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.
NEW YORK – Bestselling mystery author Jeffrey Siger presented his new book, The Mykonos Mob, at The Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan on May 1. The book is the 10th in the series featuring Inspector Andreas Kaldis.
According to the book’s description, the case begins for Athens’ Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis with a literal bang when a corrupt former police colonel who runs a protection racket on Mykonos is gunned down. Suddenly, Kaldis is face-to-face with Greece’s top crime bosses on an island whose natural beauty and reputation as an international playground belies the corruption lurking just beneath the surface.
While Kaldis and his Special Crimes unit wrestle for answers, Andreas’ wife, Lila, meets an American expat named Toni, a finder of stolen goods and a piano player in a gender-bending bar who has a zest for life and no apparent regard for rules. As Lila and Toni bond over a common desire to mentor young island girls trapped in an exploitative and patriarchal culture, they soon find that their efforts to improve the lives of the Greek girls they’ve come to care about intersect with Andreas’ investigation in ways that prove to be dangerous for all involved.
Jeffrey Siger was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, practiced law at a major Wall Street law firm, and later established his own New York City law firm where he continued as one of its name partners until giving it all up to write full-time among the people, life, and politics of his beloved Mykonos.
At the presentation, the author spoke about the book, his love for writing, his love for Greece, and how much Mykonos has changed over the last few decades. “In addition to the success my books have come to know, what matters to me is that I really have an amazing time writing them,” Siger cheerfully told the audience.
About the changes that Mykonos has undergone in recent decades, he said, “When I first came to Mykonos, about 35 years ago, the development had just begun, but there were still endless pieces of uninterrupted beach. There were locals who had their own shops. Although it was already known as the island of entertainment, the environment remained simple and intimate. The woman who determined the course that the island later took and increased its popularity was Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
“European and American tourists flocked to the island, first for the hospitality and then for the freedom to do whatever they wanted. Much has changed since then, of course. Traveling now to Mykonos, you find endless clubs and most of the land has been filled with villas, hotels, expensive stores. Nowadays, the Mykonians, who formerly ran their own shops, closed them and now rent them out with exorbitant rents, which they themselves never imagined they could get.”
Siger, who lives half the year in Greece and the other half in America, said the plot of his next book would revolve around the island of Naxos. From time to time, his realistic way of writing has coincided with actual events unfolding after the publication of his books, with the result that many critics call his work “prophetic.”
Reading a news article from The National Herald, he highlighted the similarities with his book Mykonos Mob, and said jokingly, “I guess there’s a reason my publisher has called me ‘Cassandra’ for a long time. Perhaps I should start thinking seriously about what the end will be for those who foresee the future.”
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.
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ATHENS - PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis, speaking at the Hellenic Parliament on Thursday, emphasized that there is "an established belief among the Greek people" that the government "operates as a well-oiled machine of corruption, cover-up, and propaganda.
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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.