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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

From Robots to Greek Yogurt, Connecticut Dairy Farm Changes With the Times

SUFFIELD, Conn. — For 100 years, the Hastings family has been farming in Suffield just south of the Massachusetts state line. Howard Hastings diversified his tobacco farm by adding a small dairy herd. Today, the fifth-generation farm has grown to ...


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Greek Style Shrimp with Cauliflower Rice

Heat large pan with 1 TBSP and olive oil. Add shallots and saute. Add garlic. Gently saute without browning. Add diced tomatoes, white wine, lemon juice. Simmer so wine can reduce. Add shrimp, feta and ½ of the fresh basil. Simmer until shrimp is heated ...


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Greece: In €3 Bil Bond Sale, Government Enticements

Greece raised €3 billion ($3.5 billion) in an oversubscribed five-year bond sale Tuesday in which the government enticed roughly half the buyers to swap existing debt for the new issue. The yield on the new five-year bond, 4.625, is below initial ...


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GREECE CRISIS WARNING: Return to finance markets a 'harbinger of next terrible phase'

Some analysts have welcomed the Mediterranean country's decision to offer five year bonds for the first time in three years as proof Greece is finally beginning to crawl its way out of the financial mire. So far the deal has raised £2.68billion (€ ...


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Thousands of people have revived an ancient Roman philosophy to cope with modern life

