UN spokesman Martin Nesirky has stated that the leaders of the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities on Friday met in Nicosia, focusing on how to bring peace to the divided island.
The two leaders met for six hours in Nicosia for UN-mediated peace related talks. They have decided to meet again on Tuesday, October 11.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish forces invaded the island in response to a Greek-led coup aiming to make it part of Greece.
The last attempt at a negotiated solution to the Cypriot problem in 2004 collapsed when Turkish-Cypriots voted in favor of a UN settlement plan when Greek-Cypriots rejected it.
As a result, the Southern part ruled by Greek-Cypriots joined the European Union that year, while the North is ruled by Turkish-Cypriots.
Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot Communities' Leaders Meet in Nicosia
German Finance Minister Refuses to Give Allowances for German Occupation During World War II
German Minister of Finance, Philipp Roesler stated during his last meeting in Greece that allowances demanded by Greeks for the Nazi’s atrocities during German occupation of Greece in 1940, can be an additional obstacle.
“Greeks should forget this demand and focus on the improvement of competitiveness in their country.”
After a relevant question of a reporter concerning the particular time of payment of the allowances, Finance Minister of Germany answered: “I am absolutely sure that this discussion could become an additional obstacle within the current circumstances we are under”.
“Thus focusing only on the enhancement of competitiveness is essential in order to combat the ongoing crisis in Greece and the problems arising from it”.
36,000 Illegal Immigrants Caught in Evros This Year
Some 36,000 illegal immigrants have been caught this year crossing into Greece via its land border with Turkey, the river Evros, according to figures made public on Friday.
This compares to a total of just over 47,000 arrests during the whole of last year. Greece is in the process of building a 12.5-kilometer fence in Evros, which is one of the main points of entry for illegal migrants. The structure will consist of two parallel fences topped with barbed wire, as Ana reported.
The Citizens’ Protection Ministry is inspecting 14 offers from private firms to construct a fence along Greece’s border with Turkey in Evros as part of an effort to deter illegal immigrants.
The government hopes to pick a successful bidder for the 5.4-million-euro project within the next days.
Mother Keeps Sons Locked Up for 45 Years in Patras
The shocking family story of a mother keeping her two sons locked up in their house in a neighborhood in Patras brings back the memory of the Kostaleksi case revealed some decades ago.
The two sons aged 45 and 38 years have lived for many years completely isolated from other people and under extremely miserable conditions. All 3 family members are suffering from mental illnesses, while their sister has allegedly abandoned the family in order to lead a better life.
The mother used to go out of the house sometimes with her οlder son,leaving the younger boy locked up in the house. In one of her exits her neighbors called the police but the younger son fought them back when they tried to enter the house.
After a court prosecution order yesterday, the police finally arrested the mother and her older son while outside the house. The younger son was immediately transported to a psychiatric clinic.
Greek Filmmakers Protest Over Cutbacks
As Greek public servants shut down cities with strikes to protest the belt-tightening sweeping the country, the film business has joined in the chorus of malcontent.
“The crisis unveiled completely the structural deficiency of the Greek Film Center and the Ministry of Culture regarding cinema,” says Filippos Tsitos, helmer of black comedy “Unfair World.” He adds that the Film Center, for decades, the primary source of coin for local filmmakers, has been promising funds – sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars – although it has not been dispersing any coin in the past two years.
The center won’t even give out the 20% required by most co-production agreements needed to partner with foreign productions, says Tsitos, who adds that the Film Center has massive debts, although numbers weren’t available.
With Greek filmmakers unable to raise even their 20% share of budgets, they’ll no longer be able to join forces with countries in better financial health, as other small nations in the region do. That’s frustrating to the new wave of Greek filmmakers like Athina Rachel Tsangari (“Attenberg”) and Yiorgos Lanthimos (“Dogtooth”), who are winning kudos abroad and rely on co-production to make their films.
“The government could have shut down other useless organizations instead of giving up on something that actually has to do with our national culture, in terms of films, TV documentaries and audiovisual material,” says Greek helmer Constantine Giannaris, whose films are getting a retrospective at Thessaloniki.
Despite all the closures, Giannaris says, there seems to be a renaissance taking place. “It is on a low-budget level, but, nevertheless, there seems to be an explosion of creativity and a lot of work being done, particularly by younger filmmakers in their 30s and early 40s,” Giannaris adds.
That the creative surge is taking place amid a national crisis, says Giannaris, is all the more inspiring.
