How the world sees Greece
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (Order of AHEPA), the leading association of American citizens of Greek heritage and Philhellenes, commemorates the […] The post AHEPA Commemorates 70th Anniversary of the Marshall Plan appeared first on The National Herald.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) – A retired Greece Police officer announced Monday he will be running for town supervisor in Greece. Jim Leary declared his candidacy at the Monroe County Democratic Headquarters. Leary was raised in Greece and continues to live ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT 13wham.com |
Elvis Costello and the Attractions released “Imperial Bedroom” in 1982 and so much did I love that album that I convinced the guy at the record store to sell me the promo poster off his wall, a photo of the singer-songwriter under which his name was ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ocregister.com |
… decrease in tourist arrivals from Greece (2.5 per cent). The …
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
… his meeting with Nicos Anastasiades, Greek Cypriot leader, and Mustafa Ak … Secretary-General met today with the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, and … other participants in the Conference: Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom …
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
Greek Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura, Thanasis and Giannis Antentokounmpo, and Greek National … with the 30th anniversary from Greece first place in the European … ambassadors of the Greek tourism and to contribute in Greece’s international …
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
… from the mainland to the Greek island of Santorini. Nikolaos began … illness, the newlyweds explored Nafplio, Greece. (Stephanie Sarlakis) "The second … and a non-refundable trip to Crete. She said there are many …
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
A Greek citizen, Antonis Filis aged 35 from the city of Lamia, was among the injured in the terror attacks in London, announced the Greek Embassy in London. "The British authorities informed us that a Greek citizen was one of the injured in the terror attack.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.tornosnews.gr |
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has accepted a request for Greece to act as a representative for Egypt in Qatar an ekathimerini report says. Egypt, along with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Libya’s eastern-based government and ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com |
I’m getting into a low-carb mood. You know, it’s summer, it’s warm, and I really don’t want to be stuffed with bread and rice. I still love bread and rice. I mean, come on, I grew up eating rice! But I think it’s good to take a break and try some ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.unicornsinthekitchen.com |
Thousands of Ukrainians gathered in Kiev on Monday to bid a final farewell to the former leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Lubomyr Husar. Husar, who was also seen as a spiritual leader by people of other religions in Ukraine, died on May 31 ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.msn.com |
DeWitt, N.Y. - St. Sophia's Greek Cultural Festival serves at least 1,200 pounds of chicken and 1,200 pounds of lamb during its four-day celebration each June, according to organizers. Hundreds of trays of spanakopita and tiropita are made, starting weeks ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.syracuse.com |
The International Monetary Fund just offered Germany a face-saving compromise on the question of Greek debt. Ahead of a key June 15 meeting of EU finance ministers, and a month before Greece owes a $7.8 billion repayment to its European creditors, IMF ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT foreignpolicy.com |
NEW YORK – The Greek community shared the emotion and joy as NBA All-Star Milwaukee Buck Giannis Antetokounmpo, his brother, Thanasis, their parents Veronica and […] The post Antetokounmpos, Fasoulas, and Kakiouzis Honored at Cosmos FM 30th Anniversary appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
By Christodoulos Athanasatos. NEW YORK – More than a thousand Greeks attended the 30th anniversary celebration of Cosmos FM, with honored guests NBA All-Star Milwaukee […] The post Giannis and Thanasis Antetokounmpo Lead Basketball Clinic at Cosmos FM Celebration appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
A tourist from Cuba lost her life when she fell from the cliffs of the spectacular shipwreck of Zakynthos. The 22-year-old woman was there with her boy friend and tried to capture the stunning view with a selfie. According to her American partner, the woman stood as close as possible to the edge of the … The post Second Tourist killed trying to take a selfie with Zakynthos Shipwreck – Poll appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
During Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias' telephone conversation today with the Foreign Minister of Egypt, Sameh Hassan Shoukry, the Egyptian side requested that the Greek Embassy in Doha take on diplomatic representation of the friendly Arab Republic of Egypt in Qatar.Within the framework of the traditionally friendly relations Greece maintains with the Arab world, Mr. Kotzias responded positively to his Egyptian counterpart's request.Greece is at the disposal of all sides to contribute in any way to the benefit of regional cooperation and stability.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.mfa.gr |
