General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
ATHENS – After reneging on campaign promises, the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA-led coalition now is speeding changes demanded by international creditors to break up the monopolies enjoyed by professions including pharmacists.
That comes almost eight years after a series of governments, including SYRIZA, sought what turned into three bailouts of 326 billion euros ($405.12 billion) in three bailouts and agreed to harsh austerity measures and other reforms in return.
The latest changes were approved the Parliament narrowly controlled by SYRIZA and its partner, the pro-austerity, marginal, jingoistic Independent Greeks (ANEL) that will open up other businesses ranging from dancing schools to road assistance, said media reports.
The laws now end a restriction that only people with a dance degree or 15 years’ experience as a dance teacher can be issued a license to open a dance school, even if just for amateurs and reducing the number of years experience required for hairdressers and manicurists and force road assistance firms to submit a series of records annually.
Engineers and lawyers haven’t come under the gun yet despite insistence by the creditors to provide for changes that would include competition and an end to guaranteed profits in professions notorious for tax evasion.
Non-pharmacists will now be able to open drug stores as long as a licensed pharmacist is always on duty, a reform the owners of pharmacies fiercely resisted.
The head of the greater Athens area (Attica prefecture) pharmacies’ association, Andreas Lourantos, told SKAI TV earlier that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras broke his pledge to them and that the Premier had told him he would not allow companies or non-pharmacists to own drugstores, which is now required by law.
“Not one (chance) in a million,” was the phrase he claimed Tsipras used, similar to other language the Premier has used before reneging as well on issues such as pension cuts, the sale of state assets, taxes on low-and-middle-income families and saying he would not let banks foreclose on homes.
Most associations of pharmacy owners and pharmacists – all state licensed professionals – want to keep out super markets and other multinational retailers from selling prescribed medicines in the country.
Lourantos, among others, said the liberalization and letting pharmacies face competition, common in most other countries, would turn Greece into an East European country.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst.
NASHVILLE, ΤΝ – With a special event organized by the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy - U.
ASTORIA – Greek Minister of the Interior Niki Kerameus offered an informative presentation on postal voting in the upcoming European Union elections for Greek citizens in a well-attended event held at the St.
NICOSIA - A meeting between the ministers of energy for Cyprus and Israel - George Papanastasiou and Eli Cohen - led to an agreement that the countries would make an underwater electric cable link a top priority, linking them to Europe.
LONDON (AP) — The British Museum on Thursday appointed National Portrait Gallery chief Nicholas Cullinan as its new director, as the 265-year-old institution grapples with the apparent theft of hundreds of artifacts and growing international scrutiny of its collection.