Despite Greece's image as a sunny holiday destination, winter in Greece can hit hard, and thousands of refugees arriving in the country every day could ...
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How the world sees Greece
Friday, November 27, 2015
EU turns to Turkey to help manage its migration woes
BRUSSELS (AP) — Five years ago, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi warned that millions of Africans wanted to come to the European Union and offered to make the continent's immigration problem disappear in exchange for billions of euros. Despite Libyan rights abuses, Europe listened, and Italy signed a deal with the Gadhafi regime. At a high-profile summit in Brussels Sunday, Europe's leaders will offer Turkey 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion), an easing of visa restrictions and the fast-tracking of its EU membership process. In exchange, Ankara is to tighten border security and take back some migrants who don't qualify for asylum in Europe. EU money will help build centers to hold them. The Europeans hope Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who will not attend the summit — can be their savior, yet disturbing questions remain over Turkey's human rights record. "He's king of playing hardball. He's a smart guy, he knows how to act, he knows what to say in order to achieve benefits," said Amanda Paul, a senior analyst at the European Policy Centre think-tank. According to the International Organization for Migration, almost 900,000 people have entered Europe this year seeking sanctuary or jobs. More than 600,000 have entered through Greece, many after making the short sea crossing from Turkey. Though the distance is short, the crossing is dangerous. On Friday, six children drowned in the two separate accidents. In one case, two sisters, aged 4 and 1, drowned when a wooden boat capsized in bad weather near the Turkish resort of Bodrum. Hours later, four Afghan children drowned when their boat sank further north off the town of Ayvacik, a main crossing point for migrants trying to reach the island of Lesbos. So Turkey has become an indispensable actor as the refugee emergency leads some European nations to shut down borders, crack down on security or erect razor-wire fences. Many fear the future of Europe's 26-nation passport-free Schengen travel area, indeed the very project of European unity, is in jeopardy. "We have to try to cooperate with Turkey because, in fact, we have no other options," European Council President Donald Tusk told EU lawmakers last month. An unpalatable truth is that the EU is well aware of Turkey's human rights failings — just as it was of Libya's — yet it again appears ready to set values aside in a quest to resolve its refugee crisis. In a recent membership progress report, the EU criticized Ankara's interference in its justice system and Turkish government pressure on the media. Just this Thursday, two more opposition journalists were jailed in Turkey. Yet the EU plans to designate Turkey a "safe country" for migrants, even as European countries grant asylum to fleeing Turkish nationals. More than 2 million refugees from Syria live in Turkey, but according to Amnesty International, only around one in 10 are being helped by the government. The rest fend largely for themselves. Beyond that, Irvina McGowan from Amnesty's EU office says her organization "has documented cases of people being forcibly returned to Syria and Iraq, having been intercepted by Turkish border guards on their way to Europe. That's a flagrant violation of international law." None of this will stop the EU from reaching into its pockets. The only question is: how deep? The European Commission has promised Turkey 500,000 euros ($529,000) as part of the 3 billion-euro "refugee facility." Member states are balking at their payments, though. Under a plan drawn up by the Commission, Germany would pay more than half a billion euros, Britain just over 400 million and France 386 million. Greece and Cyprus have been refusing to pay. They have a long running feud with Turkey since it annexed the northern third of the Mediterranean island in response to an Athens-supported coup in 1974. The Cyprus divide has hampered Turkey's EU accession talks, which began in 2005 but have been largely on hold in recent years. Nonetheless, the EU has promised to breathe new life into the process, as if past differences might suddenly be set aside. Other issues are complicating matters. The downing on Tuesday of a Russian warplane by the Turkish military comes as the EU — led by Germany — looks to smooth relations with Moscow. And prior to taking his summit seat in Brussels, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his freshly-elected government wants to adopt a new constitution. The changes could grant Erdogan sweeping new powers, yet it's unclear whether this will trouble EU leaders. Rights groups are dismayed that the Europeans are still too ready to compromise their principles for quick results. "They're focusing on trying to enlist countries as border guards while casting a blind eye to the flagrant human rights violations or risks," McGowan said. Join the conversation about this story »
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Greece: UN labour agency outlines roadmap for tackling unemployment and weak economy
… by Greece,†Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, said, commenting on the Greek … Greece.†The UN labour agency will further enhance support for Greeceâ … industrial relations framework. Since 2010, Greece has been implementing a fiscal …
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An Ancient Mystery Traveling in a Suitcase From GREECE
A few weeks ago, in the midst of the Greek crisis, a small team from a Greek Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, traveled from Athens to New York ...