[Cato the Younger]Wikimedia Commons No one expects the Spanish Inquisition, to paraphrase Monty Python. We live in strange times. But few people could have expected today's rise of a global movement of self-describing Stoic online communities numbering over 100,000 participants. Stoicism was the ancient Greek and then Roman philosophy founded in the last decades of the fourth century BCE by a merchant, Zeno of Citium (modern Cyprus). The latter's vessel had sunk on route to Athens, taking Zeno's cargo down with it. Zeno, it is said, made his way up to the Athenian agora. There, with his few remaining coins, he bought and read a copy of Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates. "Where can I find a man like this?", he is supposed to have asked the bookseller. Zeno was pointed towards one Crates, a philosopher from the Cynical school. The Cynics were a kind of radical break-away group from the circles surrounding the Platonic Academy and Aristotelian Lyceum. The Cynics claimed to live "according to nature". They completely shunned social conventions and lived as simply as dogs (_kynes_), whence the name. Some years later, Zeno founded his own school. He would deliver lectures to the public on the steps of Athens' painted Stoa (whence "Stoicism", aka "the porch"), whose foundations today lie half-concealed beneath surrounding restaurants. What all this has to do with men and women in the internet age, outside of classics departments, is another thing. When this author has from time to time spoken on issues around the Stoic conception that philosophy is a "way of life" at academic conferences, the results vary. In some contexts, people respond with barely concealed condescension. Philosophy is about concepts, the pursuit of truth, and these days, the increasingly-uncertain pursuit of competitive advantage in a shrinking marketplace. "How would you know you were living philosophically?", someone asked at one such event. "Surely, even if we agree that a form of self-cultivation was what philosophy once was, this is no longer possible today," others have rejoined. The Stoic philosophy, some note, involved a highly systematic physics, many of whose propositions do not gel with our presently-best understandings of nature (notably, the idea of a providentially ordered cosmos that is in some sense a single living organism). I had a strange Cynical impression of my own, when I recently discovered the phenomenal extent of the growth of "Modern Stoicism", "How to Be a Stoic", "Daily Stoic", "Traditional Stoicism", and associated blogs, email lists and Youtube channels since 2013. The thousands of people who write, read and practice the Stoicism prescribed by these sites, take courses and attend annual events like Stoicon, I thought, are responding to the academic queries like Diogenes, the most famous Cynic, is said to have responded to a metaphysical argument that purported to show that movement was impossible. Initiating the long and invaluable tradition of philosophical satire, the old dog got up from his armchair and walked around. [MARCUS AURELIUS]WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/NOJIN WHY STOICISM? But why Stoicism, and why now? I recently asked these and other questions to several of the leading figures associated with the new Stoic movement, and spent time investigating their sites and stories. The core of the answer has to be the enduring pertinence of Stoic ethics, especially as it has come down to us through the Roman Stoics Seneca, Epictetus, Musonius Rufus and Marcus Aurelius. The pertinence hinges upon a few very simple, powerfully intuitive observations and principles. These begin with Epictetus‘ simple call to people to always distinguish between what is, and is not in our control. There is, at some basic level, no rational point in being unhappy about the things we can't change. Learning to let go of these things, in order to focus on what we can affect — our own present impulses, thoughts, and actions — just _has_ to be both philosophically astute, as well as a psychological boon. Imagine that all of the mental energy people spend worrying about what others think, tweet, like or say (or don't) about them, what may happen in the future (but may not), and what cannot be changed in the past, could be freed up to attend solely to the things we each can presently alter. This thought will bring you close to what the Stoics promise, via their (Socratic) stress that peoples' inner character (or "virtue") is the most important good anyone can prize or pursue. All of the other, external things — from reputation to fame to power to money to … anything subject to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune — all these are for the Stoics "indifferent". That is, they are neither good nor bad in themselves, nor can their possession or loss (as we sometimes say) "make us" happy or unhappy. It is our judgments of things which confers on them this power over us. But those judgments can be challenged by argument, and re-framed through practice and resolve. Stoicism has recently been described, in today's terms, as one of the best "mind hacks" ever devised. The resulting, advertised ability of Stoic "sages" to be able to bear up "philosophically", despite the loss of their cities, properties, friends or even loved ones has given the school the perennial reputation for being a joyless, "grin and bear it" affair. The Stoics however don't want or require people to lose everything in order to find inner peace. (This is more the Cynics' prescription). Stoicism instead asks people to cultivate the inner resources to be _able_ to bear up to prosperity and adversity alike with equanimity. From the Serenity Prayer to Shakespeare to Roosevelt to modern authors like Walt Whitman or Tom Wolfe, Stoicism has remained one of the abiding threads out of which Western culture has been woven. And while most of us will find many aspects of the Stoic physics and theology foreign, there seems little in this ethics which has or could ever age. This realization led the founders of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to adapt Stoic principles and prescriptions into 20th century psychotherapy, before today's 21st century revival under Stoicism's own name. It is just a good deal harder to be a