Microsoft has announced plans to build three data centers in greater Athens, providing a badly needed investment of up to $1 billion to the Greek economy which has been hammered by the pandemic.
The news was announced Monday by the US tech giant and Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis and follows nine months of negotiations for an agreement that also includes digital-skills training programs for some 100,000 government and private sector workers as well as educators and students.
“This significant investment is a reflection of our confidence in the Greek economy, in the Greek people and the Greek government,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said at a ceremony held in the Acropolis Museum, facing the ancient site in central Athens. “It’s not something we do often and it’s not something that we do lightly.”
“We could not have taken this step today without the help and support of the Greek government,” he said.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will visit Athens Tuesday for talks with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
His visit to the Greek capital will come a day after he meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and other government officials in Ankara.
Last week, Stoltenberg announced that Greece and Turkey set up a mechanism to avoid accidental clashes in the Eastern Mediterranean, part of efforts to defuse a dispute over energy resources in the region.
A 60-year-old former convict was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the Athens district of Kalithea around 5 a.m. of Monday, police said.
Police identified the dead man as Evangelos Pallis, who built a notorious reputation under his nickname “Apache.”
The victim, who was recently released from jail, had been convicted of two homicides, in 1995 and in 2002. He played an active role in numerous prison riots, while in recent years he had developed ties with the local anarchist movement.
Police are investigating the killing.
After a huge battle with the blaze, the firemen managed to limit the fire that broke out on Sunday afternoon near the village Volimes on Zakynthos and burned a pine forest over the popular beach of Navaghio.
The firefighters set the blaze under control at very adverse weather condition with winds blowing up to 8 on the Beaufort scale .
A grader opened a way along the forest in the dark in order for the firemen to reach the blaze.
The death toll from the novel coronavirus has reached 412, after the death of two men, aged 68 and 95. New cases yesterday had reached 229.
Starting on Monday and by mid-October, classes will resume at universities and higher education institutes throughout the country with a strict regime in place to avoid the spreading of Covid-19, including the mandatory use of masks in all areas, and a mixed system of both physical and online classes, seminars and laboratories.
Physical attendance with masks and the necessary social distancing will be in place for classes and labs with up to 50 participants, while lectures and other events with more than number will be held remotely.
A climber was found unconscious on Olympus mountain and currently the rescue team is trying to the transfer him. The 41 year old man was found at the area Louki, a location that leads to the top of the mountain.
The Fire Brigade was informed on Sunday afternoon that a a man was missing and the rescue team reached a remote area and found the mountaineer and is being transferred to at a safe place.
100 new KTEL buses are now assisting OASA routes in remote areas, such as Pallini and Pendeli.
And the weather forecast…
According with the meteo service, the temperatures on Monday are expected to reach and exceed 35 Celsius with high humidity throughout the country something that favours the formation of fog.
Partly cloudy in Attica this afternoon with the temperature expected to reach a maximum of 31 degrees Celsius.
