereas in Brussels, the European Commission got complains […]
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A Bulgarian Expat Recalls an Orthodox Easter Road Trip to Greece With Grandma
With flying not an option, Paul and I looked for an interesting destination that was a relatively easy drive from Bulgaria and we chose northern Greece.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT blogs.wsj.com |
Greece given 6 days to offer reform plan: Reports
Reports say Greece has been offered six working days to draw up a revised economic reform plan aimed at securing a deal on its next rescue bailout.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.presstv.ir |
Russia and Greece to ink Turkish Stream gas pipeline deal within days
Russia and Greece are to sign a memorandum of cooperation on the construction of a new pipeline in the Turkish Stream project which will deliver ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT rt.com |
China's next target? A strategic Greek shipping port
Shipping container cranes line the Pireaus cargo port on February 11, 2015 in Pireaus, Greece. Photograph by Milos Bicanski — Getty Images ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT fortune.com |
BC HIGH: Leary wins Greek oratorical competition
Declan Leary, of Plymouth, a sophomore at Boston College High School, won the Greek I oratorical contest at the 10th annual Latin and Greek ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT plymouth.wickedlocal.com |
Wonkblog: Greece’s poor are back to where they were in 1980
In the last seven years, Greece's economic collapse has wiped out all the progress its poor had made in the previous 28 years.Now there are a lot of ways to think about how historic Greece's recession has been. Its economy has fallen about as much as the U.S.'s did during the Great Depression. Its unemployment rate peaked at 28 percent. And, as Derek Thompson points out, its cities have become filled with smog during the winters, because its people can't afford to heat their homes any other way than burning whatever they can get their hands on. But think about this last one. It probably gets us the closest to having a real idea what it's been like to live through Greece's slump.Read full article
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT feeds.washingtonpost.com |
Lafazanis: Greece is ready to help end European Anti-Russia sanctions
European anti-Russia sanctions exacerbate the problems on the continent, and Greece is ready to help put an end to them, Greek Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis told Sputnik. "The sanctions Europe imposed on Russia are unacceptable. They ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT en.enikos.gr |
Prime Minister Tsipras wasted potentially golden opportunity for Greece in Moscow
As I have tried to show in the past, the present almost complete destruction of the lower classes in Greece did not in fact begin in 2010 but had its roots ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT english.pravda.ru |
Rick Steves, Greece: Climbing in the wild Peloponnese
While most travellers to Greece head for the islands, I head for the hills: the mountains and valleys of the Peloponnese. Attached to the rest of Greece ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thestar.com |
Spain criticises Greece on Russia
Spain has criticised Greece over Russia sanctions as the EU moves toward renewing economic restrictions. The Spanish foreign minister, Jose ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT euobserver.com |
Finns Draw Up Plans To Expel Greece From Eurozone As Tsipras Flirts With Russia
Eurozone countries are drawing up secret documents to force Greece out of the single currency, a memo from the Finnish finance ministry has ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.breitbart.com |
Greece urges creditors to compromise on bailout
Greece will strike a deal on its bailout loan before the end of this month even if it invokes a political backlash, but its Eurozone creditors must be ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.cityam.com |
Cambridge Ancient Greek sign backfires as academic spots errors
The sign is on a building belonging to Cambridge University which is behind a former Greek Orthodox church. Nobody from the university knew when ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.telegraph.co.uk |
Greek bailout talks with creditors set to resume on Monday
With Greece facing a critical fortnight in its continuing standoff with international lenders, discussions between representatives of the Greek ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.irishtimes.com |
Study: Few GLBTQ students feel welcome at Miami, in Greek life
GLBTQ students feel less like they belong on campus than their fellow students in Greek life, according to a study by Miami University's Gay, Lesbian, ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT miamistudent.net |
IGC event explores the Greek economic crisis in political, historical context
Last Thursday, the Institute for Global Citizenship held an event centered on the state of the Greek economy as part of their lecture series 'Global ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT themacweekly.com |
Dutch Parliament Recognizes Assyrian, Greek and Armenian Genocide
The Hague (AINA) -- The Dutch Parliament passed a binding resolution yesterday recognizing the genocide of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians by ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.aina.org |
Should Investors Be Worried About the Greek Economy?