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FBI: Armored truck robbed by man dressed as guard
Police said the suspect got away with more than $500,000 from a Loomis armored truck that pulled up to Greektown Casino in Detroit
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United Nations News Centre
Greece: UN labour agency outlines roadmap for tackling unemployment and weak economy
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Sources: Ringleader Of Paris Attacks Planned More Strikes
PARIS, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The ringleader behind the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris had plans to strike Jewish targets and to disrupt schools and the transport system in France, according to sourcesclose to the investigation. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, also boasted of the ease with which he had re-entered Europe from Syria via Greece two months earlier, exploiting the confusion of the migrant crisis and the continent's passport-free Schengen system, the sources said on Friday. Their comments, confirming excerpts from a confidential police witness statement leaked to a French magazine this week, fleshed out a picture of the Islamic State militant who spearheaded the Nov. 13 attacks targeting cafes, a concert hall and sports stadium in Paris in which 130 people were killed. The witness statement, quoted in the Valeurs Actuelles weekly magazine, describes how Abaaoud approached his cousin Hasna Ait Boulahcen two days after the killing spree asking her to hide him while he prepared further attacks. Both Abaaoud and Boulahecen died on Nov. 18 in a shootout with police in St. Denis north of Parisat an apartment where the militant Islamist had been staying. Speaking of the planned future attacks, Abaaoud told his cousin on Nov. 15 that "they would do worse (damage) in districts close to the Jews and would disrupt transport and schools," the witness statement said. Abaaoud said he would give Boulahecen 5,000 euros ($5,289.50) to buy two suits and two pairs of shoes for him and an unidentified accomplice to "look the part" in a planned attack on Paris' commercial district La Defense. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed on Tuesday the militants had been plotting to attack La Defense on Nov. 18. Reuters had previously reported the planned attack. The witness statement also described how Abaaoud had boasted about slipping into Europe with refugees fleeing Syria's civil war and then spending two months in France undetected prior to the Nov. 13 attacks. "France - zero," it quoted him as saying. On Friday, the Paris prosecutor's office said it would open a preliminary investigation into how the confidential police witness statement was leaked to the press. ($1 = 0.9453 euros) (Reporting By Chine Labbé and John Irish; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Andrew Heavens) -- 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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I. Amanatidis: Substantial and strong relationship of GREEK Diaspora with the motherland
For the vision of a deep and strong relationship of GREEK Diaspora with the motherland, spoke Deputy Foreign Minister Mr I. Amanatidis during the first ...
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NYSE Suspends Trading of National Bank of GREECE (ADR) ADS
In a press release today, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced to commence proceedings to delist National Bank of GREECE'S ...
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Greek State Employees and 57 Companies Engulfed in Latest Corruption Scandal
A high-ranking official of Greece’s General Accounting Office has been charged for illegally making the Greek state a guarantor to 57 businesses in Northern Greece that were facing financial challenges. The prosecutor’s investigation has found that this employee signed off on requests for the Greek state to act as a guarantor for these companies, Kathimerini newspaper reports. A law that had
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Greece and Russia Deliberating Over Tourism Partnership According to Deputy Foreign Minister
A Greek-Russian cooperation on tourism is under discussion, Deputy Foreign Minister responsible for International Economic Relations Dimitris Mardas said on Friday to Praktorio 104.9 FM. It refers to cruise ships that will carry Russian tourists from the port of Sochi to Thessaloniki with a stop in Istanbul, he added. According to Mardas, the proposal for
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Choreographer of Athens 2004 Olympic Games To Present ‘STILL LIFE’ Worldwide
“STILL LIFE” visual performance, conceived and directed by Greek artist Dimitris Papaioannou, and produced by 2WORKS with the support of the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, will travel across the world, sponsored by Aegean Airlines, from October 7, 2015 through March 31, 2016. Papaioannou’s latest project draws inspiration from the Greek mythological figure of Sisyphus, who
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Hydra genetically reprograms skin cells after losing its nerve
After losing its nervous system, the freshwater polyp adapts its skin cells to make them act like nerve cells In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a gigantic, snake-like monster with nine heads and poisonous blood and breath, which lurked in the swamps of Lerna. Heracles was sent to destroy the beast as one of his twelve labours, but when he decapitated one of its heads, two more grew back in its place. He eventually defeated it with the help of his trusty nephew Iolaus, however, by burning out the severed roots with firebrands to prevent the regrowth, then decapitating its one immortal head and burying it under a heavy rock. The real _Hydra_ has regenerative capacities that surpass those of its mythological namesake. When it is dismembered, any fragment of its body can regenerate to form a completely new individual, and it can even remain alive after its entire nervous system has been lost. Researchers in Switzerland now report that it does so by adapting its skin cells to make them behave more like neurons. Their findings provide clues about how nerve cells first evolved, billions of years ago. Continue reading...
