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.
LESBOS, Greece (AP) — Most drowned making the hazardous sea crossing from nearby Turkey, while others died of natural causes in migrant camps on the Greek island of Lesbos.
After years of neglect, a makeshift burial ground for migrants on the island has been cleaned up and landscaped to provide a dignified resting place for the dead, and for their relatives to visit.
Earth Medicine, the Lesbos-based charity that handled the project near the village of Kato Tritos, formally handed over the redesigned cemetery to municipal officials on Wednesday.
“We wanted it to be clear that this was a burial ground, (mostly) for people who died at sea — some of whom have been identified while others have not,” Earth Medicine spokesman Dimitris Patounis said. “It used to be just a field.”
For years, Lesbos has been a major destination for people seeking a better life in the European Union. They leave Turkish shores crammed into small, unseaworthy vessels provided by smuggling gangs. About 3,800 people have made the journey so far this year.
Before the intervention, the weed-choked graves were marked by a simple stone with a number written on it by marker, or, in the rare cases when it was available, a name. Currently, about 200 neat, uniform gray slabs filled with white gravel cover each grave, clearly listing whatever is known of the occupant.
“Now people will be able to visit when their (dead) relatives are identified,” Patounis said.
Officials stress that the burial ground is nondenominational, with recent inhumation services conducted by an Imam, a Greek Orthodox or a Catholic priest, according to the deceased’s known beliefs.
“This was done with human dignity in mind, without any religious affiliation,” Patounis said.
The cemetery lies about a kilometer (½ mile) outside Kato Tritos in central Lesbos, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the island capital of Mytilini. Other migrants have been buried in the past in municipal cemeteries in other parts of the island, but this is the only burial ground specifically for migrants.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Morgan Freeman spoke the words, but pretty much everyone who took the stage at the presentation of the AFI Life Achievement Award agreed: “ Nicole Kidman.
THESSALONIKI - Russian assassins who carried out bombings and poisonings in Europe found haven in a hotel in northern Greece operated by two Russian-born Czechs who were spies for Russia and operating a hotel, The Insider site said.
HOUSTON, TX – The Rothko Chapel announced on April 22 that it has received a $1 million grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the international philanthropic organization that supports a wide variety of projects and nonprofits in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare.
ATHENS - With June elections for the European Parliament coming the former spokesman for the ruling New Democracy government, Aris Spiliotopoulos, has left the Conservatives for its major rival, the SYRIZA Leftists.
ATHENS - Beachgoers in Greece will be able to use a new mobile app to report whether public beaches are being exploited by businesses that the government allows in most cases to use half the area for profit.