Monthly Archives: March 2016

Εικάζεται ότι ανήκουν στην πτήση MH370 των Μαλαισιανών Αερογραμμών.

Στην Αυστραλία έφτασαν για ανάλυση τα δύο συντρίμμια που βρέθηκαν στη Μοζαμβίκη και εικάζεται ότι ανήκουν στην πτήση MH370 των Μαλαισιανών Αερογραμμών.

Το ένα από τα δύο συντρίμμια βρέθηκε σε μια αμμουδιά από έναν Αμερικανό ερευνητή ΗΠΑ στα τέλη Φεβρουαρίου και το άλλο τον Δεκέμβριο από έναν Νοτιοαφρικανό τουρίστα.

Η πτήση MH370 εξαφανίστηκε τον Μάρτιο του 2014, ενώ κατευθυνόταν στην Κουάλα Λουμπούρ και μετέφερε 239 επιβάτες.

Παρά την τεράστια έρευνα που έχει διεξαχθεί μόνο ένα επιβεβαιωμένο κομμάτι του αεροπλάνου έχει βρεθεί.

Η Αυστραλή υπουργός Μεταφορών επιβεβαίωσε στο BBC ότι την Κυριακή η χώρα έλαβε τα συντρίμμια από τη Μοζαμβίκη και ότι αναμένεται να συνεργαστεί με την ερευνητική ομάδα της Μαλαισίας για να οδηγηθεί σε ένα ασφαλές συμπέρασμα.

Ο υπουργός Μεταφορών της Μαλαισίας είχε, επίσης, δηλώσει, ότι υπάρχει «μεγάλη πιθανότητα» τα συντρίμμια που βρέθηκαν τον Φεβρουάριο να προέρχονται από ένα αεροπλάνο τύπου Boeing 777, όπως ήταν και αυτό της χαμένης πτήσης MH370.

Πηγή:Νέος Κόσμος

Once every few years, however, the days coincide, but this is the exception and not the rule

By now it’s likely you’ve realised that Greek Easter doesn’t usually fall on the same day as everyone else’s.

This year Orthodox Easter falls on 1 May while every other Christian is celebrating Easter tomorrow, and there’s a good reason for that.

The Orthodox Christian Church calculates the date of Easter differently to other Christian denominations; it’s not merely done to confuse everyone. But every now and then, the two methods result in both Easters falling on the same date.

In the case of the Greek Church, they go by the Julian calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar. This is the calendar that was officially implemented by Julius Caesar and was in use primarily between 45BC and AD1582, and was therefore used when the Orthodox Church was initially set up. Though much of the world now uses the Gregorian calendar, which replaced the Julian calendar, the custom has remained to use it to calculate the date of Easter, which is one of the reasons why Orthodox Easter often falls on a different date.

After the 40 days of Lent, Orthodox Christians celebrate Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday. When Jesus first arrived in Jerusalem, he was hailed as a king, and this is the occasion honoured during Palm Sunday. As the events of Holy Week unfold, Orthodox Christians commemorate the events that led up to his arrest, execution, and then his resurrection.

In the Bible, all of these events took place after Passover. There is some debate among scholars as to whether or not the Last Supper was actually a Passover meal. However, in the Orthodox Church, it is acknowledged that Jesus and his disciples shared this Passover meal together.

Through this meal, Jesus established the Holy Eucharist, thus transforming the custom from a Jewish one to a Christian one. As you may recall, this meal happened shortly before Jesus was arrested. Judas sat at that supper table knowing that he had betrayed Jesus and that his arrest was inevitable.

Note that Passover falls at a different time each year, which is another reason why the date for Easter varies.

Another important element to calculating Greek Easter is the autumn equinox. Generally, the date for Easter is set on the first full moon after both the autumn equinox and Passover. Each year, the date of the autumn equinox in the Julian calendar is slightly different, usually falling somewhere in the third week of March. However, since it differs each year, it can also affect when Greek Easter falls.

