As reported by London's Independent Newspaper, archaeologists unearthing the lost ancient city of Selinunte on Sicily's southwest coast have found a city frozen in time, little different from the day 2,500 years ago when it was suddenly attacked and its residents massacred and enslaved.

The allure of Sicily's beauty is nothing new.  Around 650 B.C. the Mediterranean island seduced a band of colonists from the port of Megara in ancient Greece who settled near the mouth of a small river on the southwest coast.  The colony - names for the wild celery ("selinon" in Greek) that grew in the surrounding hills overlooking the sea - grew into a prosperous trading port.  Ships from across the ancient world sailed into its harbor.  Residents of the city of 30,000 at the far western edge of anceint Greece purchased good from Egypt, Tirkey and France with coins imprinted with images of celery leaves.  With its commercial wealth, the city erected mighty temples to a pantheon of Greek deities.

Approximately 2,500 years ago, however, the glory days of the city the Greeks called Selinus came to an abrupt end,  In 409 B.C., an estimated force of 100,000 troops from Carthage traveled across the sea from modern-day Tunisia and laid siege to the city.  After Selinunte held out for 10 day, the Carthaginian invaders breached the city's walls and massacred approximately 16,000 residents and soldiers who tried to defend the city.  Another 5,000 residents, mostly women and children, were taken as slaves,  The once-thriving city became a ghost town after the attack.  Carthage's attempts to repopulate Selinunte never took hold, and it finally razed the city around 250 B.C. during the First Punic War.

To read more, please visit: History.com

The Athens Polytechnic Uprising in 1973 was a massive demonstration of the popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The uprising began on November 14, 1973, escalated to an open anti-junta revolt, and ended in bloodshed in the early morning of November 17 after a series of events starting with a tank crashing through the gates of the Polytechnic.

What Happened In History

Since April 21, 1967, Greece had been under the dictatorial rule of the military, a regime that abolished civil rights, dissolved political parties, and exiled, imprisoned and tortured politicians and citizens based on their political beliefs.

The junta, trying to control every aspect of politics, had interfered with student syndicalism since 1967, by banning student elections in universities, forcibly drafting students, and imposing non-elected student union leaders in the national student's union. These actions eventually created anti-junta sentiments among students, such as geology student Kostas Georgakis who committed suicide in 1970 in Genoa, Italy as an act of protest against the junta. With that exception, the first massive public action against the junta came from students on February 21, 1973.

On February 21, 1973, law students went on strike and barricaded themselves inside the buildings of the Law School of the University of Athens in the centre of Athens, demanding repeal of the law that imposed forcible drafting of "subversive youths", as 88 of their peers had been forcibly drafted. The police were ordered to intervene and many students were reportedly subjected to police brutality. The events at the Law School are often cited as the prelude to the Polytechnic uprising.

On November 14th of 1973 students gather at the Athens Polytechnic to demonstrate against the Junta. This demonstration which is coordinated with occupations of campuses in Patras and Thessaloniki turns into a student rebellion that gathers strength every day as more and more people join. On the 16th, the students and fellow demonstrators attempt to march from the Polytechnic to Syntagma square but they are halted by the police.

As more people gather at the Polytechnic, there are already plans for ending the student rebellion, using tanks from the nearby bases in and around Athens. The students are preparing for a siege, collecting food and medical supplies, building barricades, and broadcasting on a clandestine radio station that the time is right to overthrow the junta and calling for their countrymen to join them in central Athens. Anti-Junta and anti-American graffiti are painted on buildings and passing buses which spread their message throughout the city.

At 2 am on November 17th, tanks are ordered to crush the student rebellion at the Polytechnic. At 2:15 a group of students comes out to negotiate a surrender asking for half an hour to evacuate the campus. The officers in charge will only give them fifteen minutes but don't even wait for ten. At 3 am a tank crashes through the gate of the polytechnic and police and military storm the campus. As the gate crashes to the ground students rush out to escape and are beaten with clubs and arrested. At least 34 demonstrators are killed though there are rumors that the number is much higher. Several hundred are injured and almost a thousand are detained at the school and at the Ministry of Public Order which had been under siege by demonstrators.