Germany and Greece have so far failed to reach an agreement over Greek debt. Can their differences be resolved or should investors be concerned ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.morningstar.co.uk |
BERGMANN: The Greek tragedy never goes out of fashion
When I was debating whether to pledge a fraternity at Rider College many years ago, I had serious reservations. I was nervous about Hell Night, about ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.app.com |
Greek life centennial scheduled for Saturday
Saturday, April 11, the Greek community will host the Oregon State University Greek Centennial Celebration Dinner in the CH2M HILL Alumni Center ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dailybarometer.com |
A Very Good Good Friday
Growing up Greek Orthodox, as most of you know, involves following a set of rules. Among them is fasting during Lent. There is what I call “hardcore fasting,” eating only Lenten foods during the entire 49-day period (it’s not 40, it’s 49; “40” is an urban myth). Then, there is an entire array of modified […] The post A Very Good Good Friday appeared first on The National Herald.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Καλό Πάσχα! Καλή Ανάσταση! Kalo Pascha! Happy Greek Easter!
Καλό Πάσχα! Καλή Ανάσταση! Kalo Pascha! Happy Greek Easter! Easter Sunday is on April 12th 2015. Below you will find several Greek Easter Wishes before and after Jesus’ Resurrection. If you are in Greece and you want to wish like a Greek, here is a copy paste of the several […]
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
Greece expects deal soon on Russian gas pipeline participation
ATHENS (Reuters) - Athens expects to agree to take part in a pipeline that would bring Russian gas to Europe via its territory, Greece's energy minister ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT news.yahoo.com |
Could Greece replace the Euro this weekend?
Despite being under administration by the EU, the ECB and the IMF for years, Greece today has 75% more debt and 25% lower GDP than it had in ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.fxstreet.com |
Two More Germans Pay their Share of Greek Loan to Germany in WW II
Two German citizens who visit Greece every year paid their share of the loan the country was forced to give Germany during the Third Reich occupation. Ιllο Mechlinski-Gerwinn and Gerhard Gerwinn reside in Pitsidia of Faistos municipality in Heraklion, Crete for many years now. They told e-mesara.gr that they were influenced by an article they read in Der Spiegel magazine about two Germans who had stated that Germany must pay its debt to Greece first before Greece pays its to the European Union. According to the article, Ludwig Zaccharo and Nina Lange calculated the amount Germany owes Greece, including interest, and went to the mayor of Nafplio to pay their share of Germany’s debt to Greece. They said that they called the press not because they wanted the publicity but in order to generate awareness on the issue. The Gerwinn couple decided to do the same. “We want to show that Germany, even 70 years after the war, must not default on the loan,” they said. So they calculated that today’s value of the loan is 12 billion euros, and since Germany has a population of 82 million, each German citizen owes Greece about 150 euros. “We come to Pitsidia every year for thirty years now and we enjoy its beautiful nature and excellent hospitality towards Germans despite the things Germany did to Crete in the past. That’s why we decided to donate 150 euros each to the poor of Pitsidia,” the Gerwinns said. The German couple gave their donation to the president of the local community Dimitris Karandinos on Holy Wednesday.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Greece's banks hamper economic recovery
While Prime minister Alexis Tsipras is fighting for fresh EU funding, Greek business leaders feel let down by their own banks, claiming the country's lenders worsen the depression and inhibit growth. "Somehow we are all in the same boat", Jiannis Kounavis ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dw.de |
Labours of love: EU funds help draw visitors to Corinthia
