Search
Home Blog Page 1551

37th Athens Marathon tests endurance of athletes all over world

The Greek Herald
-
0
37th Athens Marathon tests endurance of athletes all over world

Greece’s leading racing event was unaffected by the heavy rainfall, offering another year of persistence, determination, exhaustion, support and unity – with only winners and no losers.

42-year-old Kenyan athlete, John Kipkorir Komen, secured the victory of the 42,195m race.

He completed the race in 2 hours, 16 minutes, 34 seconds, beating 17-year-old, Felician Mouhitira of Rwanda, by 9 seconds.

Greek athlete, Kostas Gelaouzos, finished in 3rd place, with the second best Greek time in history, at 2 hours, 19 minutes and 2 seconds.

In the women’s marathon, Eleftheria Petroulaki finihsed first at 2 hours, 45 minutes and 49 seconds.

The Athens Marathon attracts people from all over the world, of all different capabilities.

This year, a 32-year-old South Korean man, who is blind, was able to participate in the race with the help of visual impairment assistance.

Police detain weapons of “Revolutionary Self-Defence” group

The Greek Herald
-
0
Police detain weapons of “Revolutionary Self-Defence” group

In a big counter-terror operation against the organisation “Revolutionary Self-Defense” police raided several houses in Athens, arrested two men and one woman and discovered an arsenal of weapons, Greek Police announced on Saturday.

In the operation that started on Friday, 13 homes have been reportedly raided and 15 people questioned by the counter-terrorism Department of Greek Police.

Two men aged 41 and 45 were arrested on charges of terrorist acts, possession of explosives, violation of weapons law and tampering with official documents.

A 39-year-old woman has been also arrested for violation of arms law. Police are searching for a 46-year-old man.

Convinced that members of the organisation were preparing a powerful blow, ELAS officers carried out a counterterrorism operation against the “Revolutionary Self-Defence” group.

“Fortunately we did. These weapons kill. Two were used and fortunately they did not kill, but injured police officers,” said the Director of Counter-Terrorism.

According to the Anti-Terrorist announcements, the findings include a piece of explosives, possibly TNT, two explosive cartridges, possibly gelatinodynamite and a 40kg ammonium nitrate package, as well as a night vision binocular and a night vision binocular.

These findings lead officers to believe that members of the organisation were likely to strike against a police target, while declaring that the organisation should be upgraded and are more effective in their goals.

The two detainees allegedly members of the “Revolutionary Self-Defence Organisation” were referred to court on Tuesday, while the charges against them and two others are related to acts of terrorism jointly and subsequently with terrorist organisation, as well as aggravated possession of explosives, unlawful possession of firearms, supply and possession of drugs.

The organisation has assumed responsibility for:

  • Two attacks with assault rifles against riot police outside PASOK headquarters in Athens in 2014 and 2017
  • Attacks on the embassy of Mexico and of France in August and November of 2016, respectively. One policeman was injured in the second attack.
  • The same weapon was also used to rob an OPAP gaming store in Holargos on October 21, 2019.

In the raided homes police found and confiscated among other:

  • 5 Kalashnikov rifles
  • 4 hand grenades with CS gas fillers
  • 17 detonators (9 of them remote-controlled)various explosives including gelatin-dynamite, also possible TNT.

Sources: Greek Police, newsit, amna, ethnos, Kathimerini

Delphi Women’s Business Luncheon unites powerful Greek women in leadership

The Greek Herald
-
0
Delphi Women’s Business Luncheon unites powerful Greek women in leadership

For the second consecutive year, Delphi Bank hosted its annual Women in Business Luncheon – Delphi Bank Women’s Business Luncheon – in Sydney on Wednesday, November 6 at The Ivy.

The “informal” topic of the lunch, as discussed by the panel speakers, was that we should not only celebrate our Hellenic heritage and values, but put our Hellenic philosophies and principles into practice at home and at work to shape the culture of our organisations and community.

L-R: Helen Zorbas, Katia Gzikiza (Greek Trade Commissioner for Australia) and Paula Masselos

The Guest Speaker Panel included Mayor Paula Masselos, Dr Helen Zorbas AO and Pamela Klioufis.

Mayor Paula Masselos is the first woman of Greek descent ever elected Mayor of Waverly and the 6th woman overall in the history of the Council.

READ: The Greek Herald’s Q&A with Mayor Paula Masselos.

Dr Helen Zorbas AO recently resigned as CEO of Cancer Australia. Before that she was the CEO of the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre while leading a series of committees on cancer and health.

