HomeboyMediaNews

The Security Council yesterday unanimously voted to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in divided Cyprus for another six months and to urge the rival Greek and Turkish sides to revive stalled settlement talks.

In extending the mandate of the UNFICYP force until next December 15, it called “upon all parties to immediately engage constructively with the UN efforts… to demonstrate measurable progress in order to allow fully fledged negotiations to begin and to cease mutual recrimination.”

In a first for the European Union, Cyprus adopted legislation yesterday that obliges retailers to put products with genetically modified (GMO) content on separate shelves from other food.

The law had been tabled by the Green Party two years ago and requires any products that contain a GMO content of more than 0.9 percent to be placed in a different display.

The USA warned Cyprus in 2005 that if it passed the law, it could contravene the island’s obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization.

A group including artists and Museum directors on Friday sent a letter to Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis asking him not to allow the Greek National Opera (GNO) to fire Stefanos Lazaridis as its cultural director.

The GNO’s board said on Tuesday that it wanted to dispense with Lazaridis’s services after a falling-out over the authority of various directors within the opera. Voulgarakis, who has the final say, has suggested he will back the board’s decision.

Greeks living abroad will be able to complete a larger number of transactions with Greece’s Foreign Affairs Ministry through KEP, the Citizens’ Information and Service Centers, terminals operating at their local embassy as of Monday.

Users of the terminals will also be able to obtain birth certificates and military service documents.

Greece’s Association for Male and Paternal Dignity is organizing an event at Syntagma metro station between noon and 2 p.m. on Sunday to mark Father’s Day.

Happy Father’s Day!

Nowhere is music more cutting edge than online. It’s the instantaneousness of it all. One day you have some lyrics on the PC screen, the next someone has made it into a song, and the day after it’s in the charts, on myspace or soundclick.

Where radio stations have failed abysmally in their support for local music, many artists now take matters into their own hands and make their myspace pages into their own form of media. So here are a few worth checking >

As the first woman music producer making crisp beatz, St3phanie knew she had a whole heap of odds going against her. Now studying music production in the UK, her myspace page www.myspace.com/st3phani3music gets a serious amount of hits each day. ‘3Stripe Productions’ is open for all kinds of collaborations and experiments. With over 30,000 plays online, St3ph’s page is one of the most popular music sites by an individual from Cyprus.

A Greek music online radio stream would have had a fairly limited market ten years ago with possibly 25 listeners being able to tune in at any given one time. Global Greek Radio works between two people Dino in New York and DJ Zeus in London. These days it’s a serious initiative with thousands of listeners tuning in www.myspace.com/globalgreekradio. With two live streams and three new ones to be launched, this site looks set to becoming even more popular in months to come.

A recent collaboration on a tune online via Spill The Milk Productions in the UK. As most good things often do, the project came about completely by accident. The artist having sent the audio file to Don V Louie at STM www.myspace.com/spilllthemilk.com rising roots reggae singer Aaron Kedar www.myspace.com/bongokanny was also in the studio and liked the vibes.

‘Babylon’ is the result of this new cyber collaboration. Check it out at www.soundclick.com/hajimike. This tune, being so different, will be a hit soon.

Finally, if comedy is what you after check Donald Mack’s  www.myspace.com/donald_mack. D entertains audiences with his charismatic humour which for the second year running will be happening at the Edinburgh Festival in August.

On the Greek-North American tip, Angelo Tsarouchas’ space is at www.myspace.com/funnygreek. Check the video section, stereotypically hilarious!

Softly gleaming in their plexiglas cases, the 50 pieces of ancient Greek and Roman gold jewelry from the distinguished Burton Y. Berry Collection at the Indiana University Art Museum are on exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art

  This gold and enamel Heracles-Knot Clasp with Eros is from the late Classical-early Hellenistic period, 325-250 B.C.

The pieces include rings, earrings, pendants, bracelets and diadems. The collection showcases Fowler, Ind., native Burton Berry’s finds during his travels and diplomatic work in southeastern Europe and the Near East. Berry, who died in 1985, donated his pieces to IU.

In the ancient world of adornment, golden cherubim ride garnet dolphins; claw-footed sirens are represented in gold pendants; and filigreed earrings swing gently from earlobes. Cloisonnι, granulation and filigree techniques are manifest in the pieces, which date from 700 B.C. to 472 A.D. Despite their age, the pieces would not look out of place beside current baubles.

“They look very, very modern,” said Martin Krause, IMA curator of prints, drawings and photographs. “But modern jewelry really looks very ancient.” The pieces, Krause said, show an “obvious progression” from Hellenistic through Roman periods.

“A Golden Legacy” is curated by Adriana Calinescu, curator of ancient art at IU’s museum in Bloomington. The jewelry display is running in conjunction with the IMA’s September exhibit, “Roman Art From the Louvre.”

A Golden Legacy: Greek and Roman Jewelry from the Burton Y. Berry Collection, The Alliance Gallery, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road. Through January 6. Free entrance. Information: (317) 923-1331, www.ima-art.org