by Kostis Geropoulos STYMPHALIA, Greece– When Aglaia Kiourktsoglou first arrived in Stymphalia, a village in Corinthia, Peloponnese, after working at the busy Athens city centre she was taken aback by nature. “I stopped my car’s engine and could not hear anything. I could not hear voices, I could not hear cars, I could not hear the crisis and it was amazing,” Kiourktsoglou told New Europe at the Environment Museum of Stymphalia, where she works as the local coordinator. “After 25 years I decided to come here and find another level of life. I think the conditions here are perfect. If you imagine the centre of Athens during the last five years of the economic crisis, it was very difficult to travel between home and work. I was living in Kalamaki, which is an area about 20 minutes from the center of Athens, and usually it took me about an hour because of the traffic and then we had all these problems,” Kiourktsoglou said. “Here it takes me about half an hour but every day I feel like I’m taking an excursion. And the quality of life is great. You can hear the birds; you can see the seasons change. For example, you can feel that spring has arrived today,” she said as we walked outside and could feel that spring is in the air despite the snow in the surrounding mountaintops. She pointed out at Ancient Stymphalos where Anastasios Orlandos excavated parts of the site for the Archaeological Society of Athens between 1924 and 1930 when there was also an economic crisis in Greece. Since 1982, excavations of the site on the north shore of Lake Stymphalia have been under way, directed by a Canadian team. Sophia Staikou, Chairman of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP), told New Europe in Athens that in the beginning the Greek economic crisis affected the visitation of the country’s museums, including the museums of PIOP. “However, within the crisis people have sought quality which highlighted the comparative advantages of all the museums of PIOP as well as the Environment Museum of Stymphalia,” she said. Soon the downward trend in the number of visitors of PIOP in 2009-2010 was not only reversed but every year there is a new record in the number of visitors and that includes the Environment Museum Stypmfalia, Staikou said. From the comments to the visitor’s book, it is apparent that students and their teachers are a significant part of the visitors to the Environment Museum. Staikou said they find the museum to be friendly, innovative and interesting as it presents schematic knowledge of the environment and civilization they study in school and gives them the opportunity to connect the important findings with the natural environment of the lake that lies before them. On location at the Environment Museum of Stymphalia, Kiourktsoglou said that the economic crisis has in some ways helped the museum because of its proximity to Athens but also because it is interesting. “We have travelers that come here all around the world. Last year we even had travelers from India and South Korea. Greeks also start to love the place. We have a lot of children; we have a lot of schools that come here and they love the museum because it is a very interactive museum, they play in the museum, they can touch things, they can imagine, they can go in the boat that we have,” Kiourktsoglou said, pointing at the aquarium. The area is also mentioned in Greek Mythology, due to the Stymphalian birds, which infested the Arcadian woods near the lake. Hercules’ sixth labour was to exterminate them. “Here you can imagine all four of the 12 Labours of Hercules,” Kiourktsoglou said, also referring to killing the Nemean lion, the Lernaean Hydra, and cleaning up King Augeas’ stables in Argos. “You can go to Nemea from here. It’s less than 20 minutes and to Lerna. Of course, we can talk about the Stymphalian birds here and then you can go to Argos. It’s all very close. If you travel for one day, you can see all those places and you can imagine the Labours of Hercules,” she said. “You can try to explain the labours in a scientific way you can speak about the labours also in a philosophical because Hercules was a very famous hero and a loved one because he has all the good things that a man tries to find. He was a good man, he was a very brave man, he was clever and he was honest,” Kiourktsoglou said. Aggelos Papaggelopoulos, deputy governor of the Peloponnese Region, told New Europe that the Labours of Hercules could attract even more tourists in the area, including Nemea. He also highlighted the great interests in the ancient cities of Corinth and Sikyon. See also: How Miller Unearthed The Nemean Games Meanwhile, protecting Lake Stymphalia and the environment has also been a major priority. The aim of the over €2 million LIFE- Stymphalia project, which is 50% co-funded by the EU’s LIFE+, is the restoration of Lake Stymphalia and its long-term protection and management, through a systematic re-financing process, which will be ensured by the utilisation of the reeds’ biomass. Asked about the project, Staikou said in Athens that the idea for the LIFE+ Programme belongs to Piraeus Bank. “It was formed in the Environment Unit which sought partners to develop and implement a plan for sustainable management and protection of Lake Stymphalia and general habitat,” she said. The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation was the ideal partner for such a project as it was already present in the area and had recorded the connection between cultural and natural heritage, she said. “Besides, a plan for sustainable management of the lake cannot ignore the cultural heritage of the area. With this collaboration we developed a new management model which was presented gathering a very positive response in an International Conference on Cultural Landscapes that we organised in Athens and Stymphalia in October 2014," Staikou said.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.neurope.eu |
