Main opposition New Democracy announced on Tuesday that is boycotting state broadcaster ERT, preventing its officials and members of parliament from appearing on the television station.

According to an announcement issued by the party, it made its decision after a journalist at ERT likened the leader of the main opposition party with Italian fascist dictator Mussolini.

New Democracy has sent a letter to the management of ERT accusing the broadcaster of having “ridiculed public television with vulgar propaganda.”

In a statement, ERT said it would continue to cover New Democracy activities, but added that it was not prepared to “pre-emptively censor” its commentators.

The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has been given an overall ranking of 228 in the National Taiwan University Rankings of world universities for 2018, based on the performance ranking of the scientific papers they produced.

It has also achieved a rank of 140 in the field of Clinical Medicine and 94 in the subject of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

“This has once again confirmed the high academic level and research contribution of the Athens University School of Medicine,” a University of Athens announcement said on Wednesday.

The university highlighted the significance of the ranking, which is not based on the amount of funding or education infrastructure, or even the individual achievement of faculty, but on the production of high-quality research papers with a high impact.

Apart from departmental achievements, individual members of the faculty and researchers also have their own successes, with five of its researchers and professors cited in the Webometrics Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) list of 2018 – measuring those that have authored at least 100 papers that have been cited by at least another 100 researchers in their work.

They include Prof. Georgios Chrousos (h-index 179 and 132,181 citations), Prof. Meletios Athanasios Dimopoulos (h-index 118, 60,208 citations), Prof. Marinos Dalakas (h-index 105, 40,203 citations), Prof. Haralambos Moutsopoulos (h-index 104, 44,661 citations), and Prof. Christodoulos Stefanadis (h-index 103, 57,879 citations).

Source: AMNA

AEK were outclassed in their Champions League opener against Ajax on Wednesday as the SuperLeague champions were beaten soundly 3-0 at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam.

After dominating possession but failing to score in the first half, Argentina defender Tagliafico broke the deadlock just after the break and made it 3-0 in the 90th minute with an effort from an acute angle on the left that sailed over AEK goalkeeper Vassilis Barkas and into the goal.

In between, substitute Donny van de Beek doubled Ajax’s lead with a powerful close-range volley in the 77th.

In its next game AEK is hosting Benfica at the Olympic Stadium of Athens on October 2. AEK needs all three points from this game to maintain any hope of progress in the competition.

Record numbers of non-EU investors are granted the “Golden Visa” scheme that entitles them to a Greek residence permit in return for major investments, new data show.

Chinese top the list with 1,395 permits, followed by Russians at 429, and Turks with 337.

Overall, 2,968 permits have been issued to non-EU investors since the scheme began in 2013.

A spokesman for Enterprise Greece, the agency that runs the Golden Visa scheme, said that in 2018 there has been a significant rise in the number of Turkish citizens who have applied and granted the permit mainly to invest in real estate.

This year, up until the end of August, 337 Turks had been granted the permit, compared to only 50 in 2016.

The Golden Visa program has come under the scrutiny of the the European Commission which has been is calling on EU countries to be more cautious when granting citizenships.

EU countries offering golden visa programs included: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Between 2013 and 2017, Hungary also ran a golden visa program.

Greece says that its Golden Visa scheme does not include providing a Greek passport to the beneficiaries.

Dozens of traditional wooden boats of different sizes gathered at the Aegean island of Paros last weekend in celebration of traditional sailing vessels.

Caïques for fishing, transport, even for recreation docked at the picturesque port of Naoussa in Paros before they set out sailing around the island.

The three-day event called “Kapetaneika” captured the hearts and minds of the locals, many who were old enough to remember how the seas once were adorned by these traditional boats. For the younger audience, the colorful boats provided a magnificent spectacle.

Organizers say that the event will be repeated next year.

Greece’s main opposition New Democracy (ND) is leading governing SYRIZA by 8.8 percent in a poll released on Wednesday by Star TV.

The MRB poll shows ND at 30.9 percent followed by SYRIZA at 22.1 percent.

The poll was conducted after Alexis Tsipras and his rival Kyriakos Mitsotakis outlined their respective economic policies at the Thessaloniki International Fair earlier in September.

Centrist Movement for Change is in third place with 6.5 percent of the voters preferences, followed by extreme right Golden Dawn at 6 percent.