With all this in mind, it’s easy to see why calculating the date of Greek Easter can be a difficult task and is the main reason why Eastern and Western Easter often fall on different days.

Once every few years, however, the days coincide, but this is the exception and not the rule.

Source: GreekBoston.com

Following the news of Johan Cruyff’s death, NOS published a previous interview with current Bayern Munich manager and former Barcelona star Pep Guardiola speaking about Johan Cruyff.

When he was Barcelona coach, Guardiola said on Cruyff, “Johan is the most influential person in European football in the last 40 or 50 years there is no single person who has changed the mentality and style of play of two impressive clubs such as Ajax & FC Barcelona such as him. Johan made as massive contribution as a player and manager at both clubs.”

”The current Barcelona team that has dominated European and World football the last 15 years cannot be separated by the arrival of Johan Cruyff.

“Would we be able to understand the current Barcelona style of play without Cruyff? Impossible. Naturally we have players such as Messi , Xavi and Iniesta but they are attached to the idea that Johan Cruyff set up.

”There is nobody who has given so much as a player and a manager Johan changed the mentality of Barcelona and Catalonia and the Spanish league. He helped us to understand the game more.

”Yes we appreciate him for the trophies that he won us and there are also other managers that have won more in their career than him for example me, Capello, Sacchi and Mourinho we become judged on the trophies that we win but for him it is his legacy with his style of play that he set up.

”You come somewhere and introduce an idea and maintain it for 20 years that can only be the work of an absolute genius with a strong idea of where you want to go and even in the bad times to continue to play the same way.

”It is thanks to Johan Cruyff that Barcelona are where they are today also the influence that he had on me in my career as a footballer he was one of the most important people in my life on a professional level.

“He was generous in about thinking of others and dedicating his time to them in terms of his knowledge and opinion. I have been very lucky to have him as my manager and a friend ”.

source:football-oranje.com

Under pressure cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos has publicly lashed out at the NSW Electoral Commission over a political donations scandal, branding as “flawed” its report into the illegal funnelling of donations to the state Liberal Party.

As Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull came under pressure to stand down his cabinet secretary, Senator Sinodinos said his lawyers had demanded it “immediately retract all references to me in the publication”.

It was an escalation of the dispute, following the damning finding by the NSW Electoral Commission against the NSW party at a time when Senator Sinodinos was its finance director.

The scandal pitted Premier Mike Baird against his own party office on Thursday, after he called on it to “cop it on the chin” and accede to the commission’s demand for it to disclose who donated $693,000 via the controversial Free Enterprise Foundation before the 2011 state election.

Mr Baird said he had spoken to NSW Liberal state director Chris Stone and told him the Liberal Party “should comply”.

“It’s very clear that it looks like we have done the wrong thing, so we have to cop it on the chin, and we need to get on with it,” he said.

Later, Mr Stone said he had written to the electoral commission “seeking their assistance in resolving any areas of uncertainty about the legal status of donors in the 2010/2011 period so as to comply with our obligations.”

However, it remains unclear if the party will agree to disclose the names of the donors as the commission has demanded.

Mr Stone said the NSW party had been waiting for the Independent Commission Against Corruption to deliver its findings in Operation Spicer during which the donations issue came to light.

The call for Senator Sinodinos to stand aside came after the NSW Liberal party was slammed by the state Electoral Commission for “concealing” the identities of major donors before the 2011 state poll, including via the secretive Free Enterprise Foundation.

The commission said that, based on evidence given to ICAC during Operation Spicer in 2014, the federally registered foundation was used by senior NSW Liberal party officials to “channel and disguise donations by major political donors some of whom were prohibited donors”.

The commission said it had relied on evidence given to ICAC by senior party officials including about the “involvement” of members of the then NSW Liberal finance committee, which included Senator Sinodinos.

