Hellenic Bank of Cyprus Australia Acquired by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

Stella Tsolakidou
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Hellenic Bank of Cyprus Australia Acquired by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

Bank of Cyprus Australia (BOCA), the largest Hellenic bank in Australia has been acquired by the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank for $130 million dollars.

The acquisition was a necessary measure to be taken in order to secure the bank’s future given the current financial turbulence in Europe that would affect BOCA’s capacity of making profit from growth opportunities in the Australian market.

According to Neos Kosmos, George Taktikos, Managing Director of BOCA, expressed his satisfaction about the deal, while Bendigo’s Managing Director Mike Hirst, described BOCA as “an attractive business with a strong capital and liquidity position”.

Moreover, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Chairman, Robert Johanson, charcterized the purchase of BOCA to be of strategical importance for the broader Bendigo banking network.

In 2010, Laiki Bank Australia merged with Beirut Bank becoming the Beirut Hellenic bank of Australia.

Turkey and Italy Fund Angelopoulos’ New Film

Stella Tsolakidou
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Turkey and Italy Fund Angelopoulos’ New Film

One of the most important contemporary directors in the world, Greek Thodoros Angelopoulos (1937) will start shooting his new film-concept the day after Christmas.

“The Other Sea” will be about illegal immigration and human trafficking from FYROM and Albania to Greece and Italy, as this is seen through the story of a businessman, who became a politician and the key figure of a traffickers’ ring.

With an estimated budget of 5 million Euros and given the poor finances of Greece at the moment, Turkish producer Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Italian producer Amedeo Pagani are the main funders of the new film production of Angelopoulos.

In fact, Mr. Pagani noted that the film aims at depicting the financial crisis plaguing Greece today.

The film’s shootings are planned to take place in Greece, and most particularly, in Piraeus, in Patras and in Rex Theatre. Shootings are expected to last ca. 6 weeks.

Cyprus: Polls Open for Municipal Elections

A. Makris
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Cyprus: Polls Open for Municipal Elections

Cypriots go to the polls on Sunday to elect new local authorities for a five-year term.
Polling stations will open at 0700 local time (0500 GMT) and close at 1800.
There will be a break between 1200 and 1300.
A total of 546,111 persons are entitled to vote in Sunday’s elections, among them 12,333 who are citizens of other EU member states. The majority of EU citizens are from Greece and the UK.
One thousand four hundred and one polling stations are set up throughout the southern government controlled areas of the Republic (the island’s northern part is under Turkish occupation since the 1974 Turkish invasion).
One polling station will be set up at the Central Prison.
The enclaved -Greek Cypriots still living in the northern Turkish occupied areas- will vote at three polling stations.
Voters will choose a mayor as well as members of the town councils.
There are a total of 39 municipalities all over the Republic of Cyprus, nine of them are occupied. In some of the municipalities no elections are going to be held as there is only one candidate in each of them.
Votes will be counted at the regional electoral centers and those who secure election as mayors are expected to be announced by 2200 on Sunday.
A total of 9,000 employees from the civil service as well as police officers will be working on Sunday in order to ensure that the whole process will run smoothly.
Municipal elections take place every five years in December.
The first elections held in Cyprus following the island’s accession to the EU took place in 2006. That was the first time other EU nationals secured the right to vote in the Republic in accordance with EU law.
(source: cna)

69 Arrested at Illegal Athens Casino

A. Makris
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69 Arrested at Illegal Athens Casino

Police in Athens arrested 69 people after raiding a clandestine casino that did brisk business on one of the city’s main highways, a short distance from parliament, authorities said on Saturday, cited by AFP.
The casino, housed inside an Internet cafe, had cleared over a million euros since April from slot machines, and is believed to have had an overall turnover of “several million”, the police said in a statement.
Most of those detained in the raid on Friday were patrons but included a policeman suspended for gambling who worked there as a bouncer, police added.
Gambling is only legal in Greece within licensed establishments.
Illegal operators face prison sentences of between three and 10 years while players could be jailed for up to three months.
Police crews on Friday confiscated over 100 betting machines and seized over 130,000 euros ($169,000) in cash.
Greeks are avid gamblers. The culture ministry, which supervises gaming in the country, earlier in the year said there were believed to be over 250 betting websites, up to 20,000 slot machines and up to 150,000 computers running gaming programmes in the country.
It added that the illegal turnover from all games of fortune is estimated to be worth 10 billion euros annually.

Online Strategy Game Allows Players to Fire the Acropolis

Fani Toli
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An online strategy game allows players to destroy historical monuments of  countries between them and the Acropolis.
This is the eRepublik, in which the player chooses a country and begins to expand its sovereignty and conquer neighboring countries by building his own empire.
The game’s website even wondered what would happen if indeed the economic crisis does go wrong. Thousands around the world have been enchanted by this game while leading the media “welcome.”
“The eRepublik offers you a true second life,” writes the Guardian, the TechCrunch notes that this game brings toys strategy on the internet.

