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blog

Extra! Tsipras Blasts Sanctions Against Russia

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H Efimerida ton Sintakton, April 9, 2015

Before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Wednesday, European commentators warned that Greece could become Russia's "Trojan horse" against Brussels. But Greek newspaper H Efimerida ton Sintakton instead described the "revival of Greek-Russian relations" as a "historic opportunity for the two countries" on the front page of its Thursday edition.

Tsipras sought no financial assistance from Moscow, although his cash-strapped country is due to make a $485 million payment to the International Monetary Fund on Thursday. The solution to his country's financial woes "should be European," he said. He blasted European sanctions against Russia, in large part because Greece eager to resume agriculture exports there.

Talks between the two leaders focused on gas and energy, with a joint project to build a Greek extension to the Turkish Stream pipeline project, which could see Russian gas transported to Europe via Greece.

For more coverage of the Greek crisis, read this article from L'Obs/Worldcrunch, Why Syriza's Pledge To Tax Greece's Rich Could Backfire.

ABOUT THE SOURCE: H Efimerida ton Sintakton (The Journal of Journalists) is a pro-government newspaper founded in November 2012.

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Society

A Refuge From China's Rat Race: The Young People Flocking To Buddhist Monasteries

Unemployment, stress in the workplace, economic difficulties: more and more young Chinese graduates are flocking to monasteries to find "another school of life."

Photograph of a girl praying at a temple during Chinese Lunar New Year. She is burning incense.

Feb 20, 2015 - Huaibei, China - Chinese worshippers pray at a temple during the Lunar New Yeat

CPRESSPHOTO/ZUMA
Frédéric Schaeffer

JIAXING — It's already dawn at Xianghai Temple when Lin, 26, goes to the Hall of 10,000 Buddhas for the 5:30 a.m. prayer.

Still half-asleep, the young woman joins the monks in chanting mantras and reciting sacred texts for an hour. Kneeling, she bows three times to Vairocana, also known as the Great Sun Buddha, who dominates the 42-meter-high hall representing the cosmos.

Before grabbing a vegetarian breakfast in the adjacent refectory, monks and devotees chant around the hall to the sound of drums and gongs.

"I resigned last October from the e-commerce company where I had been working for the past two years in Nanjing, and joined the temple in January, where I am now a volunteer in residence," explains the young woman, soberly dressed in black pants and a cream linen jacket.

Located in the city of Jiaxing, over a hundred kilometers from Shanghai, in eastern China, the Xianghai temple is home to some 20 permanent volunteers.

Unlike Lin, most of them only stay for a couple days or a few weeks. But for Lin, who spends most of her free time studying Buddhist texts in the temple library, the change in her life has been radical. "I used to do the same job every day, sometimes until very late at night, writing all kinds of reports for my boss. I was exhausted physically and mentally. I felt my life had no meaning," she says.

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