News archive of June 2017

The first half of the year has just ended with the main index of the Athens stock market adding a remarkable 27.98 percent in that period, thanks to five consecutive months of growth (unseen since late 2013) capped by a 6.26 percent rise in June.

Messinia will take your breath away. This land filled with contrasts and welcoming inhabitants is only two hours drive away from Athens. See its vast olive groves, green valleys, mountains, gorges and coves.

Jason Becker, the guitarist/composer who has had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) for over 27 years, has taken to Facebook to speak out against the Senate health care bill.

Police guards have been posted in churches across Xanthi in northeastern Greece to deal with beggars that "harass" parishioners asking for money.

Local church councils asked for a "discreet" police presence after a proliferation of incidents involving Roma people from local areas as well as southern Bulgaria.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday threw his support behind outspoken Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis after the latter criticized a recent court decision that essentially thwarts the government's hopes of securing a windfall from tax audit revenues.

A woman takes a break from the heat under the shade of a tree in central Athens on Friday as Greece struggled with the summer's first heat wave. The National Observatory of Athens said the highest temperatures yesterday at 3 p.m.

Acknowledging that there is still a lot of work to be done, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joined the ongoing Cyprus talks on Friday at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana and urged Greek and Turkish Cypriots to seize what he described as a "historic opportunity" for a deal.

As official figures point to a significant increase in undocumented migrants seeking to enter the European Union, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday described Greece and Italy as "heroic" in their efforts to tackle the problem and pledged additional European support.

Actress-turned-politician Lydia Koniordou was impressively quick in adapting to her role as culture minister - at least as far as she's concerned, because she doesn't seem to have learned much about the actual job itself.

Greece must be among the few countries in the world (if not the only one) where the process of national university entrance exams is such a big deal, and is presented as front-page news by all of the media.