Latest News from Greece
Historic Easter Saturday Orthodox mass in Izmir after 93 years!
Holy Saturday, or the Great Sabbath, was celebrated in an Orthodox Church in Izmir over the weekend for the first time in 93 years, with the iconic liturgy taking place at the preserved and renovated St. Voukolos (Agia Vukla) Cathedral.
On Greek island, rockets mark Orthodox Easter
It's pure rocket science, and residents of this Greek island village love it.
While church bells ring in Orthodox Easter, thousands of homemade rockets streak across the night sky of the Aegean island of Chios as rival Vrontados parishioners target each other's church towers in a traditional, once-a-year mock war.
Greece may have blown best hope of debt deal
By Paul Taylor
Even if it survives the next three months teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Greece may have blown its best chance of a long-term debt deal by alienating its eurozone partners when it most needed their support.
Turkey detains 134 people for illegal entry
Some 134 people have been detained by security forces in Turkey for illegally entering the country and trying to cross into neighboring Bulgaria, Greece and Syria, officials have stated.
Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter 2015 in Turkey
Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter with masses in churches across Turkey and the world April 12, commemorating the day followers believe Jesus was resurrected 2,000 years ago.
Roman Catholics and Protestants marked Easter on April 5, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Eastern Orthodox churches celebrated Easter on April 12 using the older Julian calendar.
Reuters: Greek govt may have blown best chance for debt deal
Reuters business writer Paul Taylor takes a dim view of the Greek leftist government’s first months in power, and especially its dealing with its EZ creditors, saying a lack of credibility on the part of the SYRIZA government means a deal on the debt now appears as impossible.
Lagarde: The weight of the crisis was borne by the lower and middle classes
IMF Director Christine Lagarde gave an interview to seven European newspapers, one of which was Italian “La Repubblica”.
Lagarde stated that she is worried by the medium-term prospects of the Greek economy. She underlined that there is yet a lot of work to be done and a spirit of cooperation will need to be the prevailing force to drive reforms forward.
A royal Easter for the Glicksbergs on the isle of Spetses (photos)
Greece's former king Constantine Glicksberg spent Easter at the Holy Church of St. Nicholas on the isle of Spetses. He was with his wife Anna Maria and his son Nicholas and his wife Tatiana Blatnik.
'Civil war' brewing over disputed Greek goldmine
Scrawled on the homes of the village of Megali Panagia in northern Greece are slogans emblematic of the deep rift caused in this society by a controversial Canadian gold mining project.
"Goldmines are a curse for every nation," reads one -- others are more profane.
Greek finance ministry hits back at German newspaper report
Greece's finance ministry dismissed on Sunday a report by a German newspaper which said that euro zone officials were shocked at Greece's failure to outline plans for structural reforms at last week's talks in Brussels.
Greek church offers up property to help Athens raise funds for debt
By Karolina Tagaris
The head of Greece's Orthodox Church said on Saturday it was willing to put property it owns up for development to help raise money to repay the country's debt.
The Orthodox Church is a powerful institution in Greece and owns more land than anyone except the state, including prime real estate in Athens.
Eurogroup wants Greece's list of reforms by April 20, says FAZ report
The European Union has given Greece up to April 20 to present a list of reforms which, if found acceptable, would unlock the final tranche of aid funds promised under a multi-billion-euro bailout, a German newspaper reported.
Police seeking to dismantle global migrant trafficking ring
Police said on Saturday they were continuing an investigation to dismantle an international migrant trafficking ring. Two Greek nationals aged, 54 and 57 years, two Italians aged 55 and 47 years, and a Turk, 43, were arrested while allegedly attempting to transport 54 irregular migrants from the small western port of Astakos to Italy for 135,000 euros.
Eurozone's officials shocked by Greece's stance, says German newspaper
By Madeline Chambers
Eurozone officials were shocked at Greece's failure to outline plans for structural reforms at last week's talks in Brussels, a German newspaper on Saturday cited participants as saying, adding the Greek representative behaved like a "taxi driver".
Easter travelers not deterred by bad weather
The weather forecasts predicted clouds and rain but hundreds of thousands of cars left Greek cities to spend the Easter holiday with their families. Athens exits noted that traffic was at a similar level to that of previous years, falling by just 1% to last year but still significantly lower to pre-crisis levels in 2009.