The Communist Party with 5.9 percent is the only other party that is above the 3 percent threshold that guarantees parliamentary representation.

The Greek Ministry of Culture dismissed on Thursday allegations by archaeologists that a series of archaeological sites are to be privatized.

In a statement it said that properties of archaeological interest are not for sale.

“Our cultural heritage cannot be traded,” it adds in response to allegations by the Society of Greek Archaeologists that a list of monuments in Chania, Crete has been transferred to the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), the country’s privatization agency.

The HRADF sole mission is to maximize the country’s revenues by developing and/or selling the assets transferred to the fund.

The archaeologists claim that among the sites are large portions of the trench of the city’s Venetian fortifications, the trench of the Byzantine wall, buildings that contain important Minoan architectural finds, the Firkas fortress, and parts of the Venetian pier.

They say that the move is unprecedented in the history of managing Greece’s cultural heritage and warn that it will stir up strong reactions both domestically and abroad.

New Democracy vice-president Adonis Georgiades says he has tabled a motion in parliament asking the ministry to release the document allegedly containing archaeological sites destined for transfer to the HRADF.

PAOK and Olympiacos opened their Europa League campaigns in disappointing fashion against superior opponents. In Thessaloniki, PAOK was outclassed by Chelsea losing 1-0, while in Piraeus Olympiacos could only manage a goalless draw against Real Betis.

Chelsea captain Willian scored the only goal of the game early in the first half after fine work from Ross Barkley, but it could easily have been much worse for PAOK, who struggled to cope with their English Premier League opponents.

Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea team fully deserved the three points, having controlled the match for long spells with a combination of slick passing and quick direct attacking thrusts lead by the impressive Willian, Pedro and Marcos Alonso.

Olympiacos earned Greece’s first group stage point this season with its 0-0 result against Spain’s Betis at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium.

The team from Seville was more dangerous and may feel hard done by the draw in Piraeus.

The Reds had heir moments, but as they were left with 10 men due to the second bookable offense of Costas Tsimikas with 17 minutes left on the clock, they may feel not be too disappointed with the result.

The Greek word Philoxenia, literally translated as a “friend to a stranger”, is widely perceived to be synonymous to hospitality.

For Greeks it is much deeper than that. It is an unspoken cultural law that shows generosity and courtesy to strangers.

Greeks are enormously generous when inviting others to their home, or being invited themselves. In villages, it is not uncommon for villagers to show up at the door of a resident foreigner (or even a temporary visitor renting a room) with a sack full of fresh tomatoes, or even a bottle of local olive oil.

Philoxenia today can be as simple as a smile, helping a stranded motorist, buying a meal for a homeless person, or opening your home to friends and family.

Zeus Xenios

This cultural law has its origins in Ancient Greece. The Greek god Zeus is sometimes called Zeus Xenios — as he was also a protector of travelers. He thus embodied the religious obligation to be hospitable to travelers.

The beautiful story written by the Roman poet Ovid in 8 A.D of Zeus and Hermes disguised as poor travelers, narrates the sacred relation between host and guest, embodying the ancient Greek tradition.

The two ancient Gods, the story goes, visited many villages in search of refuge for the night. A poor elderly couple — Baucis and Philemon welcomed them as guests in their home and generously served them food and wine.

After refilling her guests’ cups many times over, Baucis noticed that the wine jug was still full. Philemon then realized the visitors were actually gods and she offered to kill their only goose to feed them. Touched by this gesture, Zeus rewarded their generosity by transforming the humble cottage into a beautiful stone temple.

Zeus also granted the couple their ultimate wish: to be the guardians of the temple, die at the same time, and stay together for eternity as they were turned into trees, guarding each side of the temple’s door.

Trojan War

According to legend, even an event as momentous as the Trojan War began because of a guest’s violation of xenia. The Trojan prince Paris was a guest of King Menelaus of Sparta when he abducted Menelaus’ wife, Helen.

Both the Odyssey and the Iliad are filled with episodes in which xenia is either honored or ignored and the subsequent consequences are notable. For instance, when Odysseus sails to the island of the cyclops, the monster’s treatment of Odysseus and his sailors is a violation of the custom of xenia. The cyclops is punished for the transgression. Odysseus blinds his “host” and escapes. The cyclops episode depicts an abuse of xenia.

