Summer Olympics

New land registry offices in the inner Athens suburb of Galatsi have boosted a slow-moving process to establish a Greek cadastre but still only a fraction of properties have been declared.
According to the latest official data, just 7 percent of all property rights have been declared so far - some 700,000 declarations - with 13 percent of all declarations submitted online.

People fill in documents to register their assets at the new land registry offices in the northern Athens suburb of Galatsi, Friday. Officials hope that the new center, originally built to host gymnastics events during the 2004 Olympics, will help speed up the process to compile a nationwide database by 2021. [Reuters]

An official cleans the parabolic mirror during a ceremony on Wednesday at the capital's Zappeion Hall to light the Olympic flame ahead of the Abu Dhabi Special Olympics, which start on March 14. After the ceremony, a torch relay was to take the flame to the Abu Dhabi Embassy via a series of historic and cultural landmarks.

Award-winning Greek composer Vangelis has not only found himself in the lofty company of Giacomo Puccini, Gustav Holst and Maurice Ravel, but has also knocked them out of the park after his emblematic theme song "Chariots of Fire" was voted by listeners of the UK's Classic FM as the top selection in the Sporting Music Countdown.

Young athletes hold the Argentinean and Olympic flags during the lighting ceremony for the flame that will travel to the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympics (October 1-6), at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens Tuesday. The ceremony was shorter than usual as a mark of respect for those who died in the wildfires near Athens.

Veteran rockers the Scorpions bring their Crazy World Tour to Greece this summer. The legendary German band, which has a huge fan base in Greece, will play for the first time at the Panathenaic Stadium, the historic venue where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.

Momix, an American troupe that bridges dance, acrobatics, theater, film and special effects, celebrates its 35th anniversary with a new spectacular titled "Viva Momix" and will be appearing at the Athens Concert Hall.

The ministries of Finance and Environment have given their nod for the commercial utilization of the International Broadcasting Center, built for use during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in Maroussi. The ministries have approved the activities that feature in Lamda Development's investment plan and the environmental terms, opening the way for the utilization of the entire property.

Esther Qin and Georgia Sheehan snatched women's 3m synchro springboard gold after a rival Aussie pair crashed from first place to last with a disastrous final dive at the Commonwealth Games on April 11.

A group of Chinese Buddhist monks who helped inaugurate the 2008 Beijing Olympics with their jaw-dropping combination of martial arts, theater and dance, are coming to Athens's Faliro Indoor Arena for two shows on Saturday, March 31. Requiring dexterity, endurance and discipline, the show relates the history of the 1,500-year-old temple where the Shaolin hail from.