Syntagma

Police shut down central avenues in the Greek capital on Monday morning as a two-day visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping got underway.

The road closures concern Syntagma square, the Presidential Mansion and the area around the Acropolis Hill.

The Syntagma metro station will remain closed and trains will pass through without stopping.

Radio Pepper Church Sessions presents Sugahspank! & The Swing Shoes, with special guest Moa Bones in an evening of swing numbers at Saint Paul's Anglican Church in Athens on Monday, November 11. Sugahspank! & The Swing Shoes have been collaborating since 2008, performing together at venues and festivals in Greece and abroad, and have released two albums together.

An annual parade by school children to mark Greece's rejection of an Italian ultimatum and its entry into World War II on October 28, 1941, was underway in central Athens on Monday.

The parade, which takes place in front of the Parliament on Syntagma Square, started at 11 a.m.. Streets in the surrounding area are closed to traffic until it is finished.

Three separate rallies held at different times of the day are expected to cause major traffic and public transportation problems in Athens and Thessaloniki on Thursday, as unions protest a government bill for boosting economic growth that is due to be ratified in Parliament.

Hundreds gathered at Athens' Syntagma Square on Wednesday for a concert featuring several popular acts, organized by the KETHEA rehabilitation network in protest at a government decision curbing its independence. [InTime News]

Greek neo-psychedelic act Whereswilder gets the Taste the Music program of experimental music under way at St Paul's Anglican Church on Thursday, October 10, with a show that will include selections from the Athens-based rock quartet's latest album and older work. The performance starts at 9 p.m.

"The tall doorman in the green suit" is how most people who work, live or frequently pass through Syntagma Square in downtown Athens know Dimitris Taktikos, even though they don't know his name. Taktikos has stood at his post in front of the elegant entrance of the Grande Bretagne for the past 35 years.

Transport authorities are mulling the reopening of the section of the Athens tram network that runs between the neighborhood of Neos Kosmos and downtown Syntagma Square which was suspended last October amid concerns that the ground beneath the tracks was at risk of subsiding.
According to officials, fears about the potential risks were exaggerated.

A pigeon drinks from a fountain in Syntagma Square, downtown Athens, on Friday, as daytime highs flirted with the 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) mark in many parts of the country.

Some 130 armed police officers will begin patrolling metro stations in Athens next week as part of the government's much-touted plan to restore law and order across the Greek capital.