[Gas masks placed out for training to prepare for the event of chemical or biological attacks, at a training center next to the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul, South Korea, April 21, 2017. (Photo: Lam Yik Fei / The New York Times)]Gas masks placed out for training to prepare for the event of chemical or biological attacks, at a training center next to the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul, South Korea, April 21, 2017. (Photo: Lam Yik Fei / The New York Times) Defense Secretary James Mattis remarked recently that a war with North Korea would be "tragic on an unbelievable scale." No kidding. "Tragic" doesn't even begin to describe the horrors that would flow from such a conflict. The Korean peninsula, all 85,270 square miles of it, is about the size of Idaho. It contains more soldiers (2.8 million, not counting reserves) and armaments (nearly 6,000 tanks, 31,000 artillery pieces, and 1,134 combat aircraft) than any other place on the planet. The armies of North and South Korea face each other across the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, and Seoul, South Korea's capital, is a mere 35 miles away as the artillery shell flies. More than 25 million people inhabit that city's greater metropolitan area, home to about half of South Korea's population. Unsurprisingly, untold numbers of North Korean missiles and artillery pieces are trained on that city. Once the guns started firing, thousands of its denizens would undoubtedly die within hours. Of course, North Koreans, too, would be caught in an almost instant maelstrom of death. And the war wouldn't be a bilateral affair. South Korea hosts 28,500 American troops. In addition, there are some 200,000 American civilians in the country, most of them in Seoul. Many in both categories could be killed by North Korean attacks and the United States would, in turn, hit multiple targets in that country. Pyongyang might retaliate by firing missiles at Japan, where 39,000 American troops are stationed, concentrating on the network of American bases and command centers there, especially the US Services Headquarters at Yokota Air Base near Tokyo. And that's without even considering the possible use of nuclear weapons. If anything, Mattis's description is an understatement. And don't assume that the danger of a Korean conflagration has passed now that President Trump has become trapped in the latest set of political scandals to plague his administration. Quite the opposite: a clash between North Korea and the United States might have become more probable precisely because the president is politically besieged. Trump wouldn't be the first leader, confronted with trouble at home, to trigger a crisis abroad and then appeal for unity and paint critics as unpatriotic. Keep in mind, after all, that this is the man who has already warned of "a major, major war" with North Korea. TRUMP VS. KIM So far the coercive tactics Trump has used to compel North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and cease testing ballistic missiles have included sanctions and asset freezes, military threats, and shows of force -- both serious, as in the recent Key Resolve and Operation Max Thunder joint military exercises with South Korea, and farcical, as with a supposedly northward-bound naval "armada" that actually sailed in the opposite direction. Such moves all involve the same presidential bet: that economic and military pressure can bend Pyongyang to his will. Other American presidents have, of course, taken the same approach and failed for decades now, which seems to matter little to Trump, even though he presents himself as a break-the-mold maverick ready to negotiate unprecedented deals with foreign leaders. By now, this much ought to be clear, even to Trump: North Korea hasn't been cowed into compliance by Washington's warnings and military muscle flexing. In 2003, after multilateral diplomatic efforts to denuclearize North Korea ran aground, Pyongyang ditched the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and two years later declared that it possessed nuclear weapons. In October 2006, it detonated its first nuclear device, a one-kiloton bomb. Four other tests in May 2009, February 2013, January 2016, and September 2016, ranging in explosive yield from four to 10 kilotons, followed. Three of them occurred after the current North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, came to power in April 2012. A similar pattern holds for ballistic missiles, which North Korea has been testing since 1993. The numbers have risen steadily under Kim Jong-un, from four tests in 2012 to 25 in 2016. Clearly, the North's leaders reject the proposition that American approval is required for them to build nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles. Like his father, Kim Jong-il, and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK, North Korea's official name), Kim Jong-un is an ardent nationalist who regularly responds to threats by upping the ante. Trump's national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster, characterized Kim as "unpredictable." In reality, the Korean leader, like his father and grandfather before him, has been remarkably consistent: he has steadfastly refused to stop testing either nuclear weapons or their possible delivery systems, let alone "denuclearize" the Korean peninsula, as McMaster demanded. Indeed, from Pyongyang's perspective Trump may be the unpredictable one. On one day, amid press reports that the Pentagon was considering a preventive strike using means ranging from Tomahawk cruise missiles to cyber attacks, the president declared ominously that North Korea "is a problem, a problem that will be taken care of." He followed up by warning Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he was then hosting at his Mar-a-Lago estate, that if China wouldn't rein in Kim, the United States would act alone. Not so long after, Trump suddenly praised Kim, calling him a "pretty smart cookie," presumably impressed that the North Korean leader wasn't even 30 years old when he succeeded his father. On yet another day, the president announced that he would be "honored" to