(source: Variety Film News)
Fifty-One Illegal Migrants Rescued
A Lebanon-flagged vessel dropped off 51 illegal migrants in Irakleio, Crete early Saturday after rescuing the group when the small boat carrying them to an unknown destination was left adrift some 50 nautical miles north of Crete on Friday.
The 51 illegal migrants, including eight women and four minors, were housed in a port facility as a temporary shelter.
(source: ana-mpa)
Bank Robbery Suspects Detained in Athens
Another two individuals were detained for questioning on Saturday in relation to the spectacular robbery of a bank inside the Athens International Airport last Sunday, which saw 1.43 million euros vanish.
According to reports, one of the individuals is a 25-year-old employee of the specific Alpha bank branch. The man’s father also works in the bank network’s security department. Authorities are reportedly examining whether the 25-year-old provided details about the premises security and the safe.
The second man is identified only as a bar owner.
Police discovered 293,880 euros in cash in the two suspects’ possession and also recovered a replica handgun.
A day earlier, police arrested three suspects, a Greek couple and an Albanian, the latter allegedly the mastermind of the caper.
A search of the foreign national’s residence in central Athens and the couple’s home netted 739,530 euros, 8,990 UK pounds, 31,000 US dollars, two handguns, 802 cartridges, a bullet-proof vest and 50 banknote tapes.
(source: ana-mpa)
Brazilian Daniela Mercury to Perform at Greek Theater in L.A.
One of Brazil’s most popular singers, Daniela Mercury, will be performing at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles on October 13, 2011.
Mercury makes her Greek Theater debut with music from her sensational new release – Canibália—an electronica-laced mix of pop, samba, bossa nova, reggae, axe, merengue, and salsa.
The Greek Theater is located in Griffith Park at:
2700 North Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90027
Tickets available online at Ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster outlets or charge-by-phone at (800) 745-3000 All dates, acts and ticket prices subject to change without notice. A service charge is added to each ticket price. For more information, visit www.GreekTheatreLA.com and www.BrazilianNites.com
Tickets with NO SERVICE CHARGE available at the following outlets:
BRAZILMANIA – 1612 Cabrillo Ave., Torrance – (310) 839-4037
MERCADO BRAZIL – 10826 Venice Blvd., Culver City – (310) 837-4299
TASTE OF BRAZIL – 4840 S. Huntington Drive, Los Angeles – (323) 342-9422
Belgian Finance Minister Says Must Help Greece to Avoid Contagion
Greece must be helped to avoid financial contagion on the scale of the Lehman Brothers meltdown in 2008, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders told a Greek newspaper on Saturday.
“We must help Greece to avoid the repetition of what happened to Lehman Brothers in 2008,” weekly newspaper Proto Thema quoted Reynders as saying in an interview. “If we don’t solve the Greek debt problem, or even worse, if there is danger of contagion in Spain and Italy, then the worst-case scenario might materialize,” Reynders added.
The Belgian Finance Minister also warned against pushing Greek austerity too far.
“The measures taken by Athens are extraordinary, given the big recession. But, at some point, these continuous measures must stop. This is not acceptable on a political, social or even economic level: we do not want the cure to kill Greece,” he said.
(source: Proto Thema, Reuters)
Historic Church in Smyrna to Become Press Museum
A press museum will be housed in a restored outbuilding located in the garden of the Ayavukla Church, on the West side of Smyrna. The press museum is said to be the third largest in Turkey after the press museums in Constantinople and Bursa. The restorations began a while back under the direction of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and the supervision of İzmir Institute of Technology.
İzmir Metropolitan Municipality officials told Anatolia News Agency that the figure of Christ, as well as frescoes depicting St. John and angels Michael and Gabriel were restored, and the building is now in a condition that will allow it to host social and cultural events organized by the municipality.
Moreover, İzmir Journalists Association Executive Board Chairman Atilla Sertel said: “There will be private objects of some journalists in the museum such as copies of the first newspapers, cameras used in the past, typewriters, telexes and printing machines.It will be a very different museum”.
The Greek Orthodox Ayavukla Church was built in the second half of the 19th century in the Basmane area. It was the only Greek Orthodox church to survive the fire of 1922, a major event in İzmir’s history. Two years later, the building served as the Asar-I Atika Museum under orders from Turkish republican founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.The museum was later abandoned. It was registered as a “cultural item under preservation” and allocated to the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality by General Directorate of National Estate.