Worldcrunch
Greece’s anti-austerity party Syriza won Sunday’s general election with 36.3% of votes, putting the country on a potential collision course with the European Union over its 240 billion euro bailout package. Party leader Alexis Tsipras said that, “The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika the IMF, the EU Commission, and European Central Bank […]
Greece will vote in national legislative elections Sunday to choose its 300 members of parliament, after the ruling conservative coalition failed to maintain its parliamentary majority in December. And no, this is not your ordinary election. Polls suggest a victory of the radical left party, Syriza, with more than 30% of voting intentions, and stakes […]
The theater of Epidaurus is famous for its incredible acoustics. In the center of the picture, our guide is tearing up a piece of paper to prove it: Sitting midway to the top of the rows as we were, we heard it perfectly well.
Animosity towards immigrants is strong in Hungary. Controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban was particularly blunt during a recent television interview: “We don’t want immigrants in our country.” But it was also notable that Orban was speaking from Paris, where he participated in the Jan. 11 unity march after Islamist terrorists murdered members of the magazine […]
Driving on the rugged roads of Northern Greece in our valiant Simca Aronde, we stumbled upon a couple of quaint surprises — enormous piles of watermelons, for instance.
Back in the 1960s, many Greek widows, like these two in the northern Pindus mountains, still chose to dress in black for the rest of their lives after the death of their husbands. Nowadays the mourning period tends to be somewhat shorter, although traditionally not less than 40 days.
In the late 1990s, a group of Russian physicists settled on the Greek island of Gavdos. With the idea that they can program themselves not to die, they believe themselves immortal.
We had a friend take this family shot in the spectacular theater of Epidaurus, in the sanctuary of Asclepius. The place is impressive, but unlike the Ancient Theater of Orange in southern France, it’s missing its scaenae frons (its decorated rear wall). Too bad we missed Maria Callas by just a couple of years: The […]
In September 2011, in Thessaloniki, Greece, Apostolos Polyzonis set himself on fire outside his bank, which had refused to ease his debt payments. He survived, and so did his anger.
The sale of natural sponges from the Aegaen Sea has become highly regulated, meaning that sights like these must be pretty rare nowadays.
While European politicians have been hailing an economic uptick in the troubled Greek economy, Greeks themselves have yet to see any real signs of rebound. What explains the divide?
At the height of Greece’s economic crisis, Syntagma Square was the site of mass protests, but it is also where the presidential Evzones perform their peculiar changing of the guard. Watching their exaggerated movement as they marched around in kilt-like fustanella and red shoes with black pompoms was indeed a treat.
Black-and-white photos suit the ruggedness of life in Northern Greece’s Pindus mountains. Back in 1961, it certainly didn’t occur to me that one day I would be as old as these men — and yet I have now been retired for 23 years. But it hasn’t meant bench-sitting for me!
More than 61% of Greeks aged 25 or younger are unemployed amid the country’s economic crisis. They are educated and demoralized, writes one young woman lucky enough to have work.
In 1961, my wife Claudine could still walk freely inside the Parthenon — the world-famous temple on the Athenian Acropolis. Actually, we didn’t even have to pay an entrance fee. The government didn’t begin restoration efforts, at which point it limited tourist access, until 1975. Up until then, there were no fences around most ruins […]
A common archaeological theory holds that ancient Greeks threw their trash in the fields, which would explain the abundance of ceramic shards. But a dissenting narrative has emerged.
A boat filled with mostly Afghan immigrants was stopped and towed away by the Greece’s Coast Guard. But when the boat eventually sank, 11 people ended up dead. Survivors recount.
I took this picture during the first of our 11 trips to Greece. We had driven our Simca Aronde down through Italy, then onto the ferry that had just been inaugurated between the southern Italian port city of Brindisi and Igoumenitsa in Greece’s northwestern Epirus region. Then up to the mountains we drove: on narrow, […]
The comparisons to the present are striking: a 1830s Swiss banker who helped launch the newly formed nation of Greece on the back of credit it could never pay back.
Over the past week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted to the newest U.S. spy revelations that suggested her personal cell phone was targeted, and Pope Francis struck a strong note after the suspension of a bishop who lived a breathtakingly extravagant lifestyle. Meanwhile, the biological mother of the little Roma girl named Maria was found. […]
ATHENS — Over the past three years, the European country most affected by the global economic crisis is without doubt Greece. Today, almost six in 10 young people are unemployed, 58.8% of those under 24. Many have also moved abroad since the country has struggled to recover from the recession. The “troika” (the International Monetary […]
Greece has been repeatedly criticized for its treatment of undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. One its harshest detention centers in the city of Corinth, south of Athens.