Greece meets debt repayment prompting sovereign interest rate slide in eurozone
Sovereign bond yields slid sharply across the eurozone as Greece managed to make a key repayment to the International Monetary Fund and the effects of the European Central Bank’s €1 trillion quantitative easing money continued to filter through to ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.independent.co.uk |
Greek exit fears shake confidence in UK growth
Fears of a Greek exit from the eurozone, unrest in Ukraine and the uncertainty around the forthcoming general election have all contributed to British ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.telegraph.co.uk |
SYRIZA Wants Prisoner Leniency
Greece's coalition government wants to end maximum-security prisons and not to detain partners or relatives who are suspects. The post SYRIZA Wants Prisoner Leniency appeared first on The National Herald.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
World Press View: Russian Gambit Didn’t Pay Off For Tsipras
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ visit to Moscow and talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin turned out to be a sideshow, some world reports said. Why Greece is Wooing Russia Epoch Times – Valentin Schmid Greece is between a rock and a hard place. Having wasted the chance to make a clean sweep, default and restructure, […] The post World Press View: Russian Gambit Didn’t Pay Off For Tsipras appeared first on The National Herald.
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European press roundup: Greece reaches out to Moscow and employee costs in Poland
Greece is still on top of the news in Europe. The country paid back 450 million euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday, April 9. The day before, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was in Russia. The Greek newspaper “Kathimerini” reported that this visit could be seen as a warning from Tsipras […]
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT euranetplus-inside.eu |
Quartz Daily Brief—Asia edition—LinkedIn buys Lynda, Greece pays its IMF bill, France ...
Greece paid its €460 million bill to the IMF. The roughly €460 million ($494 million) installment it owed to the international lender has been paid ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT qz.com |
Greece's rock star finance minister Yanis Varoufakis is the star of a new film about Bitcoin
You might think that being the finance minister of one of the world's most economically damaged countries was enough work for anyone, but Greece's Yanis Varoufakis seems to have found time to star in a student's short documentary about Bitcoin. A news site called Greek Reporter ran an April Fool's joke suggesting Varoufakis would move the country to use the cryptocurrency, but this is definitely real. The video is called Bitcoin and the Digital Economy and it's by Kostas Mouratidis, a journalism student in Thessaloniki. The documentary titles him as the finance minister of Greece and it seems like it was filmed recently because if it was done before late January then he wouldn't have been in office yet. It was only uploaded on April 9. Here he is (from 0:45) — there's a transcript of Varoufakis' comments below if you don't want to watch the whole thing: Varoufakis jumps in at about 0:45, talking about the benefits of Bitcoin (this is the translation provided by the person who uploaded the video): "There is no need to pay commission, there is no need to pay debt to any banker." And then he's back in around 3:45: "Bitcoin's organisation became so that those who use it participate in a community where jointly they follow every Bitcoin's move. In other words, it's like all of us who participate in Bitcoin to be members of the central bank of Bitcoin." And 4:27 "There is an absolute democracy and those who are in fear of manipulation of money by the banks or the bankers feel involved in a monetary system which is released from these dangers." And from about 9:18 again, he's talking about the flaws with money as it exists right now: "Each tool can be used for good and evil purposes. Let us not forget that in Europe the European Central Bank produces the €500 euro banknotes. I do not think that you and I have used them very often. They are the notes that drug dealers especially love. What does this mean? Does it mean that the European Central Bank created these notes for drug dealers? The solution of these specific problems needs to be found elsewhere." Then