The house pictured is where 70 years ago, all the Greeks, through the words of Ioannis Metaxa made the decision to resist the Italians and proclaimed their historical: “OXI” (“NO”) to the demands of Italy.  The Italians by force demanded free entrance of their Italian army into Greece.
The two-story villa is located in the Athenian suburb Kifissia.  It is the place where one of the most important meetings in the history of Greece was conducted.  Even after so many decades, it remains virtually untouched. Its owners do everything to ensure that the OXI memories remain alive.

Thanasis Veggos is in the intensive care unit of the Patras Hospital due to problems in his respiratory system.   The much loved actor was admitted to the hospital for a routine operation 10 days ago.  After complications he was transferred immediately to the intensive care unit.  According to doctors, his condition is steady and he is recovering without machine support and is beginning to respond to the medication given to him.
Thanasis Veggos made his debut in 1952. His first major role was in “Psila ta Heria Hitler” (“Hands Up, Hitler”), 1962. He often plays characters struggling to get by.  He has also portrayed anti-heroes, played in pure dramas, and on-stage has acted in Aristophanes’ comedies. He often works with director Giorgos Lazaridis and he always does his scenes without using a stuntman even for the most dangerous acts.  For example.  hanging with a single rope from a balcony or walking through a glass door. Thanasis is well known in Greece for the saying: “Kalh mou anthroph”, which he used in many of his films and which translates to “My good people”.
During the “Golden Sixties” of the Greek film industry he made  famous films such as the sequel of “Secret Agent 000”, “Papatrehas”, “Enas trellos Vengos” and many others.  Most were produced by his own company Θ-Β comedy films (Tainies Geliou).
On a personal level he was exiled from 1948 to 1950 for political reasons to the island of Makronisos and that is where he met director Nikos Koundouros who was also exiled there. In 2000, his car crashed into a train but he miraculously survived.  He later was featured in safety advertisements.
He was born in May 1927 in Piraeus. Veggos is married and has two children. A documentary of his life: “A Man for All Seasons” was produced in 2004.

Professor Basil Markezinis proposes the redefinition of Greek foreign policy, keeping equal distances towards the US – Russia – China, in his new book: “A New Foreign Policy for Greece”.  The book was recently released by Livanis Publishing House.
Basil Markezinis places this process within the framework of gradual independence of Europe from the US.
The professor links this choice with the presence of a new generation of politicians in the Greek political scene, “men and women, who will enter politics, having proven their skills in the profession, who don’t only perceive politics as the only prosperous profession they have entered or inherited”.
He refers to new forms of war: “War is not always necessary to take place in the form of a military confrontation, but it can also appear in the form of large financial pressures, embargoes, imposition of tax duties or interventions in electronic media”.
He argues that the absolute power of the USA in shaping the fate of the world led especially after 1990, to the development of an “American Nationalism” which is translated into interventions and wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and more. With regards to the role of NATO, his view is particularly categorical.
Basil Markezinis was born in Athens in 1944. He was educated at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (LLB 1965) and the University of Cambridge (MA and PhD 1970) and held a studentship at St. Antony’s College, Oxford (1970). Currently he is a Jamail Regents Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He established institutes at several universities in Europe and America for the comprehension of different legal systems.
He has authored 37 books related to legal science, geopolitics, art, psychobiography and has written articles for major US newspapers. He is a member of the British Academy and a corresponding member of the Academy of Belgium, Holland and the Academy of Athens.
In 2005 he was appointed as Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List 2005 for “Distinguished Services to International Legal Relations”. He has been honored with many distinctions internationally. He is married to Evgenia Tripanis and they have a daughter and son.

A large black banner with the words ”No to lay-offs” is flying over the Athens Acropolis this morning.  The banner is the result of ongoing protests by Culture Ministry employees with temporary contracts who over the past few weeks had shut down Greece’s most important archaeological site. However, this time around the Acropolis is staying open. Employees with temporary contracts are demanding the payment of arrears and the cancellation of lay-offs called for as part of the anti-crisis plan.  They have announced protests to continue indefinitely if the government does not heed their requests.