meet Kim under the right circumstances and would do so "absolutely." The roller-coaster ride otherwise known as the presidency of Donald Trump has many people perplexed. Trump's boosters believe that the president's unpredictability gives him leverage against adversaries. But in the event of a military crisis on the Korean peninsula, Trump's pendulum-like behavior could lead North Korea's leaders to conclude that they had best prepare for the worst -- and so strike first. That prospect makes the Kim-Trump combination not just dangerous but quite possibly deadly. OLD CLAIMS, NEW POSSIBILITIES Standing in the way of a fresh policy toward North Korea are a set of assumptions beloved within the Washington Beltway and by the foreign policy establishment beyond it -- and rarely challenged in the mainstream media. Perhaps the most common of them is that diplomacy and conciliation toward North Korea won't work because its leaders only respond to pressure. So pervasive and deeply rooted is this view that it makes fresh thinking about Pyongyang next to impossible. Given the failure of both sanctions and saber rattling, however, a new approach would have to involve diplomacy (in case you've forgotten that word) and serious negotiations with the North. Here's one possible way to go that might, in fact, make a difference. North Korea would agree, in principle, to dismantle its nuclear weapons installations, rejoin the NPT, and allow comprehensive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify its compliance. Concurrently, the United States would pledge not to attack North Korea or topple its regime and to move toward normalization of political relations. Major steps taken by North Korea on the path to denuclearization would be matched by cuts in American military forces in South Korea. Once Pyongyang delivered completely, the United States would remove all its forces and fully lift economic sanctions on the North. The United States, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia would undertake to fund and, for some of its future energy needs, build new Light-Water Reactors (LWRs), which reduce the risk of bomb-grade plutonium production. These would be subject to regular inspections and electronic surveillance by the IAEA and all spent fuel would be transported out of North Korea. The dismantling of the North's nuclear facilities, verified by intermittent inspections and continuous electronic monitoring, would -- as in the nuclear deal with Iran -- prevent the production of weapons-grade plutonium (PU-239) or uranium (UR-235) Once these steps were completed, both Koreas would begin to pull back their troops massed along the Demilitarized Zone and so create an even wider region free of weapons and troops between the two countries. They would agree not to reintroduce troops and armaments into the vacated areas and to allow monitoring by international observers. Over perhaps a 10-year span the two states would commit to additional military pullbacks plus reductions in the number of weapons each possessed, focusing on retiring those most suited to offensive warfare. If Trump is indeed prepared to meet with Kim, it should be to do a deal along these lines, not to deliver in person the sort of ultimatums that the North has rejected for years. THE DIPLOMACY-WON'T-WORK TROPE Typically, proposals like these are dismissed on the grounds that they combine the worst of all worlds: the appeasement of a despotic regime and reckless naïveté. Let's start with the appeasement charge, the gist of which seems to be that Pyongyang's cruelties bar diplomatic engagement with it. This claim amounts to sanctimonious puffery and historical amnesia. The United States has, in various forms, supported a vast array of despotic regimes, including Greece during the brutal "regime of the colonels" (1967-74); Indonesia under Suharto (who presided over the slaughter of half a million people in 1965-1966); and Iraq under Saddam Hussein during the 1980s, when his government was gassing Kurds and razing their villages. And of course in South Korea there was the US-backed government of President Syngman Rhee (1948-1960), whose security forces killed more than 100,000 people, 30,000 to 60,000 in the infamous 1948 Cheju massacre alone, as part of an effort to decimate any left-wing opposition in the country. North Korea's state, while undeniably repressive, has persisted for more than 60 years and must be part of any plan to reduce the risk of war on the peninsula. Attempting "regime change," _à la_ Iraq in 2003 or Libya in 2011, would certainly prove disastrous. In comparison, the upheaval and death that followed the ousters of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi would seem minor and the bloody reverberations of such an event would extend far beyond the peninsula. Counting on China, Pyongyang's principal benefactor, or Russia to squeeze North Korea so that it undertakes far-reaching reforms amounts to wishful thinking. Neither country wants to trigger instability there for fear that the country might collapse, creating mayhem on its borders and releasing a floodtide of refugees that they would have to deal with. In addition, China views the North as a buffer with South Korea, an American ally and a forward base for US military power. From Beijing's vantage point, if changes in North Korea careened out of control, the eventual result could be a unified Korean state allied with Washington. For the Chinese, the status quo on the peninsula, while anything but ideal, beats such a roll of the dice. Beijing has been willing to impose sanctions on Pyongyang and sees it as mercurial and reckless, but it is not about to strangle it economically. As for the charge of naïveté when it comes to a proposal to begin the partial demilitarization of the peninsula, that's part and parcel of prevailing Washington orthodoxy, a deep conviction that North Korea will never surrender its