Senator Sinodinos was finance director and treasurer of the NSW Liberals at the time but has previously denied any knowledge of the use of the Free Enterprise Foundation to circumvent state donations laws to funnel property developer and other illegal donations into the campaign.

The NSW Liberals refusal to formally disclose the names of the donors led the commission to withhold $4.4 million in campaign and administrative funding claimed by the NSW Liberals from the 2015 state election. It has also frozen future public funding to the division until it complies.

The commission is unable to prosecute the party for not filing a “requisite declaration” containing the donor details due to a three-year statute of limitations on the offence, which occurred in 2011.

Acting shadow attorney-general Brendan O’Connor called on Senator Sinodinos to stand aside following the commission’s “extraordinary finding”.

Mr O’Connor said “it beggars belief that he has no role in this at all. It doesn’t pass the pub test that somehow all of this happened and he’s oblivious to all of it”.

But a spokesman for Mr Turnbull – who recently promoted Senator Sinodinos to cabinet secretary after former prime minister Tony Abbott stood him aside amid a separate ICAC investigation in 2014 – declined to comment.

Mr Sinodinos said he had “no role in the NSW Division’s decision to decline to update information disclosed in [its donations declaration], as was requested by the Commission”.
source:smh.com.au

Two pieces of debris found in Mozambique are ‘almost certainly’ from missing flight MH370, the federal government has confirmed.

One of the pieces, stamped with ‘676EB’, was found in December but initially dismissed as rubbish and only reported to authorities earlier this month, prompted by media reports of the other piece, which has the words ‘NO STEP’ on it.

The pieces arrived in Canberra for testing four days ago and on Thursday, Transport Minister Darren Chester said investigators had concluded they were consistent with panels from a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft.

Mr Chester said investigators remained hopeful the aircraft would be found.’The analysis has concluded the debris is almost certainly from MH370,’ Mr Chester said.

He said finding the objects on the east coast of Africa was consistent with modelling of debris drifting from the search area in the southern Indian Ocean.

Authorities remain certain they area searching in the right area for the plane which disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board, including six Australians.

So far only a piece of wing, known as a flaperon, discovered in July on the island of Reunion, has been confirmed as being from the missing jetliner.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau commissioner Martin Dolan told AAP earlier this month pieces could take that long to make it across the sea because the rate of drift and, to some extent, the direction depended on how much of the object was sticking up above the waves.

An ATSB spokesman confirmed the governments of Malaysia, Australia and China remain of the view the search area will not be expanded beyond the current 120,000sq km zone in the absence of credible new information.

Just over 20 per cent or 25,000sq km of the underwater search area is yet to be combed, with completion estimated as mid-year.Mr Dolan also recently told AAP the area would not be re-scoured as he had confidence in the quality of the work, which was being done by the world’s best sonar experts.

Another object found on the shores of Reunion earlier this month by the same member of a beach clean-up crew who found the flaperon was last week deemed unlikely as being from MH370.

Mr Dolan also flagged on March 10 the possibility of debris being found in South Africa, 12 days before the Malaysian transport minister announced an object had been discovered near the town of Mossell Bay.

The minister said it could be from an inlet cowling of an aircraft engine.A spokeswoman for the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, which is organising the search off the West Australian coast, said the authenticity of photos in media about the South African find, showing an object with part of a Rolls Royce logo, could not be confirmed.

source:skynews.com.au

IN the hours before he was brutally murdered, Robert Pashkuss was spotted “waving his arms around” in a “heated and agitated discussion” with three men at his Caves Beach home, a coronial inquest has heard.

Mr Pashkuss, 51, and his 41-year-old partner Stacey McMaugh were bludgeoned to death inside their Macquarie Grove home sometime between 10.10pm on January 5, 2008 and 11am the following day.

The inquest heard Mr Pashkuss’ murder is more than likely to have been related to his drug dealing activities, while his partner, a lauded community volunteer, was a “completely innocent bystander”, who may have been murdered because she could identify the killers.