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Refugees "do not want to come to Portugal"
The European Commission has decreed that refugees who refuse to go to the onward destination chosen for them, will be excluded from the European host system. If people really don’t want to go to certain countries, they can make an application for asylum in the country where they are, which for most means Greece or Italy.
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GREEK pride in the rooms of the small Herakleidon Museum
The exhibit showcases models of some of the greatest GREEK inventions such as Plato's surprising hydraulic alarm clock or the astrolabe of Ptolemy.
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Greek university sets up website to inform refugees
The information is available in Arabic, English and Greek, but the university aims at adding Albanian, Russian and French at a later date. The website, which started ...
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Checking In On GREECE'S Debt Crisis
GREECE was cleared for that money after putting a number of reforms into place as part of a much larger bailout agreed to this summer, the third Greek ...
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Euro to US Dollar (EUR/USD) Exchange Rate Forecast: GREEK Economic Contraction Pulls Down ...
While the US Dollar (USD) remains on bullish form ahead of the weekend, the Euro (EUR) has been softened as Greece's third quarter GDP fell short ...
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Home GREEK news economy GREEK Economy Faired Worse Than Initially Thought in the Third ...
Initial estimations reported that the GREEK economy shrunk by 0.4% compared to third quarter of 2014. The latest data show a 1.1% year to year ...
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Chicago's 88-Year Old GREEK Orthodox Metropolitan Joins Communities in Feeding Needy on ...
This is the case with the Annunciation Cathedral and St. George GREEK Orthodox Church. Despite being in the posh Gold Coast and Lincoln Park, ...
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Ringleader of Paris attacks planned more strikes, mocked open borders
The ringleader behind the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris had plans to strike Jewish targets and to disrupt schools and the transport system in France, according to sources close to the investigation. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, also boasted of the ease with which he had re-entered Europe from Syria via Greece two months earlier, exploiting the confusion of the migrant crisis and the continent's passport-free Schengen system, the sources said on Friday. The witness statement, quoted in the Valeurs Actuelles weekly magazine, describes how Abaaoud approached his cousin Hasna Ait Boulahcen two days after the killing spree asking her to hide him while he prepared further attacks.
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Will anti-austerity Portugal become the new GREECE?
Is Portugal about to take the same path as GREECE? That's the question being asked as the country's new Socialist government was sworn in promising ...
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Israeli tourism to GREECE rises sevenfold
The flow of tourism from Israel to GREECE has grown sevenfold in the last few years, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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GREECE stresses its role before refugee summit
A migrant holds his crying child after crossing the border from GREECE to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on Friday, as weather ...
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The Times claims “Greek students sell sex for a cheese pie, because they’re hungry”
Six years of crippling financial crisis have sent Greek students to the streets. However, not for anti-austerity protests but for sex. They allegedly “sell it very cheap,” for the price of “a cheese pie or a sandwich,” thus “offering the lowest prices of the industry across the Continent.” “Some women […]
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Deputy FM Mardas meets with Venezuelan Ambassador Farid Fernandez (Athens, 27 November 2015)
The Deputy Foreign Minister for International Economic Relations, Dimitris Mardas, met at the Foreign Ministry today with the Venezuelan Ambassador to Greece, Farid Fernandez. The discussion took place in an excellent climate and focused on issues of common interest, with emphasis on further expansion and strengthening of the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.Also discussed were the visits that have been exchanged by members of the political leadership of the two countries during the past year, as an expression of the ties of friendship and shared values that link the two peoples. Mr. Mardas referred to the potential to expand...
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Young Greek women are selling sex for the price of a ...
Prostitution is rising (Picture: Getty Images) Young women in austerity-ravaged Greece has selling sex for the price of a sandwich, a new study shows.
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GREEK FM due in Iran for two-day visit
Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias is due to travel to Iran on Sunday, his press office announced on Friday. Kotzias will be accompanied by Deputy ...
