A top discovery in Crete

The latest archaeological findings unearthed in Greece over the past year are in the top ten discoveries of 2010 list, published in the latest issue of Archaeology Magazine, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America.
The findings in question are Palaeolithic tools discovered in Plakias (Rethymno prefecture) on Crete.
According to the magazine, "the discovery of stone tools at two sites on the island of Crete that are between 130,000 and 700,000 years old was announced by a research team led by Thomas Strasser of Providence College and Eleni Panagopoulou of the Greek ministry of culture. The tools resemble those made by Homo heidelbergensis and Homo erectus, showing that one of these early human ancestors boated across at least 40 miles of open sea to reach the island, the earliest indirect evidence of seafaring.
"If hominins could move around the Mediterranean before 130,000 years ago, they could cross other bodies of water as well," said team member Curtis Runnels of Boston University, who helped analyse the tools."
Source: athensnews.gr

New Athens metro station

The Athens Metro's new station in the northern suburb of Aghia Paraskevi will be completed by the end of the year, Attiko Metro S.A. chief Christos Tsitouros announced on Thursday, during a visit to the construction site with European Investment Bank (EIB) vice-president Plutarchos Sakellaris. Sakellaris, in turn, said the EIB will continue to (ANA-MPA) co-finance projects such as the Athens and Thessaloniki metro networks.
Source: Express.gr

World AIDS Day observed throughout Greece

World AIDS Day, observed on December 1 each year, was marked throughout Greece with public awareness campaigns on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Informational material and condoms were given out by NGO volunteers and actors at several spots throughout Athens, who also shared out "FreeHugs" to passers-by in a move aimed to eliminate social racism against HIV carriers and to stress the fact that HIV is not communicated through social contact. Similar events were held throughout the country. According to statistics released by the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO), AIDS incidents have been on the rise in Greece in recent years, with 519 new cases reported this year up until October 31, bringing the overall number of HIV positive cases to 10,452 of which 80.9 percent (8,453) were men and 18.7 percent (1,951) were women, while no gender was reported in a small percentage of the cases. The number of children infected with AIDS remains small, however, with just 37 cases overall, of which 64.9 percent were infected by the mother. AIDS-related deaths this year, up to October 31, totaled 34.
Source: Express.gr