Athens

Activists in Greece agitate for greater rights for gays

WorldFocus.org | WorldFocus.org | Posted 11.12.2009 | Home

Read More: Athens, Greece, Home News

A gay pride parade in Athens. Georgia Trismpioti is the Director of Amnesty International’s Greek division. Worldfocus producer Megan ...

Don't Believe Everything the Oracle Tells You

Michael Winship | Posted 11.10.2009 | Politics


Michael Winship

Instant analysis of election results from a handful of races in an off year election is not very significant one way or the other. We'd be wise not to buy into the tub-thumping or doomsaying of pundits posing as priestesses

Astoria Characters: The Madcap Moviemaker

Nancy Ruhling | Posted 11.02.2009 | New York


Nancy Ruhling

When the DVD starts, so does the laughter. Anastasios Makedon must have watched his first film a million times. But every time he sees it again, it cracks him up.

IOC members agonize over 2016 Olympic host city

AP | JOHN LEICESTER | Posted 10.01.2009 | Home


COPENHAGEN — The International Olympic Committee is familiar with tough decisions. It gambled by giving the games to Beijing and even turned down New York after 9/11.

But the race to host the 2016 games – pitting Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid – is still too close to call. Which means committee members will spend the next two days feeling like the most popular people on the planet.

Want to meet Michelle Obama? If you're on the committee and need a little pointer on which way to vote, it's not a problem. For added star power, the king of Spain, the president of Brazil and Oprah Winfrey have descended on Copenhagen.

Mrs. Obama, beating her husband to the Danish capital Wednesday, has a two-room suite in the IOC hotel, with cushy white leather furniture and an interactive table that, at the touch of a hand, shows how a Chicago Olympics might look.

The first lady went straight to work impressing the IOC, with plenty of attention to detail. To committee member Nicole Hoevertsz, appointed a day earlier as permanent secretary of Aruba's Council of Ministers, she offered congratulations on the new job.

IOC members agonize over 2016 Olympic host city

AP | JOHN LEICESTER | Posted 10.01.2009 | Home


COPENHAGEN — International Olympic Committee members were agonizing Wednesday over how to choose the host of the 2016 Games, with many said to be undecided just two days before the vote.

IOC members settling into their hotel in Copenhagen told The Associated Press that Tokyo, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Chicago are all capable of hosting the games and there is no clear favorite.

Samih Moudallal, an IOC member since 1998, said Friday's vote, when cities will be eliminated in successive rounds of secret balloting, will be like choosing between "four sons or your brothers."

"How do you choose between your brothers?" Moudallal told the AP, adding that he has yet to make his choice. "You have to use your mind and your heart together.

"It's a very difficult choice."

Pears: Gifts from the gods

Summit Daily News | Summit Daily | Posted 09.30.2009 | Home

Read More: Athens, Home News

Pears are prominent in Greek and Roman mythology, sacred to three goddesses: Hera (Juno to the Romans), Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans), and Pomona, a...

Greeks Lobby For Return Of Parthenon Marbles From UK (VIDEO)

World Focus | Lynn Sherr, Megan Thompson | Posted 09.18.2009 | World


Greece has been engaged in a long dispute over some of the world's most famous sculptures. The sculptures were taken from the Parthenon almost 200 y...

Greece: Fire Crews Scramble To Tame Blazes, Save Nuns

AP | NICHOLAS PAPHITIS | Posted 09.24.2009 | World


ATHENS, Greece — A massive wildfire that destroyed homes and forests receded Monday as a multinational airborne effort beat back flames that at ...

Thousands flee raging wildfires in Greece

AP | NICHOLAS PAPHITIS | Posted 09.23.2009 | Home


ATHENS, Greece — A partial drop in gale-force winds early Monday offered hard-pressed Greek firefighters a brief respite after wildfires raged u...

Discovering Greece: Thessaloniki is Cooler Than You

Ilana Teitelbaum | Posted 08.14.2009 | World


Ilana Teitelbaum

Thessaloniki is far from the classic tourist fantasy of Greece: there are no nearby islands, and Delphi and Athens are far away. But it is the country's cultural capital and the epitome of cool.

If We Ask Nicely, Can We Have Our Marbles Back?

Eleni Gage | Posted 07.23.2009 | World


Eleni Gage

The Greeks have been tripping all over themselves trying to be uncharacteristically polite, lest anyone think them rude because the New Acropolis Museum is also a reproach to the British Museum.

Fire engulfs landmark Georgia Theatre in Athens

AP | Posted 07.20.2009 | Home


ATHENS, Ga. — Police say a major fire has erupted at the landmark Georgia Theatre in Athens that has been a venue for Georgia bands including RE...

Life Choices Leading Area Man To Career In Self-Storage

The Onion | The Onion | Posted 06.14.2009 | Home

Read More: Athens, Home News

ATHENS, GA—Unbeknownst to struggling sculptor Thomas Cleary, 28, several of his life choices are inevitably leading him closer to a career......

Obama and the Perils of Gaza

Sandy Tolan | Posted 02.16.2009 | World


Sandy Tolan

Obama promised in his too-brief comments on Gaza that "after January 20th, I'll have plenty to say." Here's hoping he does, and that by the time he opens his mouth, it won't be too late.

Greek Airports Will Strike As Riots Continue

Telegraph | Oliver Smith | Posted 01.09.2009 | World


Hundreds of flights to and from Greece have been cancelled ahead of a 24-hour strike by air traffic controllers. The planned walk-out follows a thi...

Massive Riots Cripple Greece's Main Cities

AP | ELENA BECATOROS and DEREK GATOPOULOS | Posted 01.08.2009 | World


ATHENS, Greece — Gangs of youths smashed their way through central Athens and Thessaloniki on Monday, torching stores and buildings after the fa...

Riot Erupts In Central Athens

AP | DEMETRIS NELLAS | Posted 01.06.2009 | World


ATHENS, Greece — Hundreds of rioters fought pitched battles with police in two Greek cities Saturday night after an officer shot and killed a 16...

Deluxe of the Draw: R.E.M., Warren Zevon, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Juno

Mike Ragogna | Posted 12.25.2008 | Entertainment


Mike Ragogna

In case we didn't know the holiday season was fast approaching... a spate of CD box sets, hits compilations and expanded, Deluxe Editions of some of our favorite albums are usually tell-tale sign.

"There Are Tears in Things, and Mortality Touches the Mind"

Tim O'Reilly | Posted 11.18.2008 | Living


Tim O'Reilly

We visited the Athenian Agora and the Archaeological Museum, and in both places, it was the touch of mortality that brought the most significance to the day.

The Politics of Flattery

Edwin Eisendrath | Posted 10.11.2008 | Chicago


Edwin Eisendrath

The biggest question for Americans is not whether we like Barack or John, Sarah or Joe better. It is whether we have the character to recognize flattery when we hear it, and to stay focused on what matters.

John McCain is Sparta, Barack Obama is Athens

Richard Walden | Posted 10.06.2008 | Politics


Richard Walden

I found in the McCain-Palin speeches the clarion call for a modern day Sparta in their appeal to blind patriotism and triumphalism, and their manipulation of the least educated, most terrified among us.

Four Years Later, Athens' Olympic Investment Doesn't Pay Off

Christian Science Monitor | Nicole Itano | Posted 07.28.2008 | Home


Sprinklers still keep the grass at Greece's Olympic softball stadium green. But four years after the 2004 Games, it sits unused in the middle of a vas...