Pamela Klioufis is the CEO of BCW, which handled the recent merger with PPR Australia and New Zealand.

The Guest Speaker Panel was Facilitated by Delphi Bank’s Project Coordinator, Maree Hadji and the Formal Welcome was spoken by Delphi Bank’s Marketing Manager, Marie Karabatsos.

Delphi Bank customers and the extended community, as well as friends and associated enjoyed lunch, shared discussions and were given the opportunity to have an intimate chat with the speakers.

After the event, the speakers reminded attendees that everyone has a role to play when advocating for change – no matter at what stage of life or professional career, it all starts with the individual.

As Pamela Klioufis said, “one step at a time. It’s overwhelming for anyone starting out to envision being a CEO, but baby steps on the way are certainly doable”.

Muslim religious leader in Komotini sentenced for “participating in prayer”

The Greek Herald
-
0
Muslim religious leader in Komotini sentenced for “participating in prayer”

According to Turkish news agencies, an elected Muslim religious leader in Komotini, Greece, was sentenced to 80 days in prison for usurping authority.

Ibrahim Serif is the ‘mufti’ (religious leader) of Komotini, which is home to a Muslim minority of around 150,000 people.

Serif tweeted on Wednesday that he was convicted by a court in Alexandroupoli, on Tuesday, on the basis of his participation in a Friday prayer in Evros, in 2016.

Serif also shared a copy of the court summons.

His lawyer has appealed the decision in a higher court.

Serif previously won a case in 1999 over the same charge after appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.

He was elected mufti of Komotini in 1990 by the local Muslim community.

The election of muftis by Muslims in Greece was regulated in the 1913 Treaty of Athens between Greece and the Ottoman Empire and was later included in the Greek Act 2345/1920.

However, Greece annulled this law in 1991 and started appointing the muftis itself.

The majority of Muslim Turks in the cities of Komotini and Xanthi do not recognise the Greek-appointed muftis and elect their own instead. These muftis are not recognised by the Greek state.

Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” reimagined at Greek National Opera in Athens

The Greek Herald
-
0
Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” reimagined at Greek National Opera in Athens

Four seasons, a performance for children and adolescents, based on Antonio Vivaldi’s timeless masterpiece, is currently playing at the Greek National Opera Alternative Stage, according to int.ert.gr.

A work of great artistic value which praises nature, Four Seasons comes to life in a unique, playful and entertaining way, while developing children’s ecological awareness and artistic education.

The play will be staged by the Patari project under the guidance of talented director Sophia Paschou, a company whose performances in the last years have become a point of reference for children and young people’s theatre audiences.

The idea of recycling lies at the heart of this special project’s concept. Renowned composer Nikos Galenianos will use Vivaldi’s original music as a point of departure in order to create new soundscapes, which will range from Vivaldi’s original sound to music made from recyclable materials and electronically processed natural sounds.

CAST
Alexis Vidalakis, Giannis Giannoulis, Theodosis Konstas, Katerina Mavrogeorgi, Stefi Poulopoulou, Erifyli Stefanidou, Apostolis Psyhramis.

Sourced from Tornos News.

The Hellenic Initiative and HOPEgenesis tackle Greece’s population issue

The Greek Herald
-
0
The Hellenic Initiative and HOPEgenesis tackle Greece’s population issue

HOPEgenesis is a Greek non-profit organisation active in the field of medicine and social welfare that addresses the major issue of Greece’s low birth rates.

Greece is heading towards a demographic deadlock as the birth-to-death ratio in Greece is negative.

It is estimated that by 2050 Greece’s population will have fallen to 8,000,000 citizens from today’s 10,800,000 million. According to official data from the Greek Ministry of the Interior, in 2017, Greece reported 88,132 births compared to 123,079 deaths, resulting in a dramatic population decline.

The Hellenic Initiative granted HOPEgenesis US$30,000 so that it can provide a medical and psychological umbrella to all pregnant women of the following six islands of the Dodecanese: Arkioi, Chalki, Kasos, Leipsoi, Patmos and Tilos.

HOPEgenesis provides free medical treatment to these women who have very limited access to medical facilities and enables them to travel to an affiliated medical unit and be properly monitored during their pregnancies by a team of obstetricians and gynaecologists.

These six islands have a total of 6,223 inhabitants. Based on their population, there should be 65 births per year and a total of 195 births in a three-year period.

However, according to the official Hellenic Statistical Authority’s figures (ELSTAT), the number of births during the three-year period of 2015-2017, prior to HOPEgenesis involvement, for the 6 islands was only 115.