Stoic in practice, than to Stoicise in theory. And this is where communities of debate and practice come into it. WHY NOW AND HOW? One old criticism of the Stoics, from the German philosopher Hegel, is that Stoicism is a philosophy for times of de-democratization. It emerged after classical Greece's autonomous, democratic city-states had undergone terminal decline. The philosophy re-empowers people individually, in a world where everything else is at the disposal of powers, like the Hellenistic Kings and Roman Emperors, who can at any moment rob us of all our worldly possessions. There are real historical problems with this idea. But perhaps it captures something about the attractions of Stoicism today. We are entering into a period in which the postwar liberal-democratic consensus is straining. Meanwhile, the security and surveillance apparati of modern corporations and nation-states increasingly call into question what privacy could mean in the internet age. The internet itself is the more material cause underlying today's proliferation of Stoic practical philosophy, outside of the walls of academe. What we might call this "fifth Stoa" or "Stoicism 5.0" — counting the early, middle and late ancient periods scholars divide, plus the early modern "neo Stoicism" of figures like Justus Lipsius — had humble beginnings. Nobody's ship was sunk. But the people associated with these beginnings had no idea how quickly their progeny would grow. According to Donald Robertson, author of The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Stoic Philosophy as Rational and Cognitive Psychotherapy: "Patrick Ussher, a PhD student at Essex University used it with a group of students who were trying to live for a week following the advice of Galen, Marcus Aurelius' physician. His professor in the classics department at Essex, Chris Gill, organized for a group of people who had written about these things, including myself, Tim LeBon, and Jules Evans to meet with them and Stoic Week was born. There's a video of that workshop at Exeter in 2012. That's exactly how our Modern Stoicism project was born." This project now includes several Facebook groups (the largest of which has, as of this week, over 25, 000 members), the Stoicism Subreddit (over 54,000 subscribers), email lists within which fierce debates rage on points of theoretical detail: numerous Stoic blogs, some Stoic consultants, and hundreds of Youtube videos. There is the site "Traditional Stoicism" which has broken away from the other "modern" groups on grounds of an insistence that living according to Stoic ethics requires a commitment to the ancient Stoic physics and theology. There are the "Modern Stoicism" and "How to be a Stoic" email feeds, on which articles on Stoic figures, texts and subjects — and, in the latter case, a popular Stoic Advice column — are posted every other day. Some groups recommend Eastern meditative practices of "mindfulness" alongside, or as the corollary, of Stoic practices. Others demur. Then there is a site like "Daily Stoic" which sends daily Stoic meditation themes to subscribers' email addresses: whether quotes from the great Hellenistic and Roman Stoics, or from works of literature and philosophy on Stoic themes. [Zeno of Citium]Wikimedia Commons A WAY OF LIFE, NOT JUST A THEORY All of these online communities are united by the conviction that Stoicism was and remains, at its core, a way of life. Their founding father, in this regard, is the great French classicist and historian of philosophy, Pierre Hadot. In a series of works written after 1970, based upon an exacting apprenticeship in theology and philology, Hadot became convinced that the only way to make sense of what the ancient Stoics (and Epicureans and Pyrrhonians) wrote was if we suppose that they conceived philosophy as what the Stoics called "an art of living." Many of the texts, notably including the Roman Stoics' at the heart of today's Stoic revival, feature prescriptions for what Hadot called "spiritual exercises". These include meditative exercises, wherein a student is for instance encouraged to re-envisage her situation from above, in order to re-contextualize (and bring a larger perspective to) the difficulties they face. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations involve a series of fragments wherein the emperor enjoins this and other exercises on himself: like the practice of remembering, with gratitude, all the people who have benefited him, and what he owes to each of them; or premeditating, every morning, how in the day ahead we will confront people who irritate or misconstrue us, and situations that do not "go our way"; or remembering that "the best revenge is not to become like the person who has wronged you", whose thoughts and actions in any case are primarily their own concern. Seneca tells us that each night, before sleep, he would make time to examine all of the previous days' actions in the Stoic light of his philosophical principles. The answer to how a person would know they are living like a Stoic is then pretty clear, to all but some professionals. Zeno is again on the move. The Stoic student would be undertaking these and other exercises, every day, at allocated times, in ways recommended for instance in the "Live like a Stoic" week that has been running since 2012. As Robertson explained his own Stoic practice to the author recently: "I study Stoic literature pretty much every day …. [and] I try to live like a Stoic. I take a cold shower every morning; I fast every Sunday; I exercise based on Stoic principles in the mornings. I prepare for setbacks in the morning and review my day before going to sleep … I also use the View from Above if I'm ever feeling stressed. But Stoicism is my ethic, so in a sense I'm trying to apply it throughout the day to every situation." Of course, not everyone who belongs to the 21st century, Stoic online communities will live out so completely the kind of philosophical regimen Robertson describes here. But the fact that so many people now belong to these 21st century Stoic communities suggests that, whatever may happen to philosophy in its later modern academic iterations in coming decades, its ancient calling will remain vibrantly alive. NOW WATCH: Archaeologists unearthed a massive 1800-year-old mural