nuclear weapons as part of a grand bargain. In fact, progress toward just such a denuclearization was made during Bill Clinton's presidency, when the sticks were briefly put aside and the carrots brought out. In October 1994, negotiations led to what was called the Agreed Framework. Its details are complicated, so brace yourself for a barebones summary: North Korea agreed to shut down its reactor at Yongbyon, place the plant's spent fuel in sealed containers for shipment out of the country, stop construction on two larger reactors (at Yongbyon and Taechon), remain a party to the NPT, and permit the IAEA to inspect its nuclear sites to verify the agreement's implementation. In exchange, the United States, Japan, and South Korea undertook, through a consortium, to build two light-water reactors (LWRs) suitable for generating electricity but not for producing weapons-grade plutonium and to provide Pyongyang with 500,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil pending the completion of the reactors. Eventually the Agreed Framework fell apart, a development for which all the parties share blame. North Korea's ongoing missile tests, while not banned by the deal, bolstered the accord's critics in Washington. It also faced resistance in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which in 1994 were, for the first time in four decades, in Republican hands, while the Clinton administration proved inept in defending the agreement. Having stopped producing plutonium at Yongbyon, North Korea complained about the delay in building the LWRs. (Work on the first reactor didn't start until August 2002.) The South Korean government, stuck with partially funding those plants, was unenthusiastic, too. The Bush administration arrived in office in 2001 ready to shred the Agreed Framework. Soon enough, however, it sought to resurrect a version of that deal during the "Six-Party Talks," which began in 2003 and included both Koreas, the United States, Russia, China, and Japan. Here again the details are labyrinthine, but the basic formula that emerged did indeed resemble the Agreed Framework: North Korea was to receive both those LWRs and economic aid in exchange for freezing and then dismantling its nuclear program. The North Koreans even allowed American and other technical experts to observe it shutting down the Yongbyon reactor. It also provided reams -- 18,000 pages to be exact -- of documentation on its nuclear program. Most importantly, having frozen plutonium production in 1994, it continued to do so until 2003. For its part, the Bush administration removed North Korea from the State Department's list of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism and exempted it from the Trading with the Enemy Act. There were also threats, theatrics, and setbacks aplenty. In the end, the Six-Party Talks failed for reasons similar to those that killed the Agreed Framework: quarrels over the nature and scope of verification procedures, North Korea's missile tests and confirmation of reports that it had embarked on efforts to build uranium-based nuclear weapons, and UN sanctions. President George W. Bush, of course, included that country, along with Iran and Iraq, in what he infamously termed the "axis of evil," which he called a "grave and growing danger" in his January 2002 State of the Union address. His administration also listed North Korea in the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review as one of the states that might become the target of a preventive strike. The lessons to be drawn from this grim record are not that North Korea will not negotiate, let alone that it won't ever agree to freeze, or even terminate, its nuclear program. Instead, the history of these failed deals should be looked to for ideas on better ways to reach a consensus-based solution. This much remains clear: the more Pyongyang suspects that Washington's real goal is regime change, the less likely it will be to relinquish its nuclear weapons for fear of suffering the fate of Muammar Gaddafi, who shut down his nuclear program only to be toppled in what began as a US and NATO humanitarian intervention to protect civilians but morphed quickly into a campaign to take him out. NORTH KOREA AND THE LEGACY OF WAR The notion that North Korea couldn't possibly fear an American attack and that its claims to the contrary amount to paranoia reflects a stunning ignorance of history. Between 1950 and 1953, North Korea experienced firsthand the devastation the American military machine was capable of inflicting. As Charles Armstrong, a historian of Korea, has written, in those years "American planes dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea -- that is, essentially North Korea -- including 32,557 tons of napalm, compared to 503,000 tons of bombs dropped in the entire Pacific theater of World War II." Armstrong estimates that 12%-15% of the North Korean population might have died, "a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II." As happened during the Anglo-American terror bombing of Germany and Japan, the distinction between civilians and soldiers, so central to International Humanitarian Law and Just War Theory, was defenestrated. Many Americans know about the bombing of Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki and the deliberate targeting of civilians in an attempt to break their morale. But few know what happened to North Korea in the early 1950s. In his haunting book, _On the Natural History of Destruction_, W.G. Sebald writes that Germans did not discuss the wartime bombings because Nazi crimes made them hesitant to cast moral judgments on other states, no matter what they had done to Germany. There has been no such repression of memory or reticence by the state or the citizenry of North Korea. As a result, the usual dismissals of Pyongyang's apprehension about what the United States might do to a denuclearized country are both callous