HOPEgenesis operates in 354 areas across Greece and the network of affiliated hospitals of the organisation consists of 18 medical centres and over 80 doctors. Until today, it has supported more than 260 families in areas where the number of births was very low or even zero.

The organisation was awarded the European Citizen’s Prize 2018.

Sourced via Hellenic News of America

New tax laws in Greece lure investors during economic boom

The Greek Herald
-
0
New tax laws in Greece lure investors during economic boom

PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced a series of incentives to attract the global rich to invest in Greece.

On Thursday, the government revealed a legislative proposal of a flat tax of €100,000 on global earnings, if investors move their tax residence to Greece.

Mitsotakis said Greece is in need for investment if regeneration was to take hold.

This move came after Mitsotakis’ visit to Shanghai last week, where he told Chinese president Xi Jinping:

“Today in Greece there is a government that is determined to facilitate foreign investors, attract foreign capital and create wealth and prosperity for all Greeks in a way that is sustainable and protects the environment.”

Under the proposal, investors must reside in Greece for 183 days a year, and make a €500,00 euro investment within three years.

The tax law anticipates that further investments of the rich will have Greece’s businesses and households paying lower taxes.

Under the draft bill the corporate tax rate will be cut from 28% to 24%.

The relief measures in the programme, now put to parliament for debate, will apply until 2034.

“The tax incentive will run for a duration of up to 15 years and will include the benefit of no inheritance tax for assets outside Greece,” a senior official told Reuters.

“The investment can be in real estate, stocks or bonds. If the investment reaches €1.5m then the flat tax is cut by half.”

Investments of €3m or more would reduce the flat tax to €25,000.

The senior official also added that the measures would be irreversible despite changes in future government, so investors would be protected.

The government hopes the incentives will help lure back Greek shipping magnates who fled Greece due to its high taxes.

These measures were a result of the IMF’s economic report which predicted Greece’s economic rate would grow by 1.8% this year – higher than Australia’s.

Brussels – who released their autumn economic report on Thursday, said they foresaw Greece’s economy growing by 2% in 2021.

Greece itself are targeting economic growth rates of 2.8%, which the EU and other economic institutions found ambitious.

Though, the EU also predicts unemployment rates in Greece to drop from 17.3% to 15.4% in 2020. At the height of the economic crisis in 2008, Greece’s unemployment rate was almost 28%.

How Trump’s tariffs will impact Greece

The Greek Herald
-
0
How Trump’s tariffs will impact Greece

US President Trump has implemented worldwide tariffs – higher taxes on imports and exports – leaving the world concerned for the possibility of a trade war.

Trump’s tariffs will target a range of goods, including Scotch whiskey, Italian cheeses, French wines and Greek peaches.

Greece is the world’s biggest exporter of tinned peaches, with 20% of their annual production being sent to the United States.

The import levy was historically 18%, but after the EU subsidised the manufacturing of ‘Airbus’ airplanes (the competitor of US’ Boeing), Trump responded by increasing the US import tax to 43%.

“Trump would do well to behave himself and let us get to work so we can have a livelihood,” said peach farmer Tasos Halkidis. “We don’t want this tariff business,” he told Reuters.

Kostas Apostolou, head of the Greek Canners Association, said the dispute is threatening their livelihood and will potentially shut them out of their biggest market.

“Why are they punishing us?” Apostolou told Reuters.

The increase in tariffs came into effect on October 18, just as Greece prepared to ship 50 million tins to the United States.

The US is dependent on Greece’s tinned peaces in their supermarkets, hospitals, schools, and military. Many of these companies have stated they are not prepared to pay for any tariff increases, which would result in order cancellations of peaches from Greece.

“Suddenly there was this (trade) war … We could never imagine that this could affect our jobs here in this small area,” Apostolou said.

Greece have tailored their tinned products to suit their US’ packaging requirements, which means they cannot be sold in Europe, Asia or Latin America.

Industry experts predict the impact of Trump’s tariffs on Greece will be roughly $50 million.

These tariffs will directly impact Greece’s farmers, who harvest millions of peaches on 50,000 acres, housing 10,000 small farms and supporting around 10,000 workers.

Vasili’s Taxidi: Athena Cakes – Marrickville’s longest running cake shop

The Greek Herald
-
0
Vasili’s Taxidi: Athena Cakes – Marrickville’s longest running cake shop

By Vasilios Vasilas

What is interesting about shops and businesses that have been located at the same spot for decades is these shop and business owners have witnessed all the changes in their local area. They have seen shops and businesses come and go, the demographics change, and people’s attitudes and values change too. In the last fifty years, Marrickville has seen great developments and changes, and will continue to do so.

