Daily Archives: December 16, 2015

A Thessaloniki court on Tuesday handed down a six-month suspended prison sentence to a chestnut seller who was arrested last Friday in central Thessaloniki for trading without a license.

The 61-year-old told the court that he had been selling roast chestnuts off a cart for years in central Thessaloniki.

He said he had a five-year license which expired in 2007 and that he was unable to renew it due to financial constraints, noting that he has debts of 150,000 euros.

“I don’t want to have debts. I just want a license to sell chestnuts and make a living,” he said, adding that he has eight siblings.

The 61-year-old rebuffed claims that he verbally insulted the police officers who arrested him, claiming that he briefly fainted during the inspection but then followed the officers to the local precinct.

source:ekathimerini.com

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“Don’t make excessive demands of us,” stresses Nikola Poposki, foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), on the issue of Greece’s name dispute with its northern neighbor, ahead of a scheduled visit to Athens on Thursday. “We are both proud people,” he told Kathimerini in this interview translated into English from the Greek version, adding that the “conditions are more than ripe” for there to be a positive step toward a resolution of the dispute.

Poposki is expected in Athens following a visit to Skopje in July by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. It will be the first visit to Greece by a foreign minister or other high-ranking official from FYROM since Alexander Dimitrov’s in 2000.

“We have no intention to surprise – at least not negatively – but to express our earnest willingness and friendship,” he says about his visit, adding that Greece and FYROM are “on a very good path” in terms of mutual confidence building.

What can we expect from your visit to Athens? Is it a routine diplomatic mission to reciprocate the visit to Skopje by your Greek counterpart, or are the two sides preparing, shall we say, any surprises?

It is certainly not routine, since something like this has not happened in over a decade. There were no visits on an official bilateral level, as would befit neighbors. At the same time, at least from our side, we have no intention to surprise – at least not negatively – but want to express our honest intentions and friendship toward Greece. We will do our utmost to make our hosts feel this. There should be no animosity between us. In contrast, over the past 20 years it has become apparent that there is a lot in common between the two peoples. Particularly in terms of way of thinking and behavior, one could say we are first cousins. Maybe that’s why we get along so well in tourism, the economy and many other sectors, despite the crisis.

In your opinion, is the time ripe for real progress over the name dispute? Is your side willing to take a step away from its “red lines” if Athens does the same so that there can be a breakthrough?

I think the conditions are overripe, given that we’ve been waiting for more than two decades. As far as the differences are concerned, it is our firm belief that we have made a lot of compromises, from changing the constitution and the flag, to accepting the disrespectful temporary name at the UN, etc. On the other hand, the list of the concessions being demanded seems endless, while previous commitments, such as that there would be no obstacles to our bids for entry in NATO and the EU, are forgotten. The explanation we usually get is: We are in the club, while you want to join. You will pay a price, and as far as the cost goes, the sky is the limit. Honestly, we do not want to have such irrational differences with a neighbor, with whom we have the same strategic interests. This is why we are participating in the process. However, for there to be a successful outcome we need to feel that you are not making excessive demands of us. We are both proud nations. The happiness of the strongest should not be at the expense of his neighbor. What is encouraging, though, is that we agree on the benefits of a rapprochement in all the practical areas.

The confidence building measures (CBMs) that were agreed on are seen as the most important outcome of Kotzias’s visit to Skopje. The prevailing view, however, is that nothing has really happened since. Is that wrong?

There are ongoing talks between teams of the two foreign ministries, meetings with journalists of the two countries, joint initiatives of the academic communities and increased cooperation between the police forces of the two sides. Maybe those don’t have a lot of resonance with the public; this is not our objective, but rather whether they essentially contribute to increasing contacts and joint program. Personally I think we can do more and faster. However, building trust is essential. It appears that we are on the right path. We’ll see.

How is cooperation between the two countries over the refugee crisis? Could there be a common approach on this issue that would make it form the basis of a further improvement in relations?

From a strategic point of view we have a common goal and communication has improved. In the short term, though, Greece’s aim is for all the migrants to move on to Northern Europe as fast as possible and that means through our country. The reasoning is that Greece does not have unlimited resources and the inflow on the islands is constant. We understand that. Our duty, however, is not to take in more than we can record and ensure humane and safe transport through the European route. For this to work, we need a greater effort from Greece in registration and a European response, which can be implemented, in relation to long-term trends.

You have suggested in statements that Greece is not only doing nothing to prevent inflows from Turkey, but rather (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) allowing migrants to attack your border guards. What would you do differently, for example, to protect the entrance to the Aegean?

It is true that the Greek islands are in a vulnerable position. The inflows are very big and the question is whether Greece has the resources to manage this. I am convinced that it needs help and Turkey’s cooperation. However, Turkey also has a point when it says it has been responsible for over 2 million migrants in the past few years. This costs a lot of money and has certainly created tension. However, economic migrants are allowed to pelt our border guards with rocks from Greek territory without any measures to stop them as they attempt to force their way into Macedonia. This should not be allowed to happen.

Is your country facing a problem of Islamist extremism, as President Gjorge Ivanov suggested in recent statements? What is the situation as regards this issue?

