Tag: greece

Majority in fires in Greece were started by ‘human hand’, official says

The majority of the fires which have ravaged Greece in recent weeks were started by “human hand”, one of the country’s top climate officials has said.

Greece’s climate change minister said 667 fires had erupted, as wildfires scorched hundreds of square miles of land outside Athens, on the island of Rhodes, and elsewhere this month.

Vassilis Kikilias told a news conference the vast majority of fires “were caused by human hands” and said they were “arsons either by criminal negligence or by intention”.

It comes as at least nine countries across the Mediterranean have been hit by wildfires, as extreme heat hitting the region has seen temperatures top 40C.

However, officials have also highlighted the role of climate change in the recent extreme heat across many European countries.

Mr Kikilias warned earlier that the climate crisis “brought us this unprecedented heatwave”.

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Newly discovered stone tools drag dawn of Greek archaeology back by a quarter-million years

Deep in an open coal mine in southern Greece, researchers have discovered the antiquities-rich country’s oldest archaeological site, which dates to 700,000 years ago and is associated with modern humans’ hominin ancestors.

The find announced Thursday would drag the dawn of Greek archaeology back by as much as a quarter of a million years, although older hominin sites have been discovered elsewhere in Europe. The oldest, in Spain, dates to more than a million years ago.

The Greek site was one of five investigated in the Megalopolis area during a five-year project involving an international team of experts, a Culture Ministry statement said.

It was found to contain rough stone tools from the Lower Palaeolithic period — about 3.3 million to 300,000 years ago — and the remains of an extinct species of giant deer, elephants, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and a macaque monkey.

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Greek Hospital Administrator Faces Criminal Prosecution for Reporting Nurse’s Paralysis after Second mRNA Shot

The nurse, whose name has not been disclosed, developed a fever, followed by excruciating pain throughout her body immediately after the second shot. She was rushed to the hospital when she was unable to move or feel her lower extremities.

Michalis Giannakos, President of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers (POEDIN), told Open TV in the East Attica region that X-rays came back clean. The nurse is now undergoing neurological assessments.

Giannakos said the nurse “was in perfect health” prior to receiving the second mRNA shot. It is believed that the nurse developed Guillain-Barré syndrome.

The neurological disease causes the immune system to attack nerves throughout the body. Giannakos said the nurse is now wheelchair bound.

He defended mRNA shots to an extent. But his human side displayed genuine passion for his injured colleague.

“We do not say anything bad about the vaccine, on the contrary, but the colleague is in a wheelchair and can not get up and has been terrorized,” he said. “I am fully aware of what I am saying. Doctors there also say that it is a side effect of the vaccine.”

It is unclear if she received the Pfizer or Moderna shots. But as of today, Greece has received nearly 800,000 Pfizer doses and 135,000 Moderna doses.

Criminal charges for reporting the truth?

The Prosecution of the Court of First Instance is considering pressing criminal charges against Giannakos. Greek media outlet Ethnos is reporting that a prosecutor is investigating if Giannakos committed the crime of “spreading fake news.”

His crime is expressing an mRNA adverse effect with “too much certainty.”

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