In another story, Odysseus’ wife Penelope is forced by custom to entertain an entire household of suitors. The guests not only make unreasonable, burdensome requests that were impolite for guests but they do so with the assumption the host himself is no longer alive. The conclusion of the poem involves Odysseus’s slaughter of the suitors. This violent ending can be seen as retribution for an egregious abuse of xenia, or conversely, a violation of its very precepts.

Reasons for philoxenia

There are many possible reasons why hospitality was more prevalent in those times.

Traveling in Homer’s time was much more extensive and lengthier than in modern times. Because of this, many more nights were spent away from home in many different locations. Also, there were not hotels or inns where travelers could pay and stay the night.

Because of this, travelers had to rely on the hospitality of others for shelter, food, and protection. There was, however, some payment for this hospitality in the form of a gift exchange.

Another possible reason for this hospitality was the fact that there were not nations that would allow travelers to enter their territory safely. Without such hospitality, strangers could be captured or even killed for entering a foreign land.

Another possible explanation for the amount of hospitality shown is that the Greeks believed the gods wanted them to show hospitality to anyone who showed up at their homes. It was also believed that turning away someone and not providing them this hospitality would result in some form of punishment from the gods.

Finally, hospitality could have been used to spread ones name and bring them a sense of fame if they provided a high standard of hospitality to strangers. It also could have been a way to show how wealthy one was.

A new poll released on Thursday gives opposition New Democracy a 9.5 percent lead over governing SYRIZA.

The poll was conducted by Pulse for Skai television between September 16-18.

It shows New Democracy at 31.5 percent, compared to 22 percent for SYRIZA, followed by extreme right Golden Dawn with 7 percent, 6.5 percent for the centre-left Movement for Change, and the Greek Communist Party (KKE) with 5.5 percent.

Those would be the only five parties to pass the three percent threshold to enter parliament.

The trial of nine men accused of fatally beating a U.S. tourist while vacationing in Greece has started on Friday in the city of Patra — a proceeding his family hopes will result in life sentences for the assailants.

The parents of Bakari Henderson have traveled to Patra for the trial and say they are eager for justice.

“We have been waiting 14 months, and so we have been in a holding pattern,” said Bakari’s mother, Jill Henderson.

“To have the trial be here, it is a great thing, but we want to make sure they are actually convicted and sentenced to prison. That is my whole goal.”

22-year-old Bakari Henderson was beaten to death by a mob at a bar on the Greek island of Zakynthos in July 2017. Henderson was taken to a hospital with severe head injuries but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Authorities said nine suspects were arrested in the incident. Two of the nine defendants are reportedly going to be tried in abstentia as they were released from pretrial custody and are believed to have returned to Serbia.

A host of Greek singers and composers will gather on Monday September 28 at Athens’s Theatro Vraxon to pay tribute to Giogros Margaritis, one of the few remaining authentic voices of Greek popular music, ta laika.

Composers Mimis Plessas, Christos Nikolopoulos, Dimitris Papadimitriou and Takis Soukas, along with singers Melina Aslanidou, Glykeria, Giannis Kotsiras, and Lavrentis Machairitsas will be among the stars of the concert to celebrate Margaritis’ 40 year-contribution to Greek music.

Margaritis, a well-known singer of laika, started his career in 1968 under the guidance of legend Vasilis Tsitsanis.

Hundreds of Shia Muslims gathered in Piraeus, south of Athens, to mark the day of Ashura, the tenth day of in the Islamic calendar.

The ritual involved self-flagellation, hitting oneself with a whip as part of a religious ritual, as is common in many Muslim countries.

Believers in Greece slashed themselves and lashed their backs as part of a rite that takes place every year.

Some Shia leaders and groups discourage the bloodletting, saying it creates a backward and negative image of Shia Muslims. Such leaders encourage people to donate blood

The day of Ashura is marked by Muslims as a whole, but for Shia Muslims it is a major religious commemoration of the martyrdom at Karbala of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Cypriot Government has had filed a protest to the United Nations over the detention of a Cypriot fishing vessel and its crew by the Turkish occupation forces.

“The Government has made strong representations to the United Nations” Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou has told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

He added that the relevant state services are working for the release of the detained fishermen.