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In Terror's Wake, America Must Remain Our Brothers' Keeper
_Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"_ -- Genesis, 4:9 OUR RESPONSE TO TERROR After the horrific mass attacks directed at France, Russia, Mali, Lebanon, Tunisia and Turkey, in recent weeks, the terror threat has understandably reemerged as the most significant concern of the American public. Respondents overwhelmingly, at a level of 83 percent, believe "Islamic terrorists will try to launch an attack on U.S. soil in the near future." I echoed these concerns in congressional testimony just prior to the Paris attacks: > The United States faces multiple severe risk factors and a diverse > set of emerging contemporary actors in the area of mass terrorism > with shots on goal increasingly coming from across both the > ideological, geographical and competency spectrum... [T] here are > significant qualitative and quantitative factors that plausibly skew > our Center's current overall mass terror threat assessment toward > violent Salafist Jihadists, such as ISIS and al Qaeda... If our center's threat assessment, and that of the American public is correct, what shall we do next? In striving to combat the most violent evil terror facing the world today, neither avoidance nor surrender is an option. This is true both for efforts to bring political stability to Syria as well as obliterating ISIS's barbaric command structure into a blackened heap of smoldering blowing desert dust. It is also true, however, for holding steadfast to our bedrock principles of American exceptionalism and inclusion. As President Obama asserted Tuesday in a joint White House press conference with French President Francois Hollande: > [A]nother part of being vigilant, another part of defeating > terrorists like ISIL, is upholding the rights and the freedoms that > define our two great republics. That includes freedom of religion. > That includes equality before the law. There have been times in our > history, in moments of fear, when we have failed to uphold our > highest ideals, and it has been to our lasting regret. While American apprehension grows following the third worst terrorist attack to strike Europe in the post World II War era, the responses to the threat vary wildly. As _New York Times_ columnist Frank Bruni asserted >> > The way to get beyond any reflexive, visceral panic after Paris > isn't to mock and belittle it. It's to explain, with gravity and > respect, why certain courses of action would be imprudent and how > they'd contradict the very American principles that we intend to be > a stirring e world. WHEN FEARS AND PREJUDICE COALESCE For a variety of reasons, factually anchored analysis proves elusive, even to those immersed in the field, because of a confusing barrage of often conflicting information. The evolving threat is at once both severe, yet partly unpredictable; opaque, but worse yet, accompanied by a masquerade of factually dubious prejudices. In our contemporary post truth political era, these religious and political prejudices and half-truths have elevated into shiny counterfeit currency. Moreover, a quasi-ubiquitous Islamophobia, broadly casts a divisive web of suspicion and pain upon our 2.7 million innocent Muslim American neighbors, who interestingly are also derided by ISIS as docile "coconuts" for choosing to live here in freedom. The wafting toxic vapor of this un-American bigotry is casting a pall across our land in small concentrated puffs on the Internet and at social gatherings, as well as in industrial strength bellows by an expanding constellation of Presidential carnival barkers. This snake oil is not only morally inapposite to our exceptional pluralistic democracy; it threatens our national security as well. Wild pronouncements that prompt incomplete or misdirected responses can disproportionately focus attention to less threatening issues to the exclusion of other more urgent ones, leaving us comfortably oblivious, but more vulnerable. Ignorant or bigoted opportunists, who fan sincere sparks of fear into an intoxicating flame of bigotry, divide us but don't make us any safer. In recent days politicians have broadly asserted, and sometimes backtracked on shuttering mosques, registering Muslims in databases, waterboarding, creating a government agency to promote "Judeo-Christian Western values," as well establishing a religious test for refugee admission and the presidency. The declining Ben Carson compared the task of vetting Muslim refugees to that of screening potentially rabid dogs. The father of American religious liberty, Thomas Jefferson, offered a contrasting > on faith: > > Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely > between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his > faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government > reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign > reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that > their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of > religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a > wall of s ween church and State. THOUSANDS OF DANCING GARDEN STATE ARABS Frontrunner Donald Trump, who rarely met a stereotype or rumor he didn't like, follows Jefferson's wise counsel by condemning the _actions_ of thousands of reprehensible, yet apparently non-existent, Arab Garden State residents at ral > television: > > Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And > I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands > of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands > of people were cheering. (Birmingham, AL, November 21) > And then