Greece to Renegotiate Terms for Implementation of Burgas-Alexandroupolis Project

Fani Toli
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Greece to Renegotiate Terms for Implementation of Burgas-Alexandroupolis Project

According to the Greek Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change George Papakonstantinou, Greece is ready to renegotiate the terms for the implementation of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis project in order to see the oil pipeline completed.
Last week, Bulgaria’s government decided to quit the Bulgarian-Greek-Russian project for the construction of the oil pipeline on the grounds that it is financially and economically unsound and cannot follow the terms of the 2007 agreement.
In an interview for online news portal GR Reporter, Papakonstantinou noted that the project was one of importance for Greece and the country was willing to implement it.
“We are very sorry for the concrete current stance of the Bulgarian government and we would like to see the existing problems to be resolved. We are ready to reopen talks with the two other contributing parties so that we can find an opportunity to implement the project in some other format,” the Greek minister said.
Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said last week that the country would seek a termination of the trilateral intergovernmental agreement by mutual consent and if the request was rejected, it would pull out of the oil pipeline project in 12 months, as one of the clauses of the contract stipulates.

Iran's 3rd Traditional Carpet Exhibition in Athens

Fani Toli
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Iran's 3rd Traditional Carpet Exhibition in Athens

Hand-woven Persian rugs have attracted visitors at Iran’s third traditional carpet exhibition held in the Greek capital, Athens, says a report.
In the inaugural ceremony convened by Iranian Ambassador to Greece Mehdi Honardoost, Iran’s cultural attaché in Athens Mohammad-Reza Pakravan and a dozens of businessmen from both countries, Honardoost referred to Persian rugs as a genuine work of art, IRNA reported on Friday.
The Iranian envoy said, “Preserving the artistic structure of Iranian carpet, which is the key to its eternity, is a must.”
He underlined the need to expand Iran’s carpet market.
Earlier in December, Zoe Kazazaki, the general director of Modern Culture at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Greece, during a meeting with Pakravan in Athens, expressed the country’s willingness to expand cultural ties with Iran.
She said the Greek government would make every effort to promote cultural cooperation with Iran.
Carpet-weaving, which dates back to ancient Persia, is one of the most distinguished manifestations of Persian culture and art.
There is an estimated population of 1.2 million weavers in Iran, who produce carpets for both domestic and international markets.
Iran exports carpets to more than 100 countries, as the country’s hand-woven rugs are one of its main non-oil export products.
Experts attribute the increasingly lucrative market for Persian carpets worldwide to the quality of the rugs as well as their color and design.

A Christmas Tradition, Also a Greek One

Tanya Soumbasakis
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A Christmas Tradition, Also a Greek One

When Christmas comes along we think of Santa Claus, presents and mistletoe. Those who have significant others can’t wait to run under the mistletoe so they can give that special someone their Christmas kiss. Those who don’t have significant others can’t wait to see who the Christmas spirit will bring to them so they can have their Christmas kiss.
The word mistletoe comes from the old English word mistiltan, which the meaning of the word is uncertain but it could be related to the German word mist, which means branch. In Ancient Greece there was something similar to the mistletoe we have today, which was called Viscum album and it was believed to be The Golden Bough of Aeneas ancestor of the Romans. In ancient Greece the mistletoe was believed to have life giving powers and granted fertility.
Today in Greece the mistletoe is called gi (γκυ), which means all of the plants that we use for Christmas or that grow during the Christmas season. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe comes from England but it is done in Greece as well.
So who will you kiss under the mistletoe this year.

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums to Perform in Athens

Fani Toli
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Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums to Perform in Athens

Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums featuring Miss Carmen Getit will be performing at Half Note Jazz Club in Athens from the 19th of December through the 27th of December.
Called “Instant Crowd Favorites” by the San Francisco Blues Festival and “Consummate musicians and entertainers” by New York City’s Lincoln Center, Lucky and Getit really shine before a live audience, bringing an intense energy and sheer personal magnetism to the stage, exercising wit in a continuous battle of the sexes. They’ve earned a reputation as captivating entertainers with “superior musicianship” (Downbeat), engaging audiences in many places.
Born in Seattle and raised near Detroit, Steve Lucky started playing piano at age eight and was playing and singing professionally by the time he was thirteen. While attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor he founded and led the six-piece Blue Front Persuaders through the ‘80s, playing jump-blues, ‘40s and ‘50s R & B, and swing.
Sticking to his musical roots, Lucky formed his own band in New York City and toured Europe extensively until he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1993. Culling the best of the Bay area’s musicians, Lucky started the Rhumba Bums in 1993 as a quintet but the band really took shape in ‘94 with the addition of Miss Carmen Getit.
In Carmen’s powerful sound, one can hear echoes of her idols Ruth Brown, T-Bone Walker, Etta James, Dinah Washington, and Tiny Grimes. Miss Getit is also a versatile vocalist, swingin’ or shoutin’ the blues.

New Crossing at Evzones Border Post

A. Makris
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New Crossing at Evzones Border Post

A new customs crossing for heavy trucks at the Evzones border station with the neighbouring Balkan countries and Europe will open on Monday 19 December.
The new crossing will open to circulation at 11:00 a.m.
New facilities for the housing and operation of the customs services and border police as well as toll bars for control of the vehicles’ crossing, new lights and regeneration of the surrounding area have been completed.
(source: ana-mpa)

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