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Svetlana Khodchenkova surprised Greece flabby body

34-year-old Svetlana Khodchenkova went on holiday to Greece, where every day post pictures of in swimsuit. At what angles Svetlana was chosen such that it was simultaneously sexy and elegant. While there were people that in the blog Khodchenkova signed all ...


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European Markets Rebound On Strong German Data

… that is being made in Greece. Bank stocks were broadly higher … the rising price of copper. Greece has made much progress since … time since 2014. Since February, Greece has made several important and …


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The Swiss Stock Market Climbed On Strength Of The Financials

… the signs of recovery in Greece. The country held a sale …


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‘Dunkirk’ brings to mind an array of earlier real-life World War II movies

… would actually take place in Greece. Suspense builds as it plays …


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French style made easy

… to look at’ in ancient Greek) wishes to reconnect French – and …


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Greece returns to bond market, but don’t sound the all-clear signal

… fall as bond prices rise. Greece was rewarded with lower borrowing … assume Greece’s long-running crisis is over, McKeown said. After all, Greece … on Greece’s bailout terms. In that July 2015 referendum, Greek voters …


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Monumental Achievements: The Ten Best Outdoor Sculptures in Denver

… the walkway leading to the Greek Theater, they’ve come to …


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Why war with Iran is (unfortunately) inevitable

… , but extended their empire to Greece and Egypt, crown jewels of …


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EU relocations: the good, the bad, and the ugly

… . Italy vs. Greece The overall pace of relocation from Greece and Italy … neither pledging nor relocating from Greece and Italy," the document … fair sharing of responsibility towards Greece and Italy." The document …


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Turkey still EU candidate despite row: Mogherini

… refugees pouring through Turkey into Greece and then onto northern Europe …


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Review: Oikos Hellenic Cuisine, Wellington

… now home to a Cypriot Greek place that had the locals …


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Rangers, Orioles delusions will decide MLB trade market

… . Just like the Sirens of Greek mythology, who tempted sailors toward …


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Sport-Third of athletes believe matches have been fixed

… Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, surveyed more than 600 athletes …


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No harm in buying Russian missile defense system, says Turkey's Erdogan

… 25, Hurriyet Daily News reports. Greece is a NATO member and …


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'Pharma bro' Shkreli stirs mixed feelings in his ancestral Albanian village

… from migrants to Italy and Greece has dwindled because of the …


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A festival feel for all

… Neruda on Saturday, and the Greek comedy Ta Magika Fasolia (The … for the festival will be Greek band Sadhus – The Smoking Community … genres, ranging from Rembetiko and Greek Rock, to Funk and Soul …


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Akel warns president is entering ‘megaton conflict’ with UN

… public, so that the people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, would … about the intentions of the Greek Cypriot side, and implying manipulation … himself had received from the Greek Prime Minister “and understood exactly …


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How Chris Samba earned his Aston Villa contract

… leave Greek side Panathinaikos. Samba only played six times for the Greek …


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ARMENPRESS EXCLUSIVE: Nishanyan on Turkey prison break and asylum in Greece

… 14, has requested asylum from Greece. In an exclusive interview to … to be Greece. Have you requested an asylum from Greek authorities? We … the very beginning I viewed Greece as my second or third …


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Top Three Worst Beach Behaviors

… and look at places like Greece and Croatia, August and September …


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Prince Philip's Tragic Early Years

… 1944, his mother returned to Greece during the war (where she …


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23 literary journeys with the world's great writers

… a Greek commercial district, the government drove out the Greeks in the …


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Champions League qualifying round 3 results

… Plzen (Czech Republic) (1730) AEK (Greece) v CSKA Moscow (Russia) (1730 … Belgrade (Serbia) v Olympiakos Piraeus (Greece) (1845) Next Fixtures (GMT): Qualifying …


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New Democracy attacks Tsipras over “Guardian” interview on Economy

… behind us’ Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has promised to … the eight years during which Greece has struggled to keep bankruptcy …


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All aboard this magical train ride in the Peloponnese (AMAZING PHOTOS)

… Peloponnese, 90 are endemic to Greece and 5 are unique to … is seen by many in Greece primarily as a winter destination …


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Magnus Carlsen to play knockout; Awonder Liang a wonder in U.S. chess juniors

… loser from Carlsen’s decision: Greek GM Dimitrios Mastrovasilis, who, as …


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Turkish coast guard rescues 113 Syrian refugees from sinking boat in Aegean

… for one of the nearby Greek islands, preferred by many Syrian … thousands trying to cross to Greek islands just a month before … while attempting to cross to Greece, but, in the last two …


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The Letter This Man Wrote His Girlfriend After Traveling the World With Her Will Break You

… under beach cabanas in the Greek Isles. Each year you asked …


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Boxing: Caroline Dubois wins lightweight gold at European youth and junior championships in Bulgaria

… , Dubois outpointed Kleoniki Ververidou of Greece to progress to the next …


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BoAML says there are more 'zombie' companies in Europe now than pre-Lehman times

… mid to late-2013 after the Greek saga, there is this area …


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Greece is selling bonds again, but they’re not out of the woods yet

Analysts have applauded Greece's timing. Credit rating … ;s stronger market appetite for Greek risk. The timing could potentially … European Central Bank may include Greek debt on its balance sheet …


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Visit Greece in Florida- Night in the Islands Tarpon Springs

By Stavros Marmarinos, TARPON SPRINGS – “Visit Greece without leaving Florida” is the slogan of the historic City of Tarpon Springs well-known to locals and […] The post Visit Greece in Florida- Night in the Islands Tarpon Springs appeared first on The National Herald.