followed up on ABC on November 22: > > STEPHANOPOULOS: Police say it didn't happen. > > TRUMP: There were people that were cheering on the other side of > New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were > cheering Trade Center came down. This divisive rhetoric is a far cry from previous Republican leaders like Senator John McCain and President George Bush, who rejected divisive slurs in their public addresses. Bush rejected anti-Muslim bigotry shortly after 9/11 in statements at a public photo-op with Muslim leaders, while McCain took the mic at a town hall from a supporter who criticized his rival as an "Arab." Contrast that with Mr. Trump's clumsy interchange with a bigoted suppor > ster, New Hampshire in September: > > Questioner: We have a problem in this country and it's called > Muslims. We know our current president is one. You know he's not > even an American- > > Trump [Laughing]: We need this question? This first one? > > Questioner: We have training camps growing where they want to kill > us. That's my question. When can we get rid of them? > > Trump: We're going to be looking into a lot of different things. A > lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying a lot > of bad things are happening out be looking at that and a lot of other things. OUR FAILURE TO DISPEL FEAR, NOT JUST BIGOTRY FOGS DISCOURSE ON REFUGEES One contentious debate, however, that cannot be dismissed as a mere exercise in bigotry is that of resettling a relatively small number of Syrian refugees to the United States. Americans were justifiably moved by the sickening images of a tiny lifeless three year old Kurdish boy named Aylan Kurdi, whose drowned limp body, clad in little black shorts and undone Velcro sneakers washed up face down onto the rock strewn Turkish shore in September. Even the beret capped, hunched, Turkish policeman who whisked away the silent little toddler, with the dangling limbs, averted his gaze. Aylan's whole young family, except his heartbroken father, perished in the unforgiving sea, after the small dinghy they were crammed into capsized on a treacherous journey to Greece. The Kurdi family fled the war torn Syrian border town of Kobane, where our Kurdish allies faced pitched battles and medieval massacres at the hands of genocidal ISIS killers. _Aylan Kurdi photo courtesy of DHA_ In only two attacks there this past June, suicide bombers targeting civilians killed 145 non-combatants including women, the elderly and kids. Kurds, Christians, Yazidis, Shia, opposing Sunni tribes and gays (who are thrown from the tops of buildings into chanting armed crowds) are among the targets for the barbarism of ISIS, while Sunnis face brutality and chemical attacks from the tottering Assad regime. REFUGEES: ANOTHER ISIS CASUALTY? Whatever goodwill was fostered for the refugee resettlement effort in the wake of the Aylan Kurdi tragedy was scuttled by revelations that a Paris suicide bomber "Ahmad Almohammad" arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 3 with a counterfeit Syrian passport. Ironically, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose state is not quite home to the Statue of Liberty, firmly declared that he would even deny entry to a five-year old Syrian orphan refugee. Perhaps his view of the New Colossus inscription on the statue > d his ancestors is now obstructed: > > With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, > Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, > The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. > Send these, the homeless, tempe , I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" While not quite as strident, 30 other governors and the majority of Americans according to Bloomberg News, NBC and Fox News polls, also oppose the resettlement of refugees. The Obama administration is seeking to resettle only about 10,000 in 2016 of the over four million refugees, while in Lebanon, 1.1 million refugees now comprise one-fifth of the small country's population. The practical effect of legislation passed last week; by a veto proof margin of 289-137, including 47 Democrats; of the House of Representatives would halt the program if also passed by the Senate. It requires the FBI and Homeland Security director to personally guarantee each refugee, something no one can do. Many, opponents, plausibly point to FBI Director Comey's testimony > Congressional hearings as a basis: > > We can only query against that which we have collected and so if > someone has never made a ripple in the pond in Syria in a way that > would get their identity or their interest reflected in our > database, we can query our database until the cows come home, but > ... not w up, because we have no record of that person. Further eroding the electorate's confidence is the rising disapproval of the President's handling of terrorism, which now sits at its highest level since he assumed office. According to a Washington Post/ABC Poll a full 43 percent strongly disapprove of his performance. With specific respect to ISIS, the President's disapproval level is even worse at 57 percent. Criticism by other Democrats and former administration leaders about the lack of a firm plan, coupled with the president's own commentary has caused public trust in his administration's pronouncements regarding terrorism in general, and refugees in particular to plummet. The president's previous reference to ISIS as a "JV" team and his awkward, but technically correct, assessment of ISIS being territorially contained hours before the Paris attacks hurt him politically. IN TIMES OF FEAR, HONEST FACTUAL ANALYSIS IS THE REAL CURRENCY While some in the progressive left have highlighted the