Der Standard, another Austrian daily newspaper, praises the hospitality of the people of Chios in the Aegean Sea, in an article titled, The scent, the island and the mastic. The newspaper notes that tourists seem to have not yet discovered Chios, while it repeatedly refers to the island’s traditional product, mastic which is mainly cultivated in the southern part of the island.

Der Standard mentioned that today there are not any problems in the relations of Chios with Turkey -the island is 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) off the Anatolia coast- a fact proven by the frequent ferry routes between Chios and Turkey. However, the residents of Chios report the violations of maritime borders by Turkish warships, which of course cause trouble, which is not perceived by the visitors of the island.

Kleine Zeitung also hosted a tribute to Chios, praising the intense scents of the island that come from the fruit trees and called mastic “the tears of Chios.” Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, but still remains “in the shadow of Crete and Rhodes”.

Der Spiegel pointed out that Manitakis, in order to do so, “Will have to get rid of some thousands of civil servants, such as teachers on small islands.” The magazine also noted that Manitakis praises EU’s Task Force for Greece (TGFR), which assists Greece in its effort to reorganize its public administration.

Manitakis pointed out, ”Greeks are responsible for their destiny and they have to correct their past mistakes by themselves.’ Spiegel described that Manitakis is not the usual Greek politician. “No one sees him in public events, he stays in the background and is not willing to talk to journalists.”

According to Manitakis, only the perjurer civil servants should be fired, those who do not fulfill their duties and those who fraudulently obtained a permanent position in a civil service by presenting forged certificates. He would also prefer to decrease the number of civil servants through retirement. Manitakis added that the number of those who will soon be retired in the public sector is sufficient to satisfy creditors.

Sandorf’s new release is the Croatian translation of Kazantzakis’ book Ascesis: The Saviors of God (Asketiki: Salvatores dei) by Irena Gavranović Lukšić published in 2011.

Kazantzakis’ books Freedom and Death (Captain Michalis), Christ Recrucified, Adelfofades, Report to Greco and The Odyssey will be translated next.

Sršen participated in the Thessaloniki Book Fair on May 25, 2012 to present Sandorf Publishing works, among which was the major project of translating Kazantzakis’ selected works directly from Greek.

The event focused on the importance of the author and his work, including a short presentation of Sandorf’s new release Asketiki: Salvatores Dei.

Koraljka Crnković, Professor of Classic and Modern Greek Language at the Private Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb, and Translator and Court Interpreter of Greek and Latin Language at County Court – Commercial Court of Zagreb, will translate some of Kazantzakis’ works.

Sandorf is a literary agency for worldwide representation of Balkan writers, founded in 2007 in Zagreb. It is the first professional literary agency for representing authors abroad in the region. Therefore its founders carry great professional responsibility to create a positive atmosphere for writers from all Balkan countries so that they gain a worldwide audience.

The survey’s objective was to examine the reasons of the euro crisis and to point to alternative solutions to overcome the crisis, and was signed by Heiner Flassbeck, former Chief Economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics at the University of London.

The first and basic conclusion of the survey was that the Eurozone has so far failed to handle the economic crisis and now the existence of the EU is threatened. Regarding Greece, Lapavitsas underlined that if Greece stays in the Eurozone and applies the Troika’s policy, this will undermine its economy in the long term.

Both economists support Grexit. Lapavitsas had already suggested that Greece should leave Eurozone in 2010. “In my opinion Greece needs at the moment a coordinated and agreed exit. Greece should pass through a procedure where it will ask from the countries that govern the Eurozone, namely Germany, an exit mechanism. Those who believe that the exit is not possible should only take a look at Cyprus. In fact, the measures that the Troika implemented there, make the exit from the Eurozone possible. Those measures were the controls on capital flows and on the movements of the bank accounts.” Besides, Professor Lapavitsas added that Greece should stop paying off the debt and start new negotiations for its settlement.

Die Linke, which since 2010 has been voting in the German parliament against Greece’s loan programs for being ineffective, agrees with the conclusions of the survey, concerning the procedure for a country to leave the euro. Sahra Wagenknecht, deputy chairperson of Die Linke, noted that “An exit would certainly have negative consequences. For example, the devaluation of the national currency and the increase of the imports’ price. So, it is advisable that the countries of the European South that are under the supervision of the Troika will co-operate and develop a common strategy. This would facilitate Greece’s situation. If Greece leaves the Eurozone alone, that will bring the country in a very difficult position. I understand, though, that  more and more Greeks say, “We can no longer stand the measures that they impose on us, so we should better leave”.

As ekathimerini reported, the EU executive said that from next year restaurant customers will use olive oil from non-refillable bottles with proper content labeling to accompany their garden salad or crusty bread.