For the next two days, crowds attempting to gather in central Athens are broken up by police and soldiers who are everywhere. Tanks are parked in squares around the city and surround the Parliament building.  The rebellion at the Polytechnic is over and the country is put under martial law for the next week. Groups larger than four people are not permitted to gather and there is a curfew between 7 pm and 5 am. 

How This Day Is Commemorated In Greece

November 17 is observed as a holiday in Greece for all educational establishments. Commemorative services are held and students attend school only for these, while some schools and all universities stay closed on this day. The central location for the commemoration is the campus of the Polytechneio. The campus is closed on the 15th (the day the students first occupied the campus in 1973). The commemoration day ends traditionally with a demonstration that begins from the campus of the Polytechneio and ends at the United States embassy.

Practical Information About This Day

Police security is always on high alert on November 17th. Commemorative demonstrations are observed and thus the streets of central Athens are closed - it is recommended that drivers avoid central Athens on this day. Public transportation (buses, trains, trams) in central Athens is also typically affected by the demonstrations.

The Haridimos Shadow Puppet Museum in Athens, is a museum that keeps an important part of Greek cultural history alive. Karagiozis Shadow Puppet Shows were both pre-television era entertainment, and a way for Greeks to subtly poke fun at the ruling Ottoman empire. Anyone from the UK will instantly think of Punch and Judy.

Shadow puppet shows playes a hugely important role for Greeks during the years of Ottoman rule.  They were a way to poke fun at the Ottoman empire, pass on information, recount history and much more.  The main character in these shows was Karagiozis.  He is depicted as having a large nose, a humped-back and one arm longer than the other.  His character was someone who always tried to outwit society, but his attempts normally ended in comical disaster.  This provided the perfect opportunity to create stories around current affairs and the social situation under the Ottomans.  Social and political satire at its finest!

Visitors to the Haridimos Shadow Puppet Museum will notice almost immediately that it is not well signed, as in there is no English signage - this includes the exhibits inside.  It is tucked away to the left hand side of the Melina Mercouri Cultual Centre.

To read more, please visit: Daves Travel Pages

The Haridimos Shadow Puppet Museum in Athens is located in the Melina Mercouri Cultural Centre, 66 Iraklidon & Thessalonikis sts, Thissio.

The closest metro station is at Thissio. Entrance is free.

The general opening hours are 09.00 until 14.00 and 17.00 until 21.00 everyday except Mondays and Sundays. You may wish to call them on  210 3452150, 210 3414466 if you want to make sure they are open when you wish to visit

A total of 162 suspicious transactions were reported and 133 individuals detained earlier this month during a joint operation to combat online fraud in the airline sector, Europol said in a statement last week.

Under the coordination of Europol, the operation included travel and credit card companies such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express, 35 airlines and 32 countries* across 109 airports and targeted criminals suspected of fraudulently purchasing plane tickets online using stolen or fake credit card data.

“This operation was the culmination of many months of meticulous planning between Europol, law enforcement, prosecuting and border control agencies, airlines and credit card companies, and is a perfect example of how our combined forces can track down the criminal syndicates responsible for committing large scale fraud and other offences,” said Europol Director Rob Wainwright.

The rise in internet-facilitated crime — often via fake online “travel agencies” — affects millions of travelers every year with the banking, airline and travel industries suffering massive financial losses in the process. Europol adds that in many cases credit card fraud has been linked to drug trafficking and human trafficking, among others.

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages

Greece, widely known for its ancient art and culture, is increasingly becoming a hub for creative and award-winning international talents in contemporary industrial design. Stimulating, cutting-edge industrial design in Greece portrays diversity, creative evolution, modernity and, most importantly, humour. These are ten of the best contemporary product designers from Greece.