reprehensible recent displays of xenophobia and bigotry, chronicled above, as the primary driver of American rejection of Syrian refugees, the answer perhaps lies more in the combination of sincere fear, the administration's lack of political capital, and the inability to get facts out about what we know, and don't know about the present risk. While the terror risk from Syrian refugees appears small, it is not non-existent. Still, 67 percent of the Syrians the United Nations seek to resettle here are female, or males 11 or under. Over half of those admitted so far are children with only 2.5 percent being single males of combat age. Most candidates destined for the U.S., 93 percent, are anti-Assad Sunnis, who along with a smaller number of Kurdish or Shia families or gays, among others, hardly have a motive to want to support the very genocidal maniacs who either want to wipe them out or oppress them. That is why 83 percent of Syrian refugees have a negative view of ISIS according to the Arab Center for Research and Policy in Doha. Since 2011 when the crisis began, 2290 Syrian refugees have arrived in the United States and none have been implicated in any terror related crimes. Of the 784,000 refugees from various nations settled in the United States since 9/11 only three have been charged in terror related offenses according to the Center for Migration Studies in Washington, D.C. Note, that unlike migrants coming to Europe, the screening process for those coming to the United States, is the most comprehensive available involving delayed entry, biometrics, lengthy interviews and vetting by various agencies, lasting as long as two years. WHAT WOULD ISIS DO?: THEIR AVAILABLE OPTIONS Of course ISIS would do anything they could to hit us, including using refugees, women and others, but the most comforting reason with respect to this issue is also the most disturbing overall. They simply don't need to use refugees. A two-year wait to plant a terror "Trojan horse" here is not outside the realm of ISIS evil, as it would certainly stoke backlash against Muslims, which they would like. That possibility, notwithstanding, refugees are a very suboptimal choice compared to all the other available options, which pose a much worse and more immediate threat. As the CATO Institute observed, "Few ISIS soldiers or other terrorists are going to spend at least three years in a refugee camp for a 0.042 percent chance of entering the United States when almost any other option to do so is easier, cheaper, and quicker." These other factors include the porous Syrian/Turkish border, which serves as a gateway to Europe for thousands of violent extremists, many of whom are radicalized European citizens and residents. Once in Europe, the open border policy amplifies the problem, as extremists plan and recruit in one country and attack in another, taking advantage of safe havens and intelligence gaps between countries. The economically beneficial VISA waiver program that the United States has with 39 nations, also allows "clean" radicalized Europeans, not in databases, entry into the United States far more easily and quickly than for refugees. The 9/11 terrorists entered the country with visas. Furthermore, ISIS's disgusting, yet sophisticated English language Internet recruitment operations radicalize people already here without the necessity of foreign travel, though they'd prefer that. Moreover, ridiculously, people who are on our nation's terror watch list right now can't board a flight, but can legally buy firearms. From 2004-2014, 2,043 of them did, with only 190 denials. Former Homeland Security Committee Chair, Republican Congressman Peter King and Senate Democrat Dianne Feinstein, both seek to close that loophole. A SMALL RISK, TO BE SURE, BUT A MISPLACED RESPONSE AS WELL As Senate Armed Services Committee Chair John McCain explained, "I believe the overwhelming focus on the refugee program in recent days is misplaced... I especially encourage my fellow Republicans to recognize that refugees are not the problem -- they are the symptom of the problem." Other conservatives including > titute concluded: > > The security threat posed by refugees in the United States is > insignificant. Halting America's processing of refugees due to a > terrorist attack in another country that may have had one > asylum-seeker as a co-plotter would be an extremely e reaction to very minor threat. The Brookings Institution, recently designated as the world's most influential think tank, noted that neglected refugees could possibly morph into a security t > till concluded: > > Concerns about terrorism and the refugees are legitimate, but the > fears being voiced are usually exaggerated and the concerns raised > often the wrong ones...The refugees themselves, fleeing war and > extremism, are not strong supporters of the most violent groups: if > they were, ve stayed in Iraq or Syria. Lastly, Anti-Defamation League Director Jonathan Greenblatt noted similarities to rejected Jewis > efugees: > > [T]he solution can not be to send those fleeing that same brutality > [of recent terror attacks] back into the hands of ISIS. Less than a > century ago, xenophobia, religious bigotry, and hatred shut > international doors in the faces of those fleeing Nazi Germany. The > world cannot e that mistake again. We may have to make some tough choices, including some new restrictions and alterations to policy to better protect our country, including adjusting our current refugee program with respect to combat age males. However, if America is going to live up to its definitional ideals, we cannot simply shun the rescue of a tiny portion of God's most vulnerable children from the fiery hell on Earth that they so desperately flee, irrespective of the faith they embrace. As Noble Laureate Mother Teresa counseled those like us bestowed with so much: "Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work." Amen. -- 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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The 12 mathematicians who unlocked the modern world
