Speaking at a press conference last week, President of the Cyprus State Fairs Authority Loizos Constantinou said the Fair will project all sectors of trade, business and economic activities ranging from home appliances, machinery and tools to technology and services, as well as special thematic exhibitions such as Fishing & Boating Exhibition, the Domestic Tourism Exhibition «CYTOUR», the exhibition of prefabricated houses and the Classic Car Show.
(source: cna)

Streiter declined to offer more details, saying the conversation was ‘confidential’.
He played down the call, saying that the pair would undoubtedly have several similar conversations in the future, as they had in the past.

Asked whether Germany was preparing for a Greek exit from the euro, a spokeswoman cited earlier comments from Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble that ‘our citizens expect us to be prepared for every eventuality’.
(source: AFP)

A financial collapse in Greece would drag down the rest of the euro zone, said Alexis Tsipras, the 37-year-old head of the Coalition of the Radical Left, known as Syriza, and potentially the country’s next prime minister. Instead, he said, Europe must consider a more growth-oriented policy to arrest Greece’s spiraling recession and address what he called a growing “humanitarian crisis” facing the country.

“Our first choice is to convince our European partners that, in their own interest, financing must not be stopped,” Mr. Tsipras said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He said Greece doesn’t intend to take any unilateral action, “but if they proceed with unilateral action on their side, in other words they cut off our funding, then we will be forced to stop paying our creditors, to go to a suspension in payments to our creditors.”
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But the IMF only disburses funds if a country complies with economic reforms tied to the program. The Greek public have overwhelmingly rejected the austerity measures, throwing into question the future of the IMF/EU bailout program.
The IMF official repeated the calls from its Managing Director Christine Lagarde for European leaders to reach a comprehensive solution to the euro zone crisis.
(source: Reuters)

Titled “The Greek Run,” the article reports on “the ugly term for what may soon become an even uglier reality: Greece’s departure from the euro zone” or else, “GREXIT.” But the runner could be the torchbearer, or the individual searching for rescue or even the bank run, suggesting the mass withdrawal of bank deposits from the country.

The journalist assumes that this exit is a possible scenario for the near future and comments on the upcoming elections’ outcome on June 17.  Alexis Tsipras, leading in polls, talks about renegotiation of the Memorandum but Merkel refuses to change the demands.

“If in fresh elections the objectors have a majority and if they renege on Greece’s bail-out deal, then the world will cut off the supply of rescue funds,” warns the British journalist.

“Advocates of an exit say that Greece would gain from a cheaper currency, and that the politics of forging a closer fiscal and financial union between the euro zone’s remaining members would be easier without a country that should never have joined in the first place,” adds The Economist.

Despite the fact that the journalist admits that the “exit is not an easy or desirable outcome,” he calls on Greek politicians to inform citizens what an exit implies and says to Greeks that “you cannot avoid austerity, either within the euro or outside it.”

The British magazine does not even hesitate to compare Greek exit of the eurozone with a Titanic scene, since “deposits are fleeing Greek banks at an accelerating pace and extremists would threaten the country with a dictatorship.”

The Europeans should work “in a rush” to avoid the catastrophe, according to the British, since a “Grexit” could quickly turn into a general “Euro-strophe.”

But hooligans now decided to destroy tonight’s game. They threw stones against the van carrying Panathinaikos’ players to the basketball court.

Glasses were broken, two basketball players – Perperoglou and Smith – were injured and were transferred to the hospital. The game had to be postponed, following the decision of the Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports George Nikitiadis.

A day before the hooligans’ silly attack on the players, the two coaches and leaders of Olympiakos and Panathinaikos were interviewed to show the peaceful spirit of sports.

A few minutes after the incident, Mike Batiste wrote on Twitter “this disgust must stop,” while his playmate Aleks Marić wrote “shame.”

EU leaders say that without the bailout, Greece would be headed for certain bankruptcy and ejection from the common currency, which would sow financial destruction across the continent. The prospect SYRIZA would win the election has sent the euro and markets across the continent plummeting this week.

The poll predicted New Democracy would win 26.1 percent of the vote compared to 23.7 percent for SYRIZA.

Crucially, it showed that along with the Socialist PASOK party, New Democracy would have enough seats to form a pro-bailout government, which it failed to win in an election on May 6, forcing a new vote and prompting a political crisis that has put the future of the euro in doubt.

