Orthodox Churches of Long Island Unite to Fight Hunger

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The three biggest Greek Orthodox churches in Long Island invite the public to join the 2nd Annual Church World Service (CWS) Nassau County CROP Hunger Walk this Saturday, October the 15th, one day before World Food day.

Everyone willing to join the Hunger Walk should write their name down by 10.a.m. at Eisenhower Park, Field 1 in the Dogwood area. The walk commences at 11 a.m. and participants can choose to walk 1 mile or 3 miles.

The walks have been institutionalized over 40 years ago and the Nassau County CROP Hunger Walk is one of ca. 1,800 such walks across the country.  In addition to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Orthodox Church in America, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Armenian Church, Protestant and Aglican communions as well as schools, businesses and others are brought together in order to raise funds to end hunger at home and around the world.

According to Sophia Niarchos, team captain for the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Resurrection CROP Walk team “The mantle of feeding the poor falls on the church and other charitable organizations. CROP Hunger Walks are wonderful opportunities to gather together as Christians and sacrifice our time and treasure for those in greater need than ourselves.”

This year’s Nassau County CROP Hunger Walk funds raised will be going to the Long Island Council of Churches’ Freeport Food Pantry, which provides food for more than 1200 people each month.

US Blacklists Greek Anarchist Group

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The United States on Thursday added a Greek anarchist group to its terror blacklist, saying the group had attempted to spread its “violent anarchist ideology” through a campaign of firebomb attacks.
The State Department said Thursday it had placed the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, or SPF, on its list of specially designated terrorists, a move that freezes any assets the group may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from giving it any material support.
It said the group, which first emerged in 2008, had targeted civilians and government officials in a number of countries, including Greece, in an attempt to spread its ideology.
(source: AP, Reuters)

Barroso: Greece Must Reduce Debts If It Is To Succeed

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Greece needs to reduce its debts if it is going to come through the economic crisis, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday.
“If Greece is going to have success… it΄s better to reduce the debt than anything else,” he said at a discussion on Europe in Brussels.
Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is traveling to Brussels Thursday for a series of meetings, said on Wednesday that Greece is trying to find ways to lighten its debt load ahead of a European Union leaders’ summit later this month.
Barroso also reiterated that the European Commission is open to a change to the EU treaties, but that “it would be a mistake to see that as the solution now.”
“There are decisions we can take now. There are a lot of things we can do in the current crisis,” he said.
However, Barroso said that for the euro zone to go ahead with a fully fledged euro-zone bond, treaty change would be required. That is a widely held view among EU constitutional legal experts.
(source: Dow Jones)

Chrysa Spyropoulou in 2nd International Literature Festival of Ordu

Greek author Chrysa Spyropoulou will participate in the 2nd International Literature Festival hosted in the city of Ordu, Turkey from the 20th to the 23rd of October 2011. The Greek representative will refer to the Asia Minor catastrophe as presented in Greek Literature and to detective stories.

Authors from Finland, Hungary, Albania, Croatia, Ukraine and other European countries will also take part in the event.

Chrysa Spyropoulou was born in Serres in 1957. She studied Classic and English Philology and works as a teacher in High School. She is also writing for several Greek literature journals.

Some of her original works are: The Ancient Greek World Reflected in the Poetry of Zoe Kareli: A Study (ASE ed., Thessaloniki 1988), Anagnoseis: Dokimia (Prosperos Ed., Athens 1992), Omichli sti Limni (Panos Ed., Athens 1998). She has also translated following books: Aloe by Kathrin Mansfield (Panos Ed., Athens 1993), Carol, a novel by Patricia Highsmith (Prosperos Ed., Athens 1993), and The Two Brothers Of Different Sex, a Chinese story translated into Greek from English (Panos Ed., Athens 1995).

Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey On British ITV1

British actress and green issues campaigner Joanna Lumley travelled to Greece to explore both the ancient and modern aspects of the country for a British ITV1 programme.

Her report on the places she visited makes a terrific travel guide, since she is fascinated by all she meets and sees.

65-year-old Lumley begins her journey at the Parthenon in Athens and then travels around the Southern region of the country to the Peloponnese, visiting internationally known historic sites.

Although she pointed out that Athens is not as it used to be, Lumley fervently believes that things can easily change, using the following example to support her opinion: “Not every city can remain as bright as day all the time. Thirty-five years ago when I first went to New York, you couldn’t go to Times Square, it was so dangerous and filthy and frightening, with so many pickpockets. And now you can take the whole family there. So things do change. From the shining glory of Greece, it’s become dark and strange for a bit. But it’ll come back again.”

Her 4 episode series does not revolve around Greece’s economic miseries. On the contrary, it is a thrilled gaze at its history, geography and landscape.

