Greece

After taking its preseason camp to warmer weather this year with a trip to Orlando, the Union will travel to Greece, the Daily News has learned. A source close to the team said that following a weeklong session at youth affiliate YSC Sports in Wayne, beginning Monday, the Union will head to Orlando on Jan. 31, where it will stay until Feb. 20, followed by a 2-week stint in Greece. Exact venues for the Greek session are unknown. The Orlando trip is scheduled to include a friendly against Orlando City, of the USL's Professional League.

Julie Scully's friends and family can now begin to say goodbye. It's been a month since they learned she was killed in Greece by her boyfriend, an agonizing wait for her remains to be returned to South Jersey, where she lived. Now she's back, and those who knew her gathered at a funeral home in Bordentown last night to begin their long-delayed farewells. "She's home now," said close friend Susan White. "That's what's important - that she's home with us. " Another friend, Nancy Lambert, said it's a relief that Scully's body is finally back with loved ones.

Herodotus, the father of history and a great Greek historian who lived during Greece's golden age 2,500 years ago, says the Persian kings led armies against the Greeks because they did not want the sun to shine on any land but that of Persia. King Xerxes planned to make Persia so large that its territories ended at the sky. All those ambitions were wrecked with the Persian invasion of Greece. The defeat of the vast Persian army at Marathon in 490 B.C. stopped Persia's globalization project.

As they warmed up before yesterday's semifinal against Greece, the U.S. players put on a jam session for the fans. Dwight Howard dunked emphatically. Dwyane Wade bounced the ball off the backboard, caught it and stuffed. Elton Brand jammed an alley-oop pass. Finally, LeBron James flew down the lane for a tomahawk. As the crowd roared, the Greeks lined up at the other end and shot free throws. The moment foretold Greece's 101-95 victory in the semifinals of the world championships in Saitama, Japan.

NEW YORK - Stocks closed higher for the third day in a row Wednesday after Greece cleared a hurdle toward getting more emergency loans. Financial stocks rose after Bank of America reached a settlement with investors over failed mortgage securities. Greek lawmakers passed an austerity bill that brought the country closer to getting a financial backstop it needs to avoid defaulting on its debt. A default by Greece would shock global markets and freeze lending to other heavily indebted European countries.

NEW YORK - Signs of progress in Europe's debt crisis and an unexpected drop in unemployment claims pushed stocks higher Thursday, a day after the stock market took its worst fall since the summer. Greece named a new prime minister Thursday and Italy borrowed $6.8 billion at lower interest rates than analysts expected. Italy's benchmark rate dropped below 7 percent after spiking above that level Wednesday. Investors were also relieved by talk that the economist Mario Monti is likely to replace Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was seen as an obstacle to meaningful economic reforms.

The Union, preparing for their Major League Soccer season that begins March 19 in Houston, have wrapped up two weeks of training in Greece. Before leaving Heraklion, Crete, Union manager Peter Nowak said the trip went well. "It's been very good," he said. The team practiced for a final time Wednesday at Ergotelis F.C.'s Pancretan Stadium. "Everything around here was really first-class," Nowak said. "You can see how the players came together during meals and practices.

Resolutely slow and grim, Theo Angelopoulos' Landscape in the Mist is a road movie that winds down a bleak highway, making pit stops fueled with downbeat surrealism. Angelopoulos' vision of the world isn't a pretty one: figures silhouetted against reactor smokestacks and skeletal industrial towers; snow falling on boarded-up ghost towns; everything gray, gray, gray. It's Wim Wenders in a funk - and without the lyricism. The story of 14-year-old Voula (Tania Palaiologou) and her 5-year-old brother, Alexander (Michalis Zeke)

Greece earned its first World Cup soccer berth, becoming the second nation to qualify for the 1994 tournament, by tying Russia, 1-1, yesterday in Moscow. The tie gave Greece a 4-2-0 record and 10 points in European Group 5. The Greeks are one point ahead of Russia and seven ahead of Hungary and Iceland. Russia is virtually assured of qualifying. It merely has to get a tie from one of its three remaining matches to secure a berth in the 24-team field for the tournament, which will be played in the United States.

Greece held off a relentless Russian attack Saturday for a 1-0 win in Warsaw, Poland, that put the 2004 champions into the European Championship quarterfinals and eliminated heavily favored Russia. The Greeks took the lead just before halftime when Giorgos Karagounis sent a low shot under Russian goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev in the final touch of the first half. The Greeks then did what they do best: defend. "The moments are pure magic for all of us. This is a great night for all Greeks," Karagounis said.