It is, without doubt, a global threat. Macedonia is not immune from the dangers of religious extremism. Surely, though, this exists in most European countries. The fact that there are citizens of ours who incite, spread propaganda and even go to Syria to fight for Daesh [ISIS] is a cause for concern. These are young people who have grown up in our environment and reject the culture that we believe is widely accepted in Europe. Their views vary on whether they agree or not with the beheadings or terrorist attacks. We mustn’t be indifferent but we must also not paint everyone with the same brush on the basis of their religion alone. The majority of those suffering at the hands of the Muslim extremists – who are, as we speak, implementing their plan to form a state in Syria and Iraq – are probably Muslims themselves. It is essential that we are all united against this threat.

source:ekathimerini.com

Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns struggles to sleep at night due his role in concealing the child sex crimes of priests spanning decades, an inquiry has heard.

Retired Ballarat diocese priest John McKinnon, who still visits the terminally ill bishop at hospital, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Bishop Mulkearns was “profoundly sorry” for what “he had done” or failed to do.

“He says he struggles to sleep at night…he probably still struggles to sleep of a night and so these things now are on his mind but beyond that there wasn’t much more we could say,” Fr McKinnon said.

Fr McKinnon said he had re-established contact with the bishop in the last two years as he became gravely ill with cancer.

He told the inquiry the two don’t often discuss Bishop Mulkearns’s role in covering up decades of child sex abuse but he knew had remorse for failing to act.

“His memory is worse than mine.. so it was useless doing it…he didn’t remember ,” Fr McKinnon told the inquiry. “We don’t talk about it.”

Fr McKinnon told the inquiry Bishop Mulkearns always stressed the importance of confidentiality of priests, but admitted there was a time when his protection of priests became “destructive.”

The inquiry also heard Bishop Mulkearns was “very reluctant” to mention the paedophilia of a priest.

“He just didn’t do it, unless it was public knowledge,” Fr McKinnon said.

Fr McKinnon said he took responsibility for not asking more questions when he suspected a priest was molesting children.

“We should have asked more questions,” he said.

Bishop Mulkearns is receiving palliative care and is unfit to give evidence at the inquiry.

The hearing continues.

source:theherald.com.au

Grace Parker was sick of her family car breaking down – so she took matters into her own hands and enrolled in automotive studies as part of her HSC.

Self-confessed city girl Mala Rigby’s love of animals drew her to agriculture and Claudia Nielsen, a rising hockey star who hopes for a career in science, was attracted to the practical side of primary industries.

The trio helped girls increase their reign over boys in this year’s HSC results, with females blitzing subjects traditionally dominated by males as well as making a clean sweep of the history and English courses.

At the prestigious First in Course ceremony on Tuesday, 82 girls, including Grace, Mala and Claudia, and 34 boys were recognised for topping the state in at least one of their subjects.

This year, 116 students from 81 schools received First in Course awards, including six students who topped two courses.

Sophia Henning, from Presbyterian Ladies’ College Sydney, was first in ancient history, while Pola Cohen, from Sydney Girls’ High, topped history extension and Caitlin Semsarian, from St George Girls High, came first in modern history.

Girls from Cherrybrook Technology High, St Francis De Sales Regional College, North Sydney Girls and Northern Beaches Secondary College Freshwater Senior Campus topped the five English courses.

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“Yet again, the girls have well and truly outperformed the boys, it is about a 70/30 split in terms of girls who have topped courses as opposed to boys,” said NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli.

“Girls have done very well in languages, as they have done over the past years, and we have girls topping what would be historically, but fortunately no longer, male-dominated courses including subjects like agriculture.”

The president of the NSW Board of Studies, Tom Alegounarias, said boys were still strong performers in maths and science.

“I can say that broadly in STEM males still dominate, but the gap is closing and the margin is one now that you cannot say there is a subject that is inherently better suited to females or males,” Mr Alegounarias said

The top students recognised on Tuesday will be joined by about 70,000 students who will receive their HSC results online or via SMS from 6am on Wednesday. The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is released on Thursday at 9am.

Mala, 18, from Pymble Ladies’ College, fell in love with agriculture after spending some time working on her north shore school’s small farming plot.

“As a Sydney girl, studying agriculture really made me see the skill involved and showed me just how important agriculture is,” Mala said.

For Claudia, the top student in primary industries, the subject is a family affair. Her dad, Geoff, was her primary industries teacher at Calrossy Anglican School in Tamworth while her mother, Bronwyn, was her agriculture teacher at the school.

A talented hockey player, Claudia, 18, hopes to spend next year at the Australian Institute of Sport before studying science at the University of Western Australia the following year.

Grace, who already has an offer to study international studies at Wollongong University, said she would love to continue her passion for repairing cars.

“I’d love to be a mechanic, I see so many females get ripped off by mechanics because the men think they don’t know what they are talking about,” Grace, 18, from Dubbo, said. “If females knew what mechanics were up to, it would be a whole different game.

“It’s not about a woman’s revolution, it’s about giving women the same opportunities.”

source:theherald.com.au