Thanos Karampatsos and Christina Kotsilelou are the inspired, humorous minds behind Greece is for Lovers. Since 2006 they have been passionately designing, producing and promoting novel, high-quality products that put a decidedly irreverent spin on Hellenic heritage. Located under Acropolis in the historical centre of Athens, Greece is for Lovers stubbornly fight the stereotypes of what is widely thought to be Greek along with the idea that ‘Greek people tend to take their culture very seriously’. Combining some of Greece’s spiciest ingredients, such as humour, irony, nonchalance and extravagance, these objects introduce a fresh breeze into contemporary product design. Among their products, which are eye-catching, innovative but deeply rooted in Greek tradition, a brown leather skateboard that incorporates Greek-style sandals into the board unquestionably stands out.

The multi-award-winning designer Constantinos Hoursoglou founded his multi-disciplinary studio in Athens in 2002 and since 2007 he has been productively working in Geneva. Both his Royal College of Art education and professional experience in Athens, London and New York play a key role in his uncompromising effort to foresee the chaotic changes in the world, while designing avant-garde but useful products. With aesthetics, technology and ecology in the spotlight of his creative work, Constantinos Hoursoglou is known for choosing great materials and inventive manufacturing methods. CHD studio provides wide-ranging services, such as graphic and exhibition design and product design and development and has participated – among others – in the St. Etienne Design Biennale and Salone Satellite.

To read more, please viist: The Culture Trip

Couples who choose to sign a so-called cohabitation agreement, including same-sex partners, will have virtually the same rights as those who are married with the exception of the right to adopt a child, according to new legal provisions that were put up for public consultation on Monday 9th November 2015 by the Justice Ministry.

The agreement, which in its current form grants non-married couples similar rights to those who are married, would be extended, giving signatories the favorable tax status enjoyed by married couples and increased inheritance rights. In the case of civil servants, the same benefits granted to married couples would apply.

The bill unveiled by Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos yesterday also includes provisions aimed at boosting anti-racism legislation. According to the proposed legislation, not only offenses with racist motives will be regarded as crimes, but also those stemming from discrimination based on someone’s sex or religion.

To read more, please visit: ekathimerini

Journalist and editor Lorraine Eyre runs the “Homeless but not Hopeless” charity. In a piece written for GreekTV, Lorraine reflects on the misguided attitudes about the homeless community in the country, the reasons many find themselves on the streets, and offers vignettes of individual stories.

Greek student Dimitris Hatzis is the youngest person ever to create a life-sized humanoid using a 3D printer.  The 15 year old student from Kavala (Northern Greece) created the robot as part of the "InMoov" project, an open source platform.

Hatzis was able to costruct the robot using the platform that is centered around the development of a man-sized robot humanoid.  Like others on the project, he was able to access instructions from platform and share his project.  Success came for the student after a year of daily work.

Only six people in the world, including Hatzis, have been able to complete the task.  Dimitri is the youngest ever.  Other successful candidates are the original designers
of the robot; Frenchman Gael Langevin, two Russians, a German and an Italian.

For more information, please visit: Greek Gateway

According to a bill submitted to parliament in October, men will now also be granted child-care leave. It will be granted, if desired, by the insured individual, after the 4-month pregnancy and maternity leave of the mother.

The monthly amount paid to the beneficiary is up to 586 Euros and is paid by OAED. Note, the child-care leave can be taken by either the mother or father, but not both individuals.

Originally posted in Greek on NewMoney

Religion typically divides us as people, but in Lesbos last week at the memorial service for the souls lost in the Aegean, Muslims and Christians prayed together. Each prayed based on their beliefs and together they stood in the face of reality's pain.

As described by the photographer, Konstantinos Vougioukas:

'A mother stands as a statue. One can feel how historical such moments are when you see Christians and Muslims praying all together for the victims that drowned in the Aegean Sea... Because human life does not recognize religion.'