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Dimitris Azemopoulos New Ambassador to Canada in the Fall

MONTREAL – Dimitris Azemopoulos, the former Consul General of Greece in Toronto, will be the next Ambassador of Greece to Canada. On July 24, the […] The post Dimitris Azemopoulos New Ambassador to Canada in the Fall appeared first on The National Herald.


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Greek Deputy Sports Minister says national team is above all

ATHENS - Greek Deputy Sports Minister Giorgos Vasileiadis has highlighted the importance of the national basketball team to the country. Speaking after meeting members of the Greece team who were visiting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras following their ...


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Zach Auguste out for Greek NT

The Greek-American big man won’t participate in Greece’s preparation for Eurobasket. strong >By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net Despite being on Kostas Missas’ pre-selection for Eurobasket, Auguste will miss his debut with the Greek national team ...


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Greece's €3bn bond sale doesn't mean its debt crisis is at an end

The omens are better, with the IMF calling for debt write-offs – but the chances are Greece will require another bailout Compare and contrast. As Greece raised money in the bond markets for the first time in three years on Tuesday, prime minister Alexis Tsipras declared that the fundraising was “the most significant step to finish this unpleasant adventure”, meaning the country’s bailout. Back in April 2014, when Greece was returning after a four-year absence, the country’s finance minister drew a similar moral. The return to international borrowing markets was “a catalytic undertaking,” he said. The crisis soon returned. The next bailout followed after a referendum on the terms of austerity. Continue reading...


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Germany Applauds Greece’s Comeback

Greece returned to the international bond markets for the first time in three years Tuesday, selling €3 billion ($3.5 billion) of debt as investors responded enthusiastically to the country’s improved financial outlook. The sale of the five-year bonds ...


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Disappointing rise in tourism arrivals in Greece up to end-May

The number of international holidaymakers who traveled to Greece during the January-May period was up just 2.4 percent on last year, data from the country’s central bank have shown, with arrivals from the United States sliding 18.2 percent and receipts ...


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Success! Greece raises € 3bln, 5-year bond coupon at 4.37%, yield at 4.62%

The response to Greece’s attempt to tap the markets on Tuesday confirmed that the country’s economy was on course for recovery and a final exit from bailout programmes, Greek government sources said on Tuesday. “Greece’s return to the markets was crowned with absolute success and confirms the good course of the Greek economy, which is … The post Success! Greece raises € 3bln, 5-year bond coupon at 4.37%, yield at 4.62% appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.


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Schaeuble welcomes Greece’s return to markets, reminds “3. program review”

Germany’s finance ministry on Tuesday welcomed a move by Greece to sell debt to private investors for the first time in three years, saying Greece now needed to stabilise trust, bolster reforms and complete a third bailout review on time. A ministry spokesman spoke to Reuters following, of course, Wolfgang Schaeuble instructions. “The return of … The post Schaeuble welcomes Greece’s return to markets, reminds “3. program review” appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.


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Greece Raises EU3 Billion in Bond Market Return After 3 Years

Greece raised 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in its first tapping of the bond market since 2014, with investors piling in on expectations the worst may be over for what was once the epicenter of Europe’s debt crisis. Yield-hungry investors welcomed the ...


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Fraport Greece Presents Ambitious Plans for Rhodes Airport

Fraport Greece presented its makeover plans for the “Diagoras” Airport on Rhodes, during a recent event held on the island in the presence of the company’s executives, tourism officials, airport partners, regional and local authorities. The company ...


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Investment interest for Greece rising

"Completion of a second review, a debt relief prospect, improving business environment, an increase in liqudity and funding tools and a further economic and political stabilization in the country are omens of positive results for the current year ...


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Eide discusses future of Cyprus talks with Kasoulides

… under heavy fire on the Greek Cypriot side for attributing blame …


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At the open: TSX rises as heavyweight resource stocks bounce

… “euphoric” German economic data and Greece’s first return to capital … upbeat euro zone report later. Greek government borrowing costs hovered near … since December 2016. “Confidence in Greece is really coming back, but …


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