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, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities on Tuesday evacuated a children’s hospital and a retirement home on the outskirts of the southern city of Patras after a summer wildfire flared in the area amid hot, windy weather.
Fire service spokesman Vasilis Vathrakoyiannis said the evacuations were carried out as a precaution and a large firefighting effort was paying off. No injuries were reported. Around two dozen children in all were evacuated, health officials said.
Vathrakoyiannis said no houses were under threat from the blaze, which raged through a pine forest on the fringes of the city that’s some 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Athens.
“The fire took on enormous dimensions very fast,” he told state-run ERT television. “The front and its dynamic have been contained.”
“We’re just dealing with scattered points of fire now,” he added. About 80 firefighters, assisted by 10 water-dropping aircraft, were trying to extinguish the blaze.
Other blazes were raging in at least three parts of Greece Tuesday.
The country suffers from devastating wildfires every summer, and last year more than 20 people died in the blazes.
Authorities have warned of a high wildfire risk this week.
Vassilis Kikilas, the minister responsible for civil protection, said a lack of winter rains, combined with high temperatures in the spring, make this summer the most difficult in the past 20 years for dealing with wildfires.
“Most of the country is at a high and a very high risk of fire (on Wednesday) due to the heat and very strong winds,” he said.
Civil protection authorities said nearly 1,300 wildfires broke out across the country last month, more than twice as many as in June 2023.
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 Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday killed at least four people and triggered a fire that swept through a tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.
NEW YORK – Greek-American Dimitrios Kalaitzidis, 26, of Astoria was killed after crashing his motorcycle near Citi Field on October 7, the Astoria Post reported.
NEW YORK – After sold-out screenings and fascinating Q&As, the Hellenic Film Society’s New York Greek Film Expo wrapped up at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria on October 13.
ATHENS — A Greek official on Tuesday criticized the outgoing European Commission for failing to forge a common policy to deport migrants, and she warned that war and climate change were increasing global displacement.
BOSTON, MA – The Alpha Omega Council has announced its distinguished honorees for the 2024 Lifetime Achievement, Philhellene, and Emerging Leader awards to be presented at the anticipated annual Honors Gala November 2 at the InterContinental Boston.