Polls last week had showed SYRIZA well in front, with anti-bailout voters rallying behind its charismatic 37-year-old leader Alexis Tsipras. First place comes with a bonus of 50 extra seats in the 300-seat parliament, so even a tiny edge would be pivotal in determining who forms the next government.

The election is still a month away, and Greek voters have been fickle. Experts warned against drawing any strong conclusions from a single poll. Nevertheless, a trend that had shown SYRIZA surging ahead appears to have turned.

“It seems people vented their anger in the election and then they got scared. They disliked that there was no government and they got worried about a possible exit from the euro,” political analyst John Loulis said of the surprise poll result.

“Still, voters are far from enthusiastic with New Democracy. Things are still volatile. The outcome of the elections will depend on who will make the fewest mistakes.”
(source: Reuters)

Despite the rainy weather, thousands of Athens’ residents gathered at Panathenaiko Stadium on May 18 to celebrate the  handing over of the Olympic flame to London.

The flame, symbolizing purity because it comes directly from the sun, has been carried across Greece, from Southern Crete to the Northern city of Alexandroupolis. Almost a week ago, actress Ino Menegaki acted as an ancient priestess and caught the sun’s rays in a parabolic mirror situated between Temple of Hera and the ancient Olympic Games stadium.

Greek commentator Alexis Costalas joked about the weather, saying that “we brought London’s weather to Athens today, to show them our hospitality.”

The Olympic ceremony included music as well. In a symbolic show, young Greek children handed the light over to older English children, while accompanied by John Lennon’s “Imagine,” sending the message of peace abroad. Many people around the world whispered “Imagine there’s no heaven, no hell below us, above us only sky,” while watching the children leave the stadium.

Greek renowned tenor Marios Frangoulis sang the Greek anthem under a rainbow in the Athenian sky and moved not only Greeks, but also everyone around the world watching the ceremony via live streaming on CNN and BBC.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias attended, while Olympic weightlifter champion Pyrros Dimas and Chinese gymnast Li Ning were two of the last torchbearers lighting the cauldron in the center of the stadium.

David Beckham and Princess Anne, as well as chief Lord Coe, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson and London Mayor Boris Johnson received the Olympic flame. The President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee, Spyros Capralos, passed the flame to the Princess in order to transfer it to the British capital. On July 27, the flame will light the cauldron in Stratford’s Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 2012.

Travelling back to the Games’ modern history, the flame was first lit at the Amsterdam 1928 summer Games, but it was not until Berlin in 1936 that a torch relay route was set from Greece to Germany.

Turning back to Panathenaic Stadium, the Greek ceremony could not escape political symbolism. Greek commentator Alexis Costalas closed the celebration shouting “Greece you can and you must!”

The same slogan was also repeated by Greek Olympic champion Nikos Kaklamanakis, who delivered his speech surrounded by kids dressed in white clothes carrying balloons. “Being Greek means never stop fighting,” continued the Greek athlete.

When the kids released the balloons, which travelled up to the air to reach every individual around the world, the Athenian sky became sunny again.

Should new elections fail to result in a mandate for a new government to continue austerity measures, a Greek exit from the monetary union would be “probable,” Fitch said.
“A Greek exit would likely result in widespread default on private sector as well as sovereign euro-denominated obligations, despite a moderate sovereign debt service burden following the restructuring of Greek government bonds in March,” the statement said.
(source: Reuters)

“We will do whatever we could do in this direction, to keep Greece inside the Eurozone and inside Europe,” said Tsipras, speaking to CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

Tsipras stated that the left coalition wished to “cancel the memorandum, then renegotiate on a European level,” in search of a common solution to exit the crisis which he said was not solely a Greek problem, but a European issue.

To do so, Tsipras said that he would look for partners in southern as well as central Europe.

“We are going directly to hell,” said Tsipras with regards to the austerity measures, accusing German Chancellor Angela Merkel of putting the Eurozone at risk.

On the subject of what a drachma comeback would mean for Greece and Europe, Tsipras responded that although he disagreed with Merkel on many issues he did agree with a statement she made a month ago, saying that if Greece were to exit the Eurozone, markets would immediately go in search of the country that would follow suit, such as Italy or Spain.

Tsipras said that going back to the old currency would mean “poor people [will] have drachmas and the rich people [will] buy everything with euros.”

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