Category: GREECE

Source: ABCNews

Pacific wins two weightlifting medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games

Athletes from the Pacific have won two medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow – both in weightlifting.

Veteran Papua New Guinean weightlifter Dika Toua won a silver medal in the Womens 53kg event.

Samoan weightlifter, Nevo Ioane Vaipava won bronze in the 62kg class.

In the leadup to the men’s event, it was billed as the ‘Battle of the South Seas’ with Tuvalu’s Lapua Lapua expected to be 26 year-old Vaipava’s main challenger.

However, the gold medal was won by Cyprus’ Dimitris Minasidis with a total lift of 276kg ahead of Sudesh Peiris of Sri Lanka, 3kg behind.

With a total lift of 271kg, Vaipava managed to hold off a challenge from PNG’s Morea Baru.

In women’s competition, Diki Toua was considered favourite for gold as the three medallists from the Delhi Games in 2010 were all absent from Glasgow.

But 16 year-old Nigerian schoolgirl Chika Amalaha won the gold with a total lift of 196kg to Toua’s total lift of 193kg.

India’s Santoshi Matsa picked up the bronze with lifts totalling 188kg.

30 year-old Toua started weightlifting in 1996, following a family tradition after her aunt also represented Papua New Guinea. She has competed at four consecutive Olympic games since her debut as a 16 year-old at Sydney in 2000 when she became the first female weightlifter to represent PNG.

Toua’s best result in Olympic competition is a sixth-place finish at the 2004 Games in Athens.

In her athlete biography, the mother-of-two says her most memorable sporting achievement was winning a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

After two days of competition, New Zealand has bagged eight medals.

India currently has ten, Malaysia two and Singapore, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh one.

Athletes from 13 Pacific nations are competing at the Glasgow Games with Fiji represented for the first time since Melbourne in 2006.

Fiji was banned from the Commonwealth Games in 2009 after refusing free and fair elections.

The ban was lifted in March, giving Fiji just four months to prepare for the Games.

Source: newgreektv.com

Source: staugustine.com

Jackie Kramer

Vividly painted frescoes in St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine depict scenes from the life of Christ, the apostles and the saints.

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Jackie Kramer

St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine is just a few feet from the City Gate. The shrine’s plain facade belies the exquisite beauty contained within.

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Jackie Kramer

Candles are located along the entry to the chapel. They await those wishing to light them while visitng the shrine.

St. Photios stands as a tribute to the first permanent colony of Greeks who arrived in America with fellow immigrants from Corsica and Italy on June 26, 1768. They were recruited by Scottish physician Andrew Turnbull and his partner, who received grants from Great Britain to help develop settlements in newly acquired Florida.

The Greeks escaped oppression in their homelands only to find themselves toiling under deplorable conditions as indentured servants in New Smyrna, south of St. Augustine, where they were promised tracts of land in exchange for their hard work. Though many perished, hundreds who survived fled to St. Augustine in 1777.

The English allowed them to worship in Casa Avero, a home built in 1749. The Avero House was purchased by the Greek Orthodox Diocese in 1966, and in 1972, it was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The shrine has been established as a living memorial “…to the first Greek settlers on the American continent and to all the Greek Orthodox pioneers whose love of freedom and desire for a better life for themselves and their children brought them to this New World.” (Shrine Newsletter, Sept. 2013).

St. Photios is filled with photographs, historical documents and artifacts. The chapel is a real gem in which religion is brought to life through art and architecture. Archways gracefully yield one to another.

Walls and ceilings are frescoed by artist Geroge Fillipakis, with Byzantine-style scenes from the life of Christ, the apostles, and the saints. The paintings are heavily embellished with 22-karat gold leaf.

It is easy to see why the St. Photios Chapel is referred to as “The Jewel of St. George Street.”

Source: dailysabah.com

ANKARA – Negotiations resume for the solution of the 40-year-old problem in Cyprus. Since last February, bilateral talks which had come to a standstill have been accelerated. Both sides at the table have a certain level of motivation now. Turkish Cypriots, in fact, are in favor of maintaining the negotiations with a positive approach. In this respect Derviş Eroğlu, the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), had declared that a five-step roadmap on the future of the negotiations had been offered to Greek Cypriots last week.

Opening of three borders in Nicosia and a “transition period” were some of the issues composed in which the agenda of the last meeting, held with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiadis.

As a matter of fact, Turkish Cypriots’ desire to show goodwill has been appreciated. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is one of those who praised the efforts coming from the Turkish side. Claiming the future of the negotiations is promising, he said “It is now understood that progress is in everyone’s interests. That was not the case before” and remarked that he got the impression there is a desire for the solution in Turkish representatives after he had talked with them.

Hence, a new project which materialized between the two sides’ commerce chambers this week, is a clue for the ongoing situations being promising. The project aims to promote dialogue and cooperation in business through societal integrity and mutual trust. “The project, being carried out by the two chambers, in our view will increase dialogue, trust and cooperation between the business communities throughout Cyprus.” said Michaela Di Bucci, the head of the EU Commission Unit Task Force for the Cypriot Community.

