Daily Archives: April 28, 2015

Authorities in Athens were searching on Monday for Ani Borisova, a 4-year-old Bulgarian girl who allegedly went missing in the area of Omonia, central Athens, on April 21.

The girl was reported missing by her 24-year-old mother, who testified that she had asked a 23-year-old friend to take care of her daughter while she traveled to Sofia on an emergency visit.

According to the girl’s mother, her friend called her on April 21 and told her that the child had gone missing during a walk.

According to the 24-year-old’s testimony, her friend’s mobile phone was no longer in service following that call and the child’s mother was unable to contact her again.

The woman reportedly returned from Bulgaria by road on April 23 and reported her daughter’s disappearance the following day.

Authorities noted that the 24-year-old had been staying with an elderly man in Athens, while her daughter had only arrived in Greece a few weeks ago.

source:ekathimerini.com

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos on Monday bestowed a medal on army sergeant Antonis Deligiorgis for his role in the rescue of 90 undocumented migrants whose boat crashed into rocks off the coast of Rhodes last Monday.

Deligiorgis was notably distinguished for saving 20 people single-handedly, among them a pregnant woman from Eritrea, who gave birth to a healthy boy on Friday, naming him Antonis after her rescuer.

Footage of Deligiorgis carrying migrants from the sinking wreckage was aired around the world last week.

“Without really giving it a second’s thought, I did what I had to do… I had taken off my shirt and was in the water,” the 34-year-old told the UK’s Guardian.

source:ekathimerini.com

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became embroiled with a war of words with the newly elected leader of northern Cyprus on Monday, bluntly telling him he should be careful what says.

Mustafa Akinci, who won a run-off poll in the Turkish-occupied north of the divided island on Sunday, drew Ankara’s ire when he said Turkey and the breakaway state should enjoy a relationship of “brotherly countries” rather than mother and child.

The election of Akinci, a former mayor of northern Nicosia and a vocal advocate of reconciliation with the internationally recognized Cyprus government, has raised hopes of an end to the island’s decades-long division.

But Erdogan told reporters at an Ankara airport: “Mr president (Akinci) should listen to what he says.”

Turkey, the only country to recognize the breakaway state, has often referred to it as the “yavru vatan” or “baby homeland” — a label rejected by some Turkish Cypriots.

Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus in 1974 and Turkish Cypriots declared their breakaway state in 1983.

“This country has paid a price in northern Cyprus and continues to do so,” Erdogan said, adding that Turkey contributes about one billion dollars (900 million euros) to the north.

The failure to reach a deal to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island has also hampered Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union.

Speaking to CNN-Turk television, Akinci said he was seeking a “healthy relationship” with Ankara, not tensions.

“There is no hostility against Turkey here,” he said. “Doesn’t Turkey want to see its baby grow up”.

source: ekathimerini.com

Alternate Foreign Minister for International Economic Relations Euclid Tsakalotos arrives at the Finance Ministry in Athens on Monday evening.

 The government on Monday announced a shake-up of the team negotiating with the country’s international creditors, after Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis came under fierce criticism from his eurozone peers at a summit in Riga last week due to a lack of progress. Authorities also heralded a multi-bill that is to feature a batch of reforms that the government hopes it can pass through Parliament to secure the release of much-needed rescue loans.

The overhaul was announced by the office of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who, it appears, is keen to speed up the pace of negotiations with creditors as Greek coffers run low. Tsipras agreed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a phone conversation late on Sunday, to speak more regularly over the coming days in a bid to reach a deal. The shake-up involves the creation of a new “political negotiation team” which is to be “coordinated” by Alternate Foreign Minister Euclid Tsakalotos under Varoufakis’s leadership. The move was widely seen as an attempt to sideline Varoufakis, who came under heavy criticism in Riga by his eurozone peers last week. But Tsipras’s office stressed that Varoufakis enjoyed the government’s full support and that the minister had been “systematically targeted by the international press.”

The response from abroad was mixed, with some appearing confused about the practical impact of the overhaul while others appeared to welcome the change.

The overhaul also foresees the Finance Ministry’s general secretary, Nikos Theoharakis, who has been leading talks with the so-called Brussels Group, undertaking the drafting of a growth strategy to form the basis of a new deal with creditors in June. Giorgos Houliarakis, who has been involved in negotiations, is to take over from Theoharakis in leading talks at the technical level. Meanwhile, a new team has been set up to “better support” technical-level representatives of Greece’s creditors in their efforts to get official data from Greek ministries.

Shortly after being appointed to his new post, Tsakalotos clashed in Parliament with New Democracy MP Adonis Georgiadis, who accused the government of overhauling the negotiation team due to Varoufakis’s failings. “When you negotiate you make mistakes, when you don’t negotiate you don’t make mistakes,” Tsakalotos said. “We learn from our mistakes and constantly make improvements.”

Later in the day, Tsakalotos and Varoufakis both attended the new negotiating team’s first session, which discussed drafting legislation to include a batch of reforms from the so-called “Varoufakis list.” The reforms include “fiscal issues, tax administration, the auction of frequencies for TV channels, taxation of TV commercials and administrative reform,” according to a Finance Ministry statement.

Commenting later, Varoufakis said the multi-bill will be discussed by the cabinet on Thursday. “The bill includes our own initiatives and I hope they will be agreed,” he said. Tsakalotos said the provisions of the bill would be on “issues that we believe can pass through the parliamentary group or the cabinet.” Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis said a deal should be reached by “early May or – why not? – the end of April.”

source:ekathimerini.com