and foolish. Successful negotiations would mean taking its security concerns seriously, not rejecting them as paranoid demands, especially given that American military power remains so close, that Washington has threatened to attack the North more than once, and that the American president only recently boasted to the president of the Philippines (in a conversation leaked online) of the two US nuclear submarines that were evidently somewhere off the North Korean coast at that moment. CUTTING THE UMBILICAL CORD A grand bargain that combines aid and political normalization in return for denuclearization and the pullback and reduction of troops on the Korean peninsula could be made even more attractive to Pyongyang if it included a phased withdrawal of the 28,500 American troops in South Korea. The standard claim -- that this would leave South Korea defenseless -- is ludicrous. South Korea has twice the population of the North: 50.6 million to 25.2 million, and they are better educated, far better fed, and much healthier. Just look at the data on life expectancy, infant mortality, and the amount and quality of calories consumed. The South, then, has far more and better human capital. The gap in economic power is gargantuan. South Korea, an industrial and technological powerhouse, has a $1.5 trillion gross domestic product (GDP), the world's 12th largest. Valued at $30 billion, North Korea's ranks 115th internationally, barely ahead of Senegal's. In other words, South Korea's economy is about 50 times larger than the North's, and its per capita GDP ($37,900) exceeds North Korea's ($1,800 -- and so comparable to South Sudan's) by a factor of 21. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about investments in education and technology or living standards, South Korea inhabits a different universe than the North. Confronted with such economic comparisons your garden variety Washington military wonk might quip, "Fine, but GDP doesn't fight." Fair enough, strictly speaking. So let's ignore the multiple ways in which wealth shapes military power and consider the military data alone. The results may surprise you. According to the most recent State Department estimate, South Korea spends more than seven times what North Korea does on its armed forces. And given the South's technological prowess and purchases of American arms, it has a far more modern military than the North, which still uses Soviet and Chinese armor and aircraft developed during the 1950s and 1960s. Then there's the relative burden of military spending. South Korea allocates 2.6% of its GDP to its armed forces, North Korea, 23.3%. In other words, South Korea can easily increase military spending without undue hardship. Not so North Korea. Remember this the next time you hear that the North has many more troops, tanks, artillery, and submarines. Remember as well that the numerical balance is about even or substantially favors the South in other armaments, such as combat aircraft, frigates, and destroyers. In other words, in a future settlement that includes a stage-by-stage US military withdrawal, South Korea will hardly be left defenseless. AVERTING APOCALYPSE? Since the end of the Korean War, crises on the peninsula have come and gone. Some have been dangerous indeed. In the run-up to the 1994 Agreed Framework, for example, Defense Secretary William Perry proposed military options that included increasing the number of American troops in South Korea and readying long-range bombers and aircraft carrier battle groups to strike the Yongbyon reactor. Still, the current crisis has no equal. Sitting in the White House is a president whose narcissism knows no bounds, whose ignorance of the world is staggering, who talks blithely about war and nuclear weapons, and who is besieged by political scandals. Meanwhile, North Korea's ruler, like his predecessors, refuses to be cowed by American shows of force and continues to test ballistic missiles -- three in May alone. A deal resembling the one sketched above may never be reached and, given past history, it won't be arrived at easily. Yet threats and displays of military power by the United States haven't worked. Ever. If President Trump acts on the assumption that he and "his" generals can make them work and that North Korea will become reasonable only when faced with the certainty of war, there could be a conflagration on the Korean peninsula the likes of which would be almost unimaginable.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.truth-out.org |
Egypt has asked GREECE to stand as its representative in Qatar after the north African country, along with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ekathimerini.com |
However, in 1902 at the coronation of her cousin King Edward VII in London, Alice fell in love with Prince Andrew of GREECE. The two were married the ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.jewishpress.com |
… News, 5 June, 2017 - Greece wouldn't be your … just one hour before dark... Greece, really? No one had surfed … slab with sick righthand barrels. Greece is one of those countries …
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
… heavy burden goes to the Greeks, stated PASOK leader and head of …
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
British suffered the biggest wage slump of all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries except for Greece in the past year. Is Britain heading for hung parliament? Poll suggesting Tories will lose majority hits pound ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.rt.com |
PRAGUE The Czech Republic will halt taking in migrants under an EU scheme to share asylum seekers who arrived in Greece and Italy, citing security concerns, the government agreed on Monday. Under a plan agreed in 2015, the European Commission wants EU ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT in.reuters.com |