Mathematics is an increasingly central part of our world and an immensely fascinating realm of thought. But long before the development of the math that gave us computers, quantum mechanics, and GPS satellites, generations of brilliant minds — spanning from the ancient Greeks through the eighteenth century — built up the basic mathematical ideas and tools that sit at the foundation of our understanding of math and its relationship to the world. Here are 12 of the most brilliant of those minds and some of their contributions to the great chain of mathematics. THE PYTHAGOREANS (5TH CENTURY BC) Some of the earliest mathematicians were Pythagoras and his followers. Mixing religious mysticism with philosophy, the Pythagoreans' contemplative nature led them to explorations of geometry and numbers. The most famous result attributed to Pythagoras is the Pythagorean theorem: for a right triangle, the sum of the squares of the two shorter legs that join to form the right angle is equal to the square of the long side opposite that angle. This is one of the fundamental results in plane geometry, and it continues to fascinate mathematicians and math enthusiasts to this day. One apocryphal story of the Pythagoreans illustrates the danger of combining religion and math. The Pythagoreans idealized the whole numbers, and viewed them as a cornerstone of the universe. Their studies of geometry and music centered on relating quantities as ratios of whole numbers. As the story goes, a follower of Pythagoras was investigating the ratio of the length of the long side of an isosceles right triangle to the length of one of the two shorter sides, which have the same length as each other. He then discovered that there was no way to express this as the ratio of two whole numbers. In modern terminology, this follower had figured out that the square root of 2 is an irrational number. According to the legend, when the follower who discovered this fact revealed it to his peers, the idea that there could be irrational numbers — numbers that can't be expressed as a ratio of two whole numbers — was so shocking to the Pythagoreans that he was taken out on a boat and murdered by drowning. EUCLID (C. 300 BC) Euclid was one of the first great Greek mathematicians. In his classic "Elements," Euclid laid the framework for our formal understanding of geometry. While earlier Greek philosophers like the Pythagoreans investigated a number of mathematical problems, Euclid introduced the idea of rigorous proof: Starting with a handful of assumed axioms about the basic nature of points, lines, circles, and angles, Euclid builds up ever more complicated ideas in geometry by using pure deductive logic to combine insights from previous results to understand new ideas. This process of using rigorous proof to build new results out of existing results introduced in the "Elements" has remained perhaps the most central guiding principle of mathematics for over two millennia. ARCHIMEDES (C. 287-212 BC) Archimedes was possibly the greatest mathematician of all time. He's best known for his contributions to our early understanding of physics by figuring out how levers work and in the famous legend of his discovery of how water is displaced by a submerged object: While taking a bath, Archimedes watched the water sloshing up to the top of his tub, and in the excitement of his discovery, he ran through the streets naked and shouting "Eureka!" As a mathematician, however, Archimedes was able to outdo even his own accomplishments in physics. He was able to estimate the value of pi to a remarkably precise value and to calculate the area underneath a parabolic curve. What is truly amazing about these accomplishments is that he made these calculations using techniques surprisingly close to those used by Newton, Leibniz, and their heirs in the development of calculus about 1,800 years later. He found these values by approximating them with measurements of polygons, adding more and more refined shapes, so that he would get closer and closer to the desired value. This is strongly reminiscent of the modern idea of an infinite limit. As far as his mathematical sophistication was concerned, Archimedes was nearly two millennia ahead of his time. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Greece beefs up security measures, calls for comprehensive ...
ATHENS, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Greek government officials announced Greece is beefing up security measures after the Paris terror attacks. "Greece is a safe ...
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Roundup: Greece beefs up security measures, calls for ...
Greek government officials announced Greece is beefing up security measures after the Paris terror attacks. "Greece is a safe country compared to others," Deputy ...
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NYSE Is Delisting National Bank of Greece After 91% Plunge
The New York Stock Exchange is delisting American depositary receipts of National Bank of Greece SA after they lost 91 percent of their value this year.
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Breathtaking Jumps on Navagio Beach, GREECE
navagio beach Devin Graham, also known by his Youtube name, devinsupertramp, is a 32-year-old American videographer who produces adventure ...