he's back again after 10:30, being more critical about the cryptocurrency It will never be able to replace the currencies that are controlled by a central bank. At least it will not be able to do it in a way that can be sustained... How will the state control these transactions and how will it tax? So it creates major problems on the issue of taxation. To perform under the fantasy that each of us can function as a Robinson Crusoe in our own isolated island, and all together to be in this archipelago consisted of a Polynesia with small islands where everyone is the boss. I think that's a fantasy which ultimately leads to economic crises like the one we have right now. There's a reasonable question to ask about whether this is the best use of Varoufakis' time, but he's written blogs about Bitcoin a number of times, so it's clearly a pre-existing interest. And to be fair, it's very cool of him to have given an interview to a student for their work. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: You've been doing pull-ups all wrong
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.businessinsider.com |
This strange phenomenon explains why we see a man in the Moon
BI Answers: Why do we see the man in the moon and faces in other inanimate objects? When you look up at the moon on a clear night, what do you see? Most people see the face of a person — a man, as the story goes. But when we take a closer look, the blobs of grey formed by the shadows on the moon's surface actually look pretty random. To me, they look nothing like a person. So why are so many people convinced that there's a face looking down at us from above? As it turns out, the Man in the Moon is just one example of a strange phenomenon called pareidolia, our creepy tendency to see faces where none exist. Pareidolia is Greek for "faulty image." Take a look at this sink, for example, posted on a Reddit thread dedicated to everyday instances of pareidolia. It's hard not to see a pair of eyes looking back at you: Or this sandwich from the same thread. It's totally sticking it's deli-meat "tongue" out: The best part isn't the crazy likenesses, though — it's the science that makes it all possible. Why our brains register faces in everyday objects For a recent study, scientists showed a group of volunteers look at a series of completely random scrambles of black and white dots and blobs while the scientists looked at their brains under an MRI. Before they saw any of the images, the researchers told them that half of the images contained either faces or letters. When the volunteers were asked to identify what they saw, they said they saw either faces or letters in the images nearly a third of the time. From the MRI scans, the researchers could tell that the same parts of the brain that light up when we see real faces also lit up in participants who saw the made-up, non-existent faces. In other words, our brains may simply be tuned to recognize human likenesses, whether they're actually human or not. From silly-looking sandwiches to Jesus in tortillas People have been spotting faces in inanimate objects across the globe for thousands of years. Many of the most famous instances involve Jesus or another religious figure. In 1898, a man photographing a cloth on display in the Italian Turin Cathedral reported seeing the face of Jesus on the cross in the photo's negative. Just last year, a man in Texas claimed he'd spotted Jesus on a tortilla. He's now trying to sell it. Jesus Tortilla Guy Trying To Sell His Damn Jesus Tortilla http://t.co/EKziDCm9f1 @andrewCkey pic.twitter.com/EosnwdqtIm — San Antonio Current (@SAcurrent) February 26, 2015 Our tendency to see faces may have evolutionary roots Scientist Carl Sagan theorized that we see faces where none exist because our ancestors needed to be able to quickly identify people they knew and discern facial expressions that would warn us of a potential threat. Those of us who could easily tell a friend from a foe were more likely to survive and pass on their genes to future generations. Since natural selection has favored faces that are unique and easily recognizable, it would make sense that over thousands of years our faces would become even more one-of-a-kind. Several recent studies have suggested that as opposed to dogs or cats, that didn't rely on face recognition as heavily for their survival, humans have some of the most distinctive faces in the animal kingdom. So our tendency to see faces, while a bit strange, may be beneficial to us after all. This post is part of a continuing series that answers all of your questions related to science. Have your own question? Email science@businessinsider.com with the subject line "Q&A"; tweet your question to @BI_Science; or post to our Facebook page.SEE ALSO: Psychologists discover the simplest way to boost your mood AND: The BI Science team answers more of your burning questions Join the conversation about this story »