–Op-Ed– MUNICH — We Germans have always struggled with the euro crisis. We talk about it a lot, muse about what would happen if the euro zone split up, bitch about those nasty countries frittering our money away. But there’s one thing we don’t do: suffer from the economic crisis. On the contrary. Even if […]
Known as sisa, this Greek methamphetamine-based concoction is spreading across the streets of Athens — the latest sign of the side effects of the economic crisis plaguing Greece.
By allowing a Greek elementary school to be opened the for first time in 49 years on Gökçeada — formerly Imbros — Turkey has raised hope among a nearly vanished Greek community.
While U Slept UKRAINE OFFERS AMNESTY TO PRO-RUSSIAN SEPARATISTS Ukraine’s Interim President Olexandr Turchynov offered amnesty to the pro-Russian militants occupying government buildings in eastern cities, provided they surrender their weapons and end their siege, AFP reports. This comes amid yesterday’s ultimatum issued by the country’s acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and as the standoff […]
Worldcrunch PARIS – On Friday, the European statistics agency Eurostat, released new European Union and euro zone unemployment figures from January, showing record highs. Here is a breakdown of the alarming numbers: – More than 26 million people unemployed in the 27-member European Union. – Almost 19 million unemployed in the 17-country euro zone. – […]
Meet Captain Fu, who runs the Piraeus Container Terminal, which has been owned since 2009 by Chinese giant Cosco. So far, at least, business has barely been touched by the Greek crisis.
THESSALONIKI – Great defender of bears and forests, a winemaker who left the family business to launch his own high-end wine – Iannis Boutaris was an eccentric businessman. Since 2010, he is the atypical mayor of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city with a population of 800,000. In his seventies, Iannis Boutaris wears colorful suspenders; tattoos, […]
Doctors are left “playing God,” having to choose which patient will get the costly treatment.
BBC, GUARDIAN (UK), DIE WELT, FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINER ZEITUNG (Germany), LES ECHOS (France) Worldcrunch ATHENS – Greek unions are staging “the mother of all strikes” as Parliament votes on another round of budget cuts, writes the Guardian. The bankrupt Greek government is facing a tough job: convince the Greek people that austerity measures are necessary. “This […]
BERLIN – The euro zone has granted Athens two more years to rein in its debt, Süddeutsche Zeitung has learned. Euro zone leaders have agreed to give Greece until 2016 instead of 2014 to push deficits down under to 3% of GDP. Deadlines for the implementation of employment and energy reforms and the selling of […]
LES ECHOS (France) Worldcrunch A study published this week by two economists for the German Bertelsmann Foundation says that if Greece defaults on its debts and leaves the euro zone, it would cost the world’s major economies 17.8 trillion euros by 2020, and cause a severe worldwide depression, reports French business newspaper Les Echos. Greece’s […]
REUTERS, KATHIMERINI (Greece) Worldcrunch ATHENS – For the second time in three weeks, crowds are gathering in central Athens today for marches against a new wave of spending and pension cuts. Trade union leaders says they hope to show EU leaders meeting in Brussels that a new round of austerity measures will only worsen the […]
ATHENS – Everyone knows that Greece’s debt is spiraling out of control, but few know that the country is an oil producer, though its production is minimal: 2,000 barrels a day – 0.5% of just its own needs. During the 1980’s, however, Greece produced 30,000 barrels a day – 12% of its consumption – through […]
ATHENS NEWS, ZOUGLA (Greece), FOCUS, DAS BILD, DER SPIEGEL, STERN (Germany) Worldcrunch ATHENS – German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Greece this morning to a welcome of police, protestors and armored cars, as well as a “wave of hatred,” reported German newsmagazine Stern, which also called Greece a Pleitestaat, or “broke” country. The Greek government […]
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, DPA, DAPD, HGN, WOJA (Germany) Worldcrunch ATHENS – Some 7,000 police, including reinforcements brought in from across Greece, will be ensuring extra-tight security during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first visit to Athens since the breakout of the financial crisis. The government fears the visit on Tuesday could unleash hostility from citizens who hold […]
-Analysis- MUNICH – Last month, for a moment, crisis-plagued European nations seemed to have reason to rejoice: Germany’s Constitutional Court had cleared the way for the European Stability Mechanism, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its plan for potentially unlimited purchases of government bonds in crisis countries, and the EU Commission laid out a new […]