On the other hand, the negative approaches on the Greek side for the negotiation process are palpable as well. The speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Evangelos Meimarakis, said that Greek Cypriots should try to put their own arguments in the process. “We should do our job, we have to have our own plans and try through our arguments to convince the international community,” he told reporters after a meeting he held with Mr. Anastasiadis on last Thursday.

At this stage, it is obvious that the bipartite effort has turned into ex parte, and Greek Cypriots’ push forward sounds dubious. Thus, what president Eroğlu had said in his interview with Daily Sabah in May, becomes more significant.

While he had been complaining about reluctance from the Greek side, he had said “We proposed the removal of all land mines from the island as such a measure. Such a tangible measure would increase safety for people on both sides of the island; however, the Greek Cypriot side did not accept our proposal.” “Another suggestion was for cruise liners to dock at ports on both sides of the island. If GSM operators were able to provide services for both sides of the island, that would be a confidence building measure for us. These recommendations are formed with the purpose of making life easier for people on both sides of the island. However, the Greek Cypriot side has not yet taken any concrete steps towards these recommendations,” had remarked Eroğlu, pointing out progress was prevented by the Greek Cypriots.

In this case, for the next meeting of leaders, it becomes vital that the Greek Cypriot side must take concrete steps for the solution of this 40-year-old problem on the island. Otherwise, it will influence not only this problem but Turkey’s EU bid will be affected as well.

Souce: nypost.com

Stan Ostapiak and his wife Elaine with the returned ring. Photo: Robert Mecea

A retired NYPD cop whose high-school ring was stolen more than 40 years ago was shocked to see the keepsake again — in a package mailed to his doorstep from a Greek island he’d never heard of.

Stan Ostapiak, 69, hadn’t seen his 1962 Seward Park HS class ring since it was swiped at his Queens wedding reception in 1972.

“It was just total shock,” Ostapiak told The Post from his Staten Island living room Monday.

“I’d had never been to Greece. I’d really like to know how it got there.”

The blue-stoned, gold-metal ring was discovered and returned by Vasilis Polyretis, of Naxos, Greece.

He was going through his late father’s belongings when he found the ring, which was engraved with the “S.J.O.”

Polyretis had no idea how his father had come across the ring, but he wanted to do the right thing by S.J.O.

He decided to do some detective work and contacted the school’s alumni president, Martin Kane.

Two weeks ago, Kane, reached out to Ostapiak and his wife, Elaine, telling them the ring was found more than 5,000 miles away.

“It’s the only thing I had left from high school,” Stan said about the bling.

“I was disappointed. I had no prom. That’s all I had.”

The Grecian “ring bearer” packed up the long-lost keepsake after hearing from Kane, and mailed it out.

“We’re just happy to have it back!” said Ostapiak’s wife, Elaine.

“We couldn’t believe it, almost 42 years later. It’s going to make for a memorable anniversary in October.”

Ostapiak had first given the ring to his wife when they became engaged in 1970.

She had kept the memento on her key chain.

But at their wedding in the fall of 1972, her purse was stolen — with Stan’s class ring inside.

“I was very upset because that was my husband’s ring that he had given to me and it signified so much,” Elaine said.

Now that the ring is finally back, Stan can restore it to it’s rightful place, he noted with a wink.

“I’ll give it back to my wife,” he said.“I’ll ask her to go steady with me again.”

The couple e-mailed Polyretis in Greece to thank him, and said they would send a copy of The Post showcasing his good deed.

“We’re just incredibly thankful for his efforts. This couldn’t have been possible without him,” Stan said.

Source: ATHENS, July 11 (PNA/Xinhua) —

Greece stands on its own feet again after a severe economic crisis and Europe faces the future with more confidence, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras told a financial forum in Athens on Thursday evening.

Greece this year is exiting recession and returns to development thanks to the reforms introduced which are “vital, not luxury” for the country, along with fiscal consolidation and growth- oriented policies, Samaras stressed, addressing an Economist forum.

Amidst a new wave of protests against reforms aimed to streamline the public sector and privatization plans for the public power corporation PPC-DEI, the Greek Premier accused a group of unionists and the main opposition of seeking to block any reform.

“They resist any effort for change…They will not manage to obstruct this course,” Samaras stressed.

Public sector employees held a new 24-hour strike on Wednesday in protest of fresh salary cuts and a mobility scheme which leads to more dismissals.

The Greek parliament ratified on the same a bill which opens the way for the sale of 30 percent of stakes of PPC-DEI next year.

The government argues that the liberalization of the energy market will benefit consumers, while labor unions and opposition parties object to the privatization and try to put the issue on a referendum.

Despite innumerous strikes and protests after the start of the crisis over the painful austerity and reform program introduced four years ago under bailout deals in return of international loans, Greece made significant progress in fiscal consolidation, but still has way to go on reforms, officials and analysts point out.

The necessity to fully implement structural reforms without wasting time was underlined on Thursday at the start of the new regular review of the Greek program by envoys of EU/IMF lenders in Athens.

According to Greek Finance Ministry sources the foreign officials insisted that the focus should stay on reforms in coming months. They appeared to dismiss any talk for the moment of reduction of taxes as a way to boost growth, as suggested by Samaras during his speech on Thursday and other Greek officials.

Source: ATHENS, Greece (AP)

Source: wisn.com

Source:  Associated Press