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer said Mr Pashkuss was a small-time cannabis dealer who hadn’t come to the attention of police for more than 20 years.

She said he had sold ice for a “relatively short time” and may have been murdered because he had wanted to move away from selling the substance in the month before his death.

Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon also heard Mr Pashkuss more than likely knew his killers and was comfortable enough to turn his back on them before he suffered at least eight heavy blows with a metal object.

While, Mr Pashkuss was killed in the kitchen, possibly while doing the dishes, Ms McMaugh suffered a similar fate while lying in bed.

Ms Dwyer said the house was always locked and Mr Pashkuss never sold drugs from home after about 8.30pm.

“This suggests that the person or persons who killed Robert and Stacey are likely to have known Robert for Robert to have let them into the house and particularly for Robert to have turned his back on them at the time of his death,” Ms Dwyer said.

See your ad here
Ms Dwyer also publicly named four men who may be able to assist with the investigation.

Andrew Lovett, Matthew Crawford, Mark Lamborn and Owen Keeley have not been named as suspects in the murder, but will be subpoenaed to give evidence when the inquest reconvenes in June, Ms Dwyer said.

The government has offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification of the killers.

Mr Dillon said despite dealing cannabis, there was no evidence Mr Pashkuss was a violent person or a “gangster”.

“Whatever anybody thinks about people dealing drugs, nobody deserves the treatment that Robert and Stacey got,” Mr Dillon said.

“It was a shocking crime and unfortunately because we have not identified yet who committed this crime that person might still be out on the streets somewhere.”

He said unsolved crimes do not always remain that way. “While time seems to move very slowly, sometimes it catches up with people.

“In fact, [recently] a woman was arrested for the murder of her child who disappeared back in 2001.

“15 years is a very long time between someone’s death and the arrest. “But with improvements in investigation techniques, science and rapid improvements in DNA testing, an unsolved homicide does not always remain unsolved.

“Time can catch up with people and with any luck in this case it will.”

The inquest will reconvene in Newcastle on June 15.

Anyone with any information can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously.

source:theherald.com.au

Key details are still to be worked out on how migrants newly arriving in Greece from Turkey will be processed and returned.

The rallies ended peacefully. Protests were also held in other parts of Greece, including Thessaloniki in northern Greece and on the island of Lesbos. And several thousand people gathered in Spain’s northeastern port city of Barcelona to protest against what they called Europe’s “racist and uncaring” approach to migrants.

Greece is expecting some 2,300 European experts, including migration officers and translators, to help implement the deal.

“Obviously, none of those people have arrived yet,” a government official told the AP, asking not be identified pending official announcements. “What we have at the moment is a political decision. This must now be put into practice.”

Migrants on Lesbos and other islands in the east Aegean Sea were being taken by ferry to the mainland ports of Piraeus and Kavala where they will be placed in shelters and eligible for an EU-wide relocation program.

“Migrants on the islands will be moved to mainland shelters, including 2,500 people on Lesbos who are being transported to three different shelter locations,” the government officials said.

From Sunday onward, migrants who arrive on the islands will be screened and their identity recorded before being sent back to Turkey.

Germany’s interior minister said the Balkan route that migrants have been using to reach Central Europe is “finished” now that Turkey has agreed to take back people who arrive in Greece illegally.

In a statement Saturday, Thomas de Maiziere described the deal between the European Union and Turkey as a “turning point in the refugee crisis.”

De Maiziere said Germany will send border police and immigration staff to help Greece process any new arrivals.

His ministry said the number of migrants reaching Germany each day is now down to about 100 a day, a sharp decrease from the thousands who were arriving in the country daily last year.

De Maiziere, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats, said “alternative flight routes must be prevented.”

At the Greek-Macedonian border Saturday, no new arrivals were reported by relief agencies at a giant makeshift camp near the border village of Idomeni.