Cyprus Foreign Ministry spokesman Demetris Samuel said the owner of the Cyprus-flagged fishing boat told authorities that a Turkish warship approached his vessel 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the island’s northwestern coast Friday evening.

The one Greek Cypriot and four Egyptian fishermen on board were then arrested and the boat was towed to a harbor in the island’s breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

A Turkish Cypriot news agency quoted police as saying five people aboard a Greek-flagged boat were arrested for violating Turkish Cypriot territorial waters.

Greek police arrested the owner of a jewelry store in central Athens and one more person on suspicion of killing a man who tried to rob the store.

The incident occurred during daylight hours on Friday on a busy street and it was captured on camera.

The shocking video shows two men repeatedly kicking the man in the head and parts of his body as he laid unconscious.

The man was pronounced dead when police arrived at the scene.

Caution: The video contains scenes of extreme violence

Greece’s Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has filed a criminal lawsuit and asked for the arrest of the owner, editor, and five journalists of the Phileleftheros daily.

The paper says that police officers in civilian clothes arrived at the newspaper’s offices on Saturday to arrest its staff who were not in the office at the time.

It adds that Kammenos’s lawsuit was apparently in response to a front-page story alleging dubious spending of EU migration funds on the island of Lesvos.

Editor Panayiotis Lamsias says that this is not the first time that the government is trying to silence the paper, which is critical of the SYRIZA-ANEL government.

Phileleftheros journalist Yannis Koutsomitis took to Twitter to say that the incident proves that the rule of law is under threat.

More than 37 thousand Greeks opted to study in foreign universities in 2017, making the country seventh in the world in proportion to its total population, according to a recent report.

According to the Hellenic Quality Assurance Agency on Higher Education (HQA), 37,484 Greek students, 0.34 percent of the total population, were studying in foreign higher education institutes.

Cyprus ranks first in the world, as 2.13 percent of its population studies abroad, followed by Luxembourg and Slovakia.

According to the same study, there has been an incremental increase in the number of Greek students studying abroad in the last few years.

In 2011, 29,577 went abroad, compared to 37,484 in 2017 (see graph below).

The Navagio beach in the Greek island of Zakynthos reopened on Saturday to visitors after a landslide earlier in the month that caused light injuries to three tourists.

Local authority officials say that the beach is now safe despite warnings by experts that further landslides could occur.

A team of scientists from the University of Athens have recommended that the beach should be closed completely to the public.

Following a visit to the beach last week, a team from the university’s Department of Geology opined that more landslides can be expected in the area, which is accessible only by sea.

Thousands visit the pristine beach every day during the summer months.

A huge fire has engulfed the University of Crete campus in the capital Heraklio.

Dozens of fire fighters are at the scene while thick smoke has covered the area.

There are no reports of injuries.

The police blocked off road access to the university and evacuated the students who happened to be at the campus though the fire was not close to student accommodation.

According to the Athens-Macedonia news agency, the building where the fire broke out was not in use.

The cause of the blaze remained unclear.

The publisher and two journalists of a Greek newspaper that were detained on Saturday after Defense Minister Panos Kammenos filed a criminal lawsuit, were set free on Sunday.

Kammenos asked for their arrest over an article in the Greek daily Phileleftheros that alleges mishandling of European Union funds meant to improve conditions in migrant hotspots across the country.

The three were led to prosecutor on Sunday morning who ordered further investigations and set them free.

“There is a question of democracy when political power thinks it should denounce journalists it does not like. It is a shame for all those who tolerate this”, said Panayiotis Lampsias, editor-in-chief on Sunday.

Greek journalists detained and fingerprinted because the government doesn't like their reporting. Ring a bell, Commissioner @TimmermansEU?#Φιλελεύθερος pic.twitter.com/XkX2URYGVM

— Yannis Koutsomitis (@YanniKouts) September 22, 2018

Opposition parties have condemned the detention. Conservative New Democracy party accused the defense minister of “thuggery” and said the real issue was the mishandling of funds.

“Whether he wants it or not, [Kammenos] will be held accountable for the national shame that is Moria,” ND said in a statement.

“The same goes for his ostensibly left-wing sensitive fellow ministers who on a daily basis humiliate human existence and tarnish Greece’s image across the world,” it said.