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.
A report prepared as part of a suit being brought by three families of victims of the July 23 wildfires that killed 96 people – mirroring other probes – claims there was confusion in the response by authorities that made the death toll so high.
The report was compiled by a retired fire service officer, Andrianos Gourbatsis, who claimed there were a series of mistakes and oversights by former colleagues as well as police and local authorities blamed for hiding while the disaster struck at several points and destroying the seaside village of Mati northeast of Athens.
The 70-page report was prepared for lawyer Antonis Fousas, who is representing the families and who is expected to send it to prosecutors Ilias Zagoraios and Varvara Gnesouli who are handling an investigation into the blazes.
Prosecutors reports previously as well as that of Gourbatsis showed the worst fire broke out on Mt. Pendeli on July 23 at 4:35 p.m.,14 minutes before the first call to the fire service, based on a surveillance camera on a house, sources told Kathimerini.
With no disaster or evacuation plan in place and only a handful of boats dispatched to rescue people treading water in the sea for hours, where they had jumped to flee the flames and smoke in high winds, the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA-led coalition was blamed for failing to respond.
Other findings suggest there was confusion created by the proximity of the fires to each other. For several minutes, sources said, it appeared that smoke over Mount Pendeli could be coming from Kineta, western Attica, where the first major fire broke out.
The reports were said to have found that a high-ranking fire service officer who had been on duty in Kineta did not respond to an order to move to Mati. He reportedly said the day after that he ordered to move too late and that the Mati fire was already out of control.
Another 10 relatives of victims, who claimed family members died after being directed by traffic police into the Mati blaze, are expected to sue as prosecutors are expected to bring charges against suspects next month but the case is expected to stay in Greek courts for years.
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.
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.
ATHENS - The European Union needs to get involved in the case of the two-year jail sentence given ethnic Greek Fredi Beleri who was elected Mayor of the seaside town of Himare and said the trial was a farce to get him and protect Prime Minister Edi Rama’s business friends.
Brace yourself for what could be another scorching summer in Greece as scientists are anxious that a warm winter - the warmest January recorded - and climate change will continue to bring weather anomalies.