Migrants took advantage of a break in bad weather to wash clothes and seek information on the EU-Turkey deal — responding with a mixture of relief and disappointment, with Balkan borders to remain closed but with most migrants already on Greek territory made exempt from plans for swift deportation.

Mohamed Tamer spent three weeks camped out at Idomeni, hoping to travel onto Berlin where his sister lives.

On Saturday, he decided it was time to leave.

“I will try and apply with the EU relocation service,” he told the AP before boarding a bus for Athens. “The decision made in Brussels is not clear. What will happen to us? No one cares,” he said.

“(EU leaders) should have come here and spent one night in Idomeni before making up their minds.”

Kantouris reported from Idomeni, northern Greece. Demetris Nellas in Athens and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Brussels contributed.

source:thestar.com

A lioness walks along a road as visitors sit in their vehicles at Nairobi’s National Park in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, July 12, 2014. On Friday, a lion strayed from the park and attacked a man on the side of a highway. REUTERS/Edmund Blair

NAIROBI, Kenya — A lion left Nairobi National Park, walked alongside a highway full of rush-hour traffic and mauled a 63-year-old pedestrian Friday before being captured, officials said.

The man had been “clawed in two areas, on the front of the chest and on the back of the shoulder. He sustained lacerations, quite deep cuts in the left shoulder region and has sustained a small fracture in one of the bones in the area,” said Victor Ng’ani, the director of Mater Hospital.

The lion went by The Star printing press. Wellington Lwenya, a plumber there, said it was terrifying to come face-to-face with the lion, the newspaper reported.

The lion attacked after becoming agitated by motorists honking their horns, said Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Paul Udoto.

A video circulating on social media show the lion walking on a sidewalk amid a cacophony of honking horns.

source:torontosun.com

Yiorgos Roupakias (C), who is in custody pending trial over the killing of anti-racism Greek rapper Pavlos Fissas, is escorted by police officers at the court room where the trial of the leaders of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party takes place, in Koridallos prison, near Athens, April 20, 2015. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis

Athens, Greece: The killer of a Greek anti-fascist rapper whose death sparked a major probe of neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn was released Friday with his murder trial ongoing, a judicial source said.

Yiorgos Roupakias, a retired truck driver, was taken to his home in Piraeus under heavy police escort and will remain under house arrest, the source added.

He has spent 30 months in jail, the maximum time someone can be held in Greece without a conviction.

Roupakias’ murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013 shocked the country and sparked an investigation into the actions of Golden Dawn, which until then had not been sanctioned despite being linked to a campaign of violence against migrants and political opponents.

The trial of 69 members and supporters of the xenophobic and anti-Semitic formation began in April but has made little headway due to procedural wrangling.

The prosecution is trying to prove Golden Dawn operated as a full-blown criminal outfit that allegedly encouraged beatings and even killings.

Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos last year admitted political responsibility for Fyssas’ killing but rejected any criminal blame, calling Roupakias’ actions “reprehensible”.

But the Fyssas family say they have no illusions about who ordered the killing, pointing to the formation’s tightly-regimented structure.

The investigation found a flurry of phonecalls took place between Roupakias and senior Golden Dawn figures immediately after Fyssas’ murder.

Testifying in September, Fyssas’ father said his son had been ambushed by around 60 Golden Dawn members outside a cafeteria and had been felled by “professional” blows to the heart.

A handful of police stood nearby but did not intervene when a group of around 20 people chased down Fyssas and his friends, said Panagiotis Fyssas, a retired shipyard worker,

“He took two blows to the heart … the doctor at the hospital said it was a professional blow to cause internal bleeding,” Fyssas told the court.

In the last election in September, the neo-Nazis lost some 9,000 votes nationwide compared to the previous election in January, but still finished third with 18 lawmakers.

Michaloliakos and other senior Golden Dawn members were also jailed at the outset of the investigation but have since been released.

source:thepenisulaqatar.com