EU spokesman, Olivier Bailly, said that customers are often fooled as they are often served cheap olive oil, passed off as high quality olive oil. He claims that non-reusable bottles will also improve hygiene. “We are just protecting consumers,” he said. “We are just making it clear that when you want to have olive oil of a certain quality in a restaurant, you get exactly the one you are paying for.”

The ruling was immediately attacked and ridiculed, with the EU being criticized as a meddling agency who intends to control the market, overriding personal and national choice in the food sector.

“They should let the people decide what olive oil bottles they want to use and not dictate uniformity from the center,”  said Paul Nuttall, a member of the European parliament from Britain’s UK Independence Party. He also added: “This ridiculous move is even contrary to their often repeated call in favor of reusing goods.”

However, the European Commission said that the majority of the member nations support this move. The use of non-reusable olive oil bottles has already been compulsory in Portugal since 2006, despite restaurant owners’ complaints.

The Commission doesn’t intend to impose similar rules on packaging for butter, salt, pepper or any other dinner table staples.

Olive oil is a product which is prone to fraud, as cheap olive oil can easily be passed off as high quality, extra-virgin olive oil from top regions. With this move, the EU aims to control the olive oil offered at restaurants and to guarantee the quality of the product.

The continent-wide farmer’s federation supports the move. “This will ensure a high-quality product for consumers,” said Rafael Sanchez de Puerta of the Copa-Cogecas federation. Also, by displaying the name, origins and storing conditions, “This will help to preserve the image of olive oil.”

The EU is the world’s biggest producer of olive oil, accounting for up to 70 percent of the global output, according to the Commission.

The total amount rises to 260 million euros and relates mainly to the sector of olive-oil production aid and especially to the geographic information system in the olive cultivation sector, which was applied in Greece for the control of olive-oil production aids, in which, according to the Court, severe irregularities were detected.

The Greek group’s performance drew much critical praise, even though they didn’t win. The German newspaper Bild wrote that the group’s Alcohol Is Free song is described as “a love confession to Ouzo” and notes that “for these Greeks there was no bankruptcy”.

“Koza Mostra from Thessaloniki is one of the most famous ska bands in Greece, while the folk pop singer Agathonas Iakovidis is a big name for many decades,” the newspaper wrote.

It continued: “While the 58-year-old Iakovidis undertook the traditional part, with the stringed musical instrument baglama, the men with the kilts were actually jumping in the Balkan rhythms. The mixture was good: Koza Mostra and Agathonas Iakovidis advanced to the final”.

The newspaper noted that the crisis didn’t affect Greece’s participation in the contest, unlike Portugal and Slovakia, and that the song does not encourage alcohol use, but symbolizes the spirit of freedom.

Finally the article concludes saying: “Anyway, if the men with the kilts manage to stir up the audience, no one will notice the lyrics. Besides, the lyrics are in Greek.”

Tagesspiegel, in an article entitled Hopes in The Summer, notes Greece’s changed perception and cheaper rates being offered by hotels to lure customers.

“Last year the TV shots with riots in Athens, the cover pages, the constant strikes as well as the fear of the possibility of the country’s bankruptcy prevented many tourists from visiting Greece. Tourism fell by 5,5% , to 15,5 million. But the country’s image has now improved,” it said.

Trivago reported that hotel prices in Greece have fallen 15.2%, putting the islands Kos, Milos and Rhodes in fifth, sixth and eighth on the cheap vacation list.

His work produced the ARGUS-IS or the Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project.

According to DARPA, the mission of ARGUS-IS program is to provide military users a flexible and responsive capability to find, track and monitor events and activities of interest on a continuous basis in areas of interest.

The overall objective is to increase situational awareness and understanding enabling an ability to find and fix critical events in a large area in enough time to influence events. ARGUS – IS provides military users an “eyes-on” persistent wide area surveillance capability to support tactical users in a dynamic battle space or urban environment.

This innovative program consits of a big number of high definition cameras which cover almost 50 square kilometers of territory from a height of 17,500 feet.

The image can be divided in at least 65 windows from which the user can observe in real time and in detail the movements of passer-by and vehicles. The Boeing A160 Hummingbird was to eventually be used as a platform for the airborne video sensor and processor.

The story of the Tipaldos family is the history of Diaspora in Naples. Many members of the family served for almost 100 years as Consuls of Greece in Naples and as leading members of the Greek Brotherhood, since 1861.

Two years ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after a proposal of the Greek community and the Federation of Greek Communities and Brotherhoods of Italy, awarded an honorary Distinction for the contribution of his family and himself to the historic community of Naples and to the Greeks of South Italy.

The Director General of the General Secretariat of Greeks abroad, George Markantonatos sent a condolence letter, stressing that the contribution and the work of Tipaldos to Greece end the ecumenical Hellenism will be an example and a source of inspiration for everyone. The Board of the Federation of Greek Communities and Brotherhoods of Italy expressed its condolences to the family of the deceased with an announcement.