Just across the road from Danas Deli Café is Marrickville’s longest running cake shop, Athena Cake Shop, and talking to Efy Ahtypis (nee: Spyropoulos) of Athena Cake Shop, it is so fascinating to listen to her knowledge of the local area and its contemporary history.

Her father, Aristomenis Spyropoulos, had worked in Nikolaos Karavitis’ cake shop in Patra from the age of twelve; years later, Aristomenis and his wife, Athina, established their own cake shop, Astoria, in Nafpaktos.

As a young child, Efy migrated to Australia with her parents, Aristomenis and Athina, and brother, Kosmas, in 1969. Aristomenis’ first job was in the ‘Glass Factory’ and he also worked in an oil factory as well as the Hellenic Bakery (called Artos Bakery at the time).

Within two years, the Spyropoulos family bought their first home; within four years, they bought the premises, on Illawarra Road, Marrickville, to establish a cake shop. Aristomenis decided to call the cake shop, Athena Cakes, after his wife, Athina. When Kosmas and Efy became teenagers, they also helped their parents in this family buinsess.

Over forty- five years, Athena Cake Shop has been through a few renovations; Aristomenis and Athina retired; and, Efy and her husband, Christos, have been running the business since 1995.

But what has been truly amazing is the changes to Marrickville Efy and her family have experienced over the years, as she recounts the story of when Athena Cake Shop, local Australians at the time would pass the shop and ask Aristomenis if he had anything Australian so he would also make up ‘slabs’ of jam and cream and lamingtons to cater for their requests and tastes.

As Efy points out, ‘Nowadays, so many Australians come into the shop and they love the Greek sweets and savouries! It is rather amusing to hear them order a ‘baklava with custard’ (‘galaktobouriko’) and a ‘tiropita with spinach’ (spanakopita). And they love eating our mousaka! These days, people really want good quality food and our shop caters for this. Gone are the days (1980s) when people were rushing for cheap fast food… Our customers are looking for freshly baked food, with no preservatives…’

As I have been emphasising for some time now, it is shops and businesses such as Athena Cake Shop that has played an important role in maintaining our Greek identity and culture- through their vast array of sweets, biscuits and cakes; equally important is how Efy and her family have broadened the appeal of their recipes and products to influence Australian tastes and likes.

It is so important to highlight how so many Greek foods are now part of the Australian cuisine and it is fitting to pay tribute to shops such as Athena Cakes and its contribution towards this process and acceptance.

Greek-American shop owner uses Greek heritage as defence for tax fraud

The Greek Herald
-
0
Greek-American shop owner uses Greek heritage as defence for tax fraud

Emanuel Panousos aka Mike Panousos, a shop owner in Boston, USA, pleaded for leniency at his tax fraud sentencing at the US District Court because it “was simply his Greek way of doing business,” the Boston Herald reported.

Mr Panousos, 43, is the manager of Mike’s Famous Roast Beef and Pizza in Boston, USA.

During his sentencing, on November 5th, US District Judge Woodlock, rhetorically asked, “Is there a Greek family exception to income tax laws?”

Panousos reportedly “diverted cash receipts to himself and paid for his company’s supplies and portions of his employees’ wages with cash between 2013 and 2016, for an amount totaling approximately $1.9 million,” the Boston Herald reported, adding that “he pleaded guilty in May to two false tax return charges for avoiding $387,180 in taxes.”

His case included a mitigating letter from psychologist, Daniel Kriegman, which blamed Panousos’ behaviour on “his parents and brother, who were sentenced to probation last year for their own tax evasion scheme at their Peabody pizza restaurant,” the Boston Herald reported.

The letter wrote, “Did [Emanuel] know he was cheating on his taxes? Without question, but that was simply his Greek immigrant family’s way of doing business,” and citing a news article, wrote that the behaviour was “probably brought overseas from Greece, ‘a country where everyone knows a thousand ways around the rules.”

Judge Woodlock responded that the “inappropriate conclusions undermined the value of his letter,” the Boston Herald reported.

“I did not consider stereotypes of Greek families in fashioning [a] sentence,” the judge said.

Woodlock issued a lower end sentence of 21 to 27 month prosecutor recommendation, and ordered Panousos to pay a $7500 fine as well as the amount of owed taxes.

1...1,5501,5511,552...1,562Page 1,551 of 1,562

Stay connected:

Other

© 2024 The Greek Herald. All rights reserved.