Shares in Qatar plunge 8% amid diplomatic crisis, as UK service companies report that new business growth weakened last month * US service sector survey disappoints * Shares slide in Qatar * Qatar crisis: Four neighbours cut ties over terrorism links * UK services sector slows as general election hits demand... * ....but eurozone growth sticks at six-year high 5.43pm BST Stock markets made a downbeat start to an important week, which sees the UK election, the latest meeting of the European Central Bank, and the testimony of former FBI director James Comey on Donald Trump’s alleged links with Russia. Markets were also unsettled by volatility in sterling, reacting to the latest opinion polls, as well as the terror attack in London. And the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf, which sparked a rise then fall in the oil price, added to the uncertainty. Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said: Markets softened at the beginning of what could be a game-changer of a week in politics and monetary policy. Last week’s soft US jobs report, another terror attack in London in the run up to the UK election and volatile oil prices all played a role in the downbeat tone. 5.16pm BST AHEAD OF NEXT WEEK’S EUROGROUP MEETING OVER GREECE, SOME POSITIVE NOISES FROM THE IMF. A report in Germany’s Handelsblatt (£) says: The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, is willing to participate in a Greek bailout and give European creditors more time to settle an ongoing dispute over debt relief, she told Handelsblatt in an exclusive interview. “If the creditors are not yet at that stage where they can agree on and respect our assumptions, if it takes them more time to get there, we can acknowledge that and give them a bit more time,” she said. Continue reading...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Wounded and dead include people from Australia, GREECE, Spain and Canada, while French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian confirmed a ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theweek.co.uk |
VIKOS GORGE, June 5, 2017 - Photo taken on June 4, 2017 shows a scene of Monodendri villige in the Vikos Gorge, GREECE. About 340 km northwest ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.prokerala.com |
LEFKADA (ANA) – President of Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos underlined the need to remain united in these difficult times for the country, is his address in […] The post Greece’s Future is Promising Despite the Difficulties, says Pavlopoulos appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
The Greek embassy in Doha will take over the diplomatic representation of Egypt after the country cut ties with Qatar. Greece responded positive to a relevant request by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry, the Foreign Ministry in Athens said in ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
Berlin has no choice but to withdraw the deployment of German soldiers from the strategic air base in Incirlik, in Southeast Turkey, German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday. The statement comes during an official visit of the German foreign minister to Turkey and short after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim unexpectedly cancelled a scheduled … The post Germany to deploy soldiers from Incirlik after Ankara’s insistence to deny access appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
The Municipality of Hydra will name a street after Leonard Cohen, the famous Canadian singer, who used to have a house on the Greek islands in the Saronic Gulf. Organizing a two-day event to commemorate the poet who loved the island, the municipality will also reveal a stone bench that has been donated by the … The post Hydra municipality to name a street after Leonard Cohen appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
While Bulgaria, unlike GREECE, recognises its neighbour under its constitutional name, the Republic of Macedonia, it is reluctant to recognise the ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.balkaninsight.com |
The door into Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit is on the corner of two busy roads near a hospital in north Manchester. Nestling between a barbers with a budgie in the window and a pharmacy, it is busy today. Lots of people go through our door. Inside the waiting room is full. Drinks and biscuits need topping up regularly as people sit and wait. There is something unusual about lots of the people waiting. They are children. Although they have different accents, clothes, haircuts and skin tones the children have something in common. They have come to the UK to claim asylum and they have walked through the door to meet their legal representative - someone who will work with them to try and make sense of the letters, the appointments, the officials and the uncertainty. The lack of legal routes to claim asylum in the UK has left them traumatised not just by the experiences that caused them to flee their counties of origin, but by Europe's collective inability to provide them safe passage. They are far from a homogenous group, despite the tabloid headlines. But this group of children have all been in the transit camp in Calais -- the caricatured 'jungle'-- living with up to 10,000 other people in a shanty town on the shores of the English Channel. They are all now dealing with the arbitrary bureaucracy of the Home Office, trying to make their asylum claims. Many have experienced sensitive, child-centred, compassionate interviews from Home Office caseworkers in Liverpool. Many have also been subject to a sudden, illogical Home Office decision earlier this year that meant instead of making their asylum claim in Greater Manchester they had to travel to Croydon. All of the children are dealing with the aftermath of precarious journeys. The lack of legal routes to claim asylum in the UK has left them traumatised