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 – While the European Union said Russia’s turning off the gas for Poland and Bulgaria was “blackmail” retaliation for sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis moved to deal with more potential fallout.
He called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet as Greece – like the EU – gets up to 40 percent of its energy from Russia and he was among the first to show support for Ukraine and send arms.
Relations with Russia have worsened as well after Greece expelled a dozen Russian diplomats and Moscow warned that it wouldn’t go unanswered as the stakes were growing higher rapidly.
Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas was to give a briefing on what position Greece is in with worry that Russia would extend the shut-offs to countries who won’t pay in roubles.
Mitsotakis held a telephone call with his Bulgarian counterpart Kiril Petkov offering aid, said Reuters, as the gas cut-off came after Greece said it wanted to buy nuclear energy from its neighbor.
“The prime minister said that Greece will help Bulgaria to deal with the new situation caused by the Russian decisions on energy,” Mitsotakis’ office said in a statement, without providing further details.
A Greek source close to the matter told Reuters that Greece could help Sofia by reversing the flow of the TurkStream pipeline, a mechanism that has been used before. The pipeline brings in Russian gas to Greece via the Black Sea, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Mitsotakis said a long delayed gas link, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), should be ready by June, Petkov said.
“He (Mitsotakis also confirmed joint actions for diversification through liquefied natural gas,” Petkov added.
Greece’s next payment to Gazprom is due in May under a contract that expires in 2026 but Mitsotakis hasn’t said if it will comply with Russia’s roubles payment demand but that plans are being worked out if the gas is shut off.
Under a contingency plan, Greece has said it could get additional liquefied and pipeline gas from Azerbaijan and switch four gas-fired electricity plants to diesel. It will also ramp up coal mining in the next two years as a temporary measure although environmentalist groups criticized returning to that fuel to produce electricity even though energy prices are soaring.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — It was in the den that Karen Goodwin most strongly felt her son’s presence: On the coffee table were his ashes, inside a clock with its hands forever frozen at 12:35 a.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A bus carrying worshippers on a long-distance trip from Botswana to an Easter weekend church gathering in South Africa plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass Thursday and burst into flames as it hit the rocky ground below, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.