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A Dangerous Greek Easter Custom that Causes Serious Accidents
The Easter custom of throwing firecrackers and explosives or shooting guns at the time of Resurrection costs limbs and even deaths, every year in Greece. The victims of this “undeclared war” of fireworks that takes place during the Holy Saturday Resurrection ceremony are usually young people who participate in the battle of who is going to shoot more fireworks. The fighting is in some cases taking place between rival parishes or churches. According to a survey by the Center for Research and Prevention of Injuries (KEPA) taking accounts of injury reports from regional health centers, about 110 youths suffer fireworks injuries each year, with 69 percent of them happening during Easter celebrations. Seven in 10 youths injured by fireworks are between the ages of 10 and 14, with 93 percent of them suffering self injuries. Firework explosion in their hands amounts to 79 percent of injured young people. Sometimes injuries are fatal, such as in the case of the 7-year-old boy who got hit in the head by a firework during the Resurrection ceremony in Chalkida and died instantly. That was in 2011, the same year that two men of 30 and 39 years were killed in Rhodes when an explosive device blew up in their hands. Some say that the fireworks and loud explosives depict the earthquake that followed the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Others say that the loud noise and bright light of fireworks chase evil away. Others that it is simply a form of celebration. In areas such as in Vrontados on the island of Chios where over 100,000 rockets are launched each year between two rival parishes, they say that the custom of fireworks comes from a time when Christians wanted to show the neighboring Turks that Greek Orthodoxy is alive and well. The custom in Vrontados is generations’ old and the Easter fireworks “war” there is the most loud and impressive, yet it results in several victims each year.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
Organized Crime in Greece Generates €3.6 Bln a Year
Organized crime in Greece generates a little under 3.6 billion euros per year, with contraband products playing a major part, according to a European Commission study. According to the report titled “From Illegal Markets to Legitimate Businesses: The Portfolio of Organized Crime in Europe,” compiled by Project OCP – Organized Crime Portfolio, organized crime in Europe generates 110 billion euros per year, which is about 1 percent of the continent’s gross domestic product. The biggest part of it comes from illegal narcotics. In Greece, organized crime generates 3.6 billion euros each year, corresponding to 1.6 percent in GDP (in 2010). Cigarette smuggling in Greece brings 455 million euros per year, as tobacco consumption is at 40 percent while tobacco products carry 87.5 percent taxation, the highest in Europe. Drug trafficking in Greece brings organized crime much less in revenues: 54 million euros per year in heroin sales, 35 million euros in ecstasy sales, 28 million euros from cannabis and 16 million euros from cocaine. Despite the fact that Greece is a central transit point, illegal narcotics sales are low in proportion. However, the biggest profits crime organizations come from counterfeit products, estimated at 1.5 billion euros. Close behind, come bootleg or smuggled products with a little under 1.5 billion euros in lost value added tax each year. The overall figures on illicit revenues may be very conservative since some illicit markets, such as human trafficking, extortion, illegal gambling and some types of fraud lack estimates for most of the 28 European Union member states.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
UNC Greek System Members Walk to End Sexual Violence
CHAPEL HILL -- Members of the Greek system at UNC walked to put an end to sexual violence on campus on Thursday. A large group gathered for ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.twcnews.com |
Greeks awaiting justice in Nazi massacre village, 70 years on
A small town in central Greece still inhabited today, Distomo has become the symbol of atrocities committed by Nazi troops as they pulled back to Germany in the wake of the Allied Normandy landings in the summer of 1944.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
Greece given six days to improve reforms
Greece has made another plea to the eurozone for cash to avert bankruptcy but has been told to present an improved list of economic reforms within six working days for finance ministers to pave the way for any more lending, EU officials said yesterday.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.irishexaminer.com |
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