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GREECE Olympia grads to honor military vets
At 560 students, the 1965 graduating class of GREECE Olympia High School was the largest ever in the GREECE Central School District's history.
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Behind migrant protests, children live in limbo at Macedonia's border
With the Macedonian border closed to all but Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees, many children seeking asylum are stuck in a cold and dusty no man's land. Oscar Lopez reports from Idomeni, Greece.
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The Siemens affair: Lost in translation
In Greece, a corruption trial begins for former Siemens executives and others employed by the corporation. The defendants have been accused of bribery and money laundering.
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Turkey claims some successes, but migrant flows to Europe persist
By Nick Tattersall and Tom Miles ISTANBUL/GENEVA (Reuters) - For a few days this week, officials in Turkey, Greece and Europe wondered if there might finally be signs of progress in their efforts to stem the flow of refugees and migrants pouring onto Lesbos. Only around 10 to 20 boats, each carrying some 50 tired and hungry people, have arrived on the Greek island in the past few days, far fewer than the thousands of people a day who had been crossing the narrow sea channel from Turkey just a few weeks earlier. Rougher waters were deterring migrants from attempting the journey, locals and aid workers said.
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National Bank of Greece Halted, Stock Tumbled After Bond ...
Shares of National Bank of Greece (NBG) were down nearly 14% before trading was halted in the U.S. after the lender said Thursday its international bond ...
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National Bank of Greece (NBG) Stock Spirals Further South
National Bank of Greece (NBG) Stock Spirals Further South Bidness Etc investigates the downward pull on the stock price Nov 27, 2015 at 11:46 am Est
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'A journey through Greece in a time of crisis’: Narrating ...
Greece is portrayed as a young spoiled girl stricken by a huge debt. Her lenders refuse to come to her rescue, until the European Union “comes in to save the day ...
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Refugee crisis tests Sweden's lofty aim of 'equality for all'
Aneta Moura, who emigrated to Sweden from Greece 43 years ago, says the last ethnic Swede has moved off her street in Malmo's Rosengard neighbourhood and youths with nothing to do hang out on the streets at all hours.
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EU seeks to buy Turkish help with migrants at controversial summit
Germany driving bid to get Ankara to block way to Greece in return for €3bn in aid, with scepticism high about merits of deal European leaders are to stage an unprecedented and highly controversial summit with the Turkish government on Sunday in an attempt to outsource the migration crisis, paying Ankara €3bn for it to seal its border with Greece to halt or slow migrant flows to Europe. Related: Turkey putting Syrian refugees 'at serious risk of human rights abuse' Continue reading...
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Dijssebloem threatens Greece & other countries with “Schengen expulsion”
The head of the Eurogroup, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned that countries which fail to adequately guard Europe’s borders and do not take in a fair share of refugees could find themselves outside the borders of a future “mini-Schengen” zone. Dijsselbloem’s threats have two different targets: Greece that has […]
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Turkey violated GREEK airspace more than 2000 times last year
Turkey has increased its violations of GREEK-claimed airspace in the Aegean in recent years, heightening tensions between Ankara and Athens.
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Former Greek FinMin Varoufakis Plans to Democratize Europe ...
Greek former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis visited Australia to give a lecture at Sydney University, where he explained what he has planned for the future.
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Greece and Creditors Agree on Second Package of Prior Actions
Greece and creditors have agreed on the second batch of prior actions required for the first bailout program review. The actions need to pass in Greek Parliament by December 8. According to Kathimerini daily, the prior actions include: Establishing an independent Secretariat of Public Revenue Measures to tackle contraband fuel trade and trilateral VAT transactions
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Six Children Reportedly Drown off Turkish Coast
At least six children lost their lives during two separate efforts of migrants and refugees to cross from the Turkish shores to the Greek islands. In one of the two incidents, one boat transporting migrants and refugees capsized on its way to the Greek island of Lesvos, leaving four Afghan children dead, with their bodies washing
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Greece, Croatia Reject Separations Between Economic Migrants and Refugees
Deputy Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas and Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic agreed that there shouldn’t be separations between refugees and economic migrants. The two officials met in Athens on Thursday to discuss the refugee issue. They agreed that the closing of the borders by certain European Union countries has created a serious problem in
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Gigantic Fossilized Turtle Found in GREECE
turtles A group of scientist from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki made a great discovery in Pieria GREECE. They located three fossilized turtles, ...
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