During her trip she meets villagers who communicate by whistling, a fisherman who takes her to the gates of the underworld, and marble-cutters who use the same tools as their ancestors. Finally Lumley watches singer Nana Mouskouri rehearse at the amphitheatre of Epidavrus overlooking the Saronic Gulf.

Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey is on ITV1 today, 13 October, at 9.00pm

Fule Warns Turkey Against Use of Military Force Due to Cyprus' Drilling

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Stefan Fule

EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule has stressed that the Republic of Cyprus – like all EU member states – has the right to conclude bilateral agreements for drilling in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Speaking Wednesday at a press conference, the EU Commissioner warned against threats or the use of military force which contradict the spirit of peaceful resolution of disputes. The EU Commissioner was referring to Turkey, which following a decision by Nicosia to begin natural gas and oil exploration in its EEZ, has deployed warships in the Eastern Mediterranean and has signed an illegal agreement with the Turkish Cypriot regime in occupied Cyprus to delineate what it calls continental shelf.
Replying to questions, the Commissioner recalled that the government of the Republic of Cyprus began some weeks ago drilling for hydrocarbon reserves in its EEZ, stressing the sovereign rights of all EU Member States to enter into bilateral agreements in accordance with the EU acquis and international law. He underscored that there is no room for threats, sources of tension or actions, which contradict the spirit of peaceful resolution of disputes, adding “there is no room for threats to use military force”.
(source: cna)

Protests Seek to Hit Collection of Property Tax

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Greek protesters tried to disrupt collection of an unpopular new property tax on Thursday and transport workers went on strike in a growing wave of protests against harsh new austerity measures.
Unionists of GENOP, which represents workers at the Public Power Corporation (PPC), continued their occupation of the company’s billing department to stop it from sending bills containing the emergency property tax to homeowners. Environment and Energy Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou on Wednesday appealed to GENOP to end its protest and said that he would order a prosecutor to intervene if the sit-in continues. The property tax, which will see homeowners charged between 0.5 and 20 euros per square meter, was designed to raise some 2 billion euros by the end of the year.
The action at power company PPC underlines the challenge faced by the government, which has included the property tax in electricity bills to ensure it will be paid in a country where tax evasion is endemic.
PPC’s management said the bills would be printed anyway, in another venue and at a greater cost but protesters said they would continue their protest.
“We came to stay … we are here to give a fight” said Nikos Fotopoulos, president of PPC’s union GENOP-DEH, on Skai TV.
With the socialist government of Prime Minister George Papandreou trying to push new cuts through parliament to meet demands from international lenders, opposition has strengthened ahead of a planned general strike on Oct. 19 which is expected to shut down much of the country.

Greek Debt Talks In Paris Thursday

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Talks between Greece’s official creditors and international banks on a new private sector debt deal for the country are expected to be held in Paris Thursday, a local newspaper reports, following a first round of negotiations earlier this week in Rome.
According to the Kathimerini newspaper Thursday, the talks will focus on proposals that foresee banks taking a roughly 40% loss on their holdings of Greek government bonds.
The talks Thursday will include representatives from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank–known as the troika–who are jointly responsible for overseeing Greece’s reform program. The meeting will be held at the headquarters of French bank BNP Paribas SA, the newspaper said without citing sources.
(source: Dow Jones)

Cooks and Chefs Needed in Many Australian States

Many Australian states will sponsor cooks and chefs under State Sponsored skilled migration routes.
If you are skilled in the culinary arts and want to live and work in Australia, it is possible for you to obtain a work and residence visa through a State Sponsored skilled migration route under the General Skilled Migration program.
It is important to act quickly if you want to immigrate to Australia as quotas generally apply.
For more information on immigrating to Australia, see our Australian immigration section.

Turkish TV Series Prevails During Greek Crisis

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People spend their nights before the television screen even more during times of economic crisis in search of an escape. However, in Greece there is a huge decrease in advertisement revenues, and only a handful of new Greek series have been produced. Thus Greek stations are looking for cheaper solutions such as foreign movies, foreign television series, and live panel discussions.
Yasemin and War in “Love and Punishment” (Aşk ve Ceza) on Greek channel Mega and Bihter and Behlül in “Forbidden Love” (Aşk-ı Memnu) on Antena have been audiences’ favorites. The two series are racing head to head, according to national surveys.
When asked why the two big Greek TV channels compete with each other through Turkish series, the reason is the economic crisis. Each episode of a Greek series costs around 70,000 to 80,000 euros, whereas each episode of a Turkish series can be bought for about 7,000 to 8,000 euros.
Moreover, Greeks like Turkish TV series because they do not sound so foreign to their ears anymore. Another factor is that Greek society is familiar with the scenarios of Turkish series.Lastly, high-budget Turkish series are also of good quality.