not just by the experiences that caused them to flee their counties of origin, but by Europe's collective inability to provide them safe passage. We studied the experiences of 40 children we represent who had all spent time in the Calais camp before coming to the North West of England. Many spent several months surviving in Calais on their own. Some experienced the French security operation in October 2016 to clear the camp -- proving in their minds that they could not safely claim asylum in France. Some have been street homeless in Paris. Five were accidentally separated from family members in the chaos of travelling across Europe, including one who became lost during police action to clear a train. One of our caseworkers described two brothers she is representing as "emotionally worn down" by their experiences in Calais which are "etched on their faces." Five of the children were accidently separated from family members in the chaos of travelling across Europe, including one who became lost during police action to clear a train. Now in the North West, the children's experiences of life in the UK are proving quite different from one another: Hassan is claiming asylum in the UK because his sister lives in Greater Manchester with her British husband and their small child. An EU Regulation called 'Dublin III' meant he could ask the UK authorities to decide his asylum claim here rather than have it decided in France. He lives with his sister and her family, sleeping in the living room of their one bedroom flat. Helen was transferred to the UK from Calais as a 'Dubs child,' so-called because of the work of Lord Alf Dubs to persuade the UK government to take in unaccompanied children stuck in France, Italy or Greece. Helen was transferred to the UK as the Calais camp was being cleared, and is living with a foster carer in Greater Manchester. She is one of around only 200 Dubs children in the UK, despite initial hopes that up to 3,000 children would be offered a way to avoid the people smugglers and traffickers. Like over a third of the children in our research who came from Calais on a lorry, Jamal's age was disbelieved by the Home Office. Jamal came to the UK from France hiding on a lorry through the Eurotunnel. Like over a third of the children in our research who came from Calais on a lorry, his age was disbelieved by the Home Office. In an atmosphere where MPs demand children's teeth are x-rayed to prove they are not adults, it is perhaps unsurprising that children are told they are lying about their ages. We see children housed with adults and subject to regular reporting with immigration enforcement (as happened to Jamal) or even locked up in adult detention centres. It took a community care solicitor to get the Home Office to accept an assessment by social workers that Jamal is a child. Helen and Jamal are both in the UK without family. They are 'looked after' by Greater Manchester local authorities with an allocated social worker to support them and access to legal aid to fund advice and representation for their asylum claim. Hassan and his sister have a different set of challenges. Because Hassan has a family member in the UK, unlike Helen and Jamal he is not automatically entitled to legal aid. In fact, because Hassan's sister has been saving for years to go to college, her savings mean Hassan does not qualify. This was the case with nearly a fifth of the Dublin III families we looked at in our research. Without legal aid the children have to rely on newly reunited family paying thousands of pounds for private legal help, representing themselves or withdrawing their asylum claim. Financial strain was a primary concern for 44% of the Dublin III families in our research and clearly escalates the risk of the family breaking down. Hassan also doesn't have an allocated social worker -- social services decided that as he is living with family he is not in need. In fact his sister is struggling with her changing family dynamics, looking after her small son and navigating Hassan's financial, immigration, education and medical needs. The lack of financial support she receives to cover the cost of caring for Hassan has been a shock and she is struggling to understand how the welfare benefits system applies to a child in Hassan's situation. Financial strain was a primary concern for 44% of the Dublin III families in our research and clearly escalates the risk of the family breaking down. This has already happened in one of the families we work with and the child is now living in foster care. Some of the children in our research have walked back through our door in north Manchester to receive good news. Nearly 60% have been granted asylum, more still are awaiting a decision. Others have walked back in to prepare to appeal their asylum refusal -- stuck with discretionary leave only until they are 17.5 years old. More uncertainty ahead. Our work with children from Calais has left us in no doubt of the need for children to be protected from harm and exploitation by safe and legal routes to claim asylum in the UK. We also believe that all children claiming asylum in the UK need to be properly supported and have access to an experienced immigration lawyer to make their asylum claim. Without these things, children will continue to arrive in the UK with their experiences "etched on their faces" and without the assistance they so badly need to help them recover. _This article is based on research in a _Briefing paper on the experiences of children from the Calais camp in the North West of England_ by Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit. __See__ here __for ideas on how to speak out for refugees during the election campaign._
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.truth-out.org |
No, not the indigenous people of the Brazilian rainforests, but the race of warrior women famous in GREEK mythology. According to DC Comics ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.yorkpress.co.uk |
