Newly promoted Asteras Tripolis, a rapid climber up the country’s soccer divisions in recent seasons, stunned visiting Panathinaikos 1-0 yesterday for the club’s first-ever win in the country’s top-tier league. (Asteras has just entered Greece's top soccer division.)
Panathinaikos desperately looked for an equaliser and were perhaps unlucky not to be awarded a penalty themselves when Dimitris Salpigidis was tripped in the area in injury time but Asteras held on for a shocker win.
DF: Tripolitsiotes around the world, we know you're proud.
Chat about the latest soccer news at Greek Soccer.com
posted on Tuesday, October 9
Doctors in the United States decided to cancel a liver transplant for the head of Greece's Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, after his cancer was found to have spread, church officials said in Athens on Monday.
The archbishop, 68, was diagnosed with cancer in June and traveled to the United States to wait for surgery at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.
DF: Having waited already two months to find a liver match, this isn't good news for the Archbishop. We wish the Archbishop well.
Athens News Agency
posted on Tuesday, October 9
Former US president Bill Clinton visited the Acropolis this past Saturday, shortly after holding talks with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
On Friday evening, Clinton detailed his views on major international challenges of the 21st century, in a speech at a downtown Athens hotel that was attended by several government and opposition members and the country's top executives.
posted on Tuesday, October 9
Residents living near the heavily polluted Asopos River in central Greece were overall happy with a statement by environment and Public Works Minister Giorgos Souflias this past week as he declared a series of measures to protect residents.
The measures include the construction of a drainage network to channel toxic waste from local manufacturers away from the river, and the creation of a new irrigation network to supply residents of Oinofyta, Tanagra and Avlida with water from the River Mornos.
DF; 10 large manufacturers of the area have been found to be dumping illegal substances and toxic materials into the river basin and have been charged very heavy fines.
Associated Press
posted on Tuesday, October 9
Immigrants in Greece hoping to secure the new European Union longterm resident status, a permanent form of residence in other words, will need to demonstrate a basic knowledge of Greek and Greek history, the government has decided, and not a proficient knowledge of Greek like was stated last year. (Last March the government said that all immigrants wanting to get long term residency should have had a Greek proficiency equivalent to children in secondary schools in Greece.)
DF: Is this a step in the right direction or wrong? Greece has one of the lowest acceptance rates of immigrants in the EU, but should they make the language requirements easier?
athens news
posted on Monday, October 8
The Guardian writes:
"The heiress Athina Onassis de Miranda has caused huge controversy in Athens by failing to attend a press conference, pronounce a word in Greek or even hand out cups to the winners of an equestrian event held in her mother's memory.
Making her second visit to Athens in five years, the last surviving member of the shipping dynasty has been criticized for being herself: low-key and media-shy."
DF: Greeks can't seem to grasp why Onassis has distanced herself from her past. She's had just a couple of low key visits to Greece in the past 5 years -- and doesn't seem to be drawn to the island of Skorpios, where her mother and grandfather are buried.
posted on Monday, October 8
Illegal migration to Greece via Turkey has been on the rise for the past two years.
On Sunday, Greece's government called upon Turkey to cooperate in controlling their part of the illegal migration.
The foreign affairs spokesman, George Koumoutsakos underlined that "we have repeatedly noted and pointed out inadequate and incomplete policing on the Turkish side of the border.
hri
posted on Monday, October 8
Nice little article in the NYTimes over the weekend reminding everyone that spending October on a Greek island (or on the mainland for that matter) definitely has its advantages. Fall in Europe offers not only fewer crowds, but also a more realistic picture of every day Greek island life.
DF: Makes us wish we could slip away for just a few days...
NYT
posted on Monday, October 8
Katerina Thanou's lawyer insists the Greek sprinter deserves the 100-meter gold medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics after finishing runner-up to Marion Jones. (Marion Jones might lose the five gold medals she won in Sydney after she admitting to using performance enhancing drugs - a claim she had first denied.)
Thanou, however, was at the center of a doping scandal at the Athens Games four years later.
DF: Does Thanou deserve the recognition? Or should the she just keep her silver medal?
Telegraph
posted on Monday, October 8
Housing prices in Greece are skyrocketing, with on average prices going up over 100% in about a seven year span.
Experts from four of the largest banks in Greece as well as real estate developers have looked at over 32,000 assestments and found the average house to have increased in value by 105%. Macedonia and Thrace saw the smallest increase, between 75 - 85%, while central Athens saw the largest increase with some circumstances showing increases of over 150%.
DF: An overheated market or a realization that Greece is is
eKathimerini
posted on Friday, October 5