NICOSIA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of the GREEK and Turkish Cypriot community leaders agreed to resume negotiations at a meeting in Geneva ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT news.xinhuanet.com |
5 June 2017 – Following a meeting with the GREEK Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.un.org |
Greek custom authorities arrested two nationals of San Marino for trying to smuggle 147 cans containing spray causing paralysis. The two men aged 22 and 25 years old were arrested at Kipoi crossing at the borders with Turkey. They reportedly tried to ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
… to unite the island with Greece, ordered an invasion, with Turkish … prosperity,” he told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini before a visit to Athens … guaranteeing the island’s security – Greece, Turkey and the UK. A …
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT world.einnews.com |
Gazprom is now leaning towards the Poseidon gas pipeline as the main option for the supply of gas through GREECE to Italy. On June 1, Head of the ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.azernews.az |
The smell of souvlaki, the sound of Greek music and the allure of a historic Greek Orthodox Church were major parts of the annual Greek Fest, held at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church on West Utica Street and Delaware Avenue.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT galleries.buffalonews.com |
GREECE'S economic woes continue to pile up, with key public utilities such as water now on the chopping block of privatization. But activists like Maria ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.mintpressnews.com |
LONDON (ANA) – A Greek citizen, Antonis Filis aged 35 from the city of Lamia, was among the injured in the terror attacks in London, […] The post Greek Citizen Stabbed in London’s Attack Hospitalized appeared first on The National Herald.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thenationalherald.com |
The Athens Transport Union suspects bus drivers are suffering from “radiation” from telematics/e-ticket devices in buses. According to the union, drivers complain about headaches and dizziness ever since the telematic devices were installed in buses almost a year ago. “The problem with the installment of two telematic devices just above the driver’s seat creates health … The post Athens bus drivers claim headaches, dizziness from telematic devices radiation appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
The Central Fruit and Vegetable Market of Thessaloniki, known for trading fruits and vegetables, has been a shining star, despite the current worsening political landscape in Greece. It has been supplying fruits and vegetables both locally and ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.freshplaza.com |
NEW YORK, June 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) announced that it expects a record-breaking 30 million international visitors to Greece for 2017. This represents a growth rate of 7%, or an additional 2 million ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.prnewswire.com |
Announcement of breakthrough in deadlock over security and power-sharing arrangements is met with relief on divided island Talks to reunify Cyprus are to resume after the resolution of an impasse at a meeting of the island’s Greek and Turkish leaders. Emerging from a four-hour meeting with Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akıncı in New York on Sunday night, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said negotiations would recommence later this month. The breakthrough was met with relief on the island, where many had feared the collapse of talks widely seen as a once-in-a generation chance of reconciliation. Continue reading...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
Labour leader’s comment comes after police carry out fresh raids in wake of London Bridge attack * Theresa May urged not to suppress report into funding of jihadi groups * The Snap: politicians spar over security after London Bridge attack * London Bridge attack: what we know so far * Share your news tips and stories 1.33pm BST The Muslim Council of Britain has said it agrees with Theresa May that “enough is enough” in relation to extremism and pledged to work in partnership with the government and the prime minister to “keep our country safe”. Harun Khan, secretary-general of the MCB, an umbrella organisation, said he was angry about the London Bridge attack and “we want to do something about it”. 1.29pm BST A Greek man who was among those injured in Saturday night’s attack has been identified as Antonis Filis. The émigré, who was knifed in the kidney and whose plight first became known via a video posted on the Sun’s website, has been identified as the 35-year-old grandson of a former mayor of Lamia, in central Greece. Continue reading...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |
From Eurogroup to Eurogroup… key is a political solution at the next European Union Summit…. Greek government has given up hope for a solution to the Greek problem at the Eurogroup meeting on June 15. The EU Summit is scheduled for June 22-23 2017.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.keeptalkinggreece.com |
Donald Trump’s controversial decision last week to pull the United States out of the landmark Paris climate change agreement found an ally in Greece: the union representing workers of the state-run power company, PPC. The union, known as GENOP/DEI-KHE ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.naftemporiki.gr |
Going on GREECE vacation can be thrilling when you choose the right package. GREECE is among the most popular destination for tourists from different ...
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT goodherald.com |