[CA.REUTERS] Euro zone officials sought to wring policy concessions from Greece on Wednesday to unlock urgently needed aid after Athens said it would present a list of reforms for legislation to show it is serious about implementing its promises.
The draft bill was not expected to include major novelties beyond measures already discussed with EU and IMF lenders, but Athens is hoping it will speed up slow-moving talks and permit at least an initial deal to ease its searing cash crunch.
The reforms, including some privatizations and tax steps, were to be outlined to senior euro zone finance ministry officials in Brussels on Wednesday. They will be assessed in more detail when technical-level teams from Greece and the lenders meet on Thursday, Greek government officials said.
Despite lenders' scepticism, Greece's government is hoping an interim deal can be struck before a May 12 payment of 750 million euros to the IMF that Greek officials have suggested could be difficult to make without more aid.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... a senior euro zone official involved in the talks said that to secure any deal, Greece would have to make a substantial concession on at least one of three disputed issues - pensions, labor market reform and taxation.
"We need to see a very significant policy move on the Greek side this week to recreate confidence the process," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... .
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Despite lenders' scepticism, Greece's government is hoping an interim deal can be struck before a May 12 payment of 750 million euros to the IMF that Greek officials have suggested could be difficult to make without more aid.
I need a loan to pay the loan. This has been repeated over and over. A financial Charlie Brown and Lucy and a football.
Charlie Brown = Eurozone officials
Lucy = Greek govt
Football = Unpaid loan of 240 billion Euros
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/30/2015 11:25 Comments ||
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#2
The debt cannot be repaid therefore it will not. Everyone involved is trying to find some other patsy to get stuck holding it.
[AnNahar] A Turkish court on Wednesday acquitted more than two dozen activists who helped launch mass protests in 2013 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... , after a trial slammed by rights campaigners.
The 26 suspects are all leaders of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of civil society, union and political groups at the forefront of the May-June 2013 demonstrations that marked the biggest challenge yet to the dominance of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The activists, including doctors, architects and engineers, had been charged with setting up a crime syndicate, violating public order and organizing illegal protests through social media. They faced years in prison.
"All of us were acquitted," Mucella Yapici, one of the leaders, told AFP. "It was an absurd case which meant to declare Taksim Solidarity a criminal organization."
The suspects went on trial at an Istanbul court in June 2014 a year after the protests, which started as a small environmental battle to save Gezi Park -- one of the few green spots in the country's mega city.
The protests snowballed into a nationwide wave of anger against Erdogan, then prime minister, and were ultimately put down by the police.
Rights campaigners had called for the charges to be dropped, with Amnesia Amnesty International calling the hearing a "politically motivated show trial."
Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... researcher at Human Rights Watch ... During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, HRW received a pledge from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, of which George Soros is Chairman, for general support totaling $100,000,000. The grant is being paid in installments of $10,000,000 over ten years.Through June 30, 2013, HRW had received $30,000,000 towards the fulfillment of the pledge.... , wrote on Twitter after the court order that for the government the acquittals were "unimportant."
"Seeing critics stand trial is a means to discredit and harass them," she said.
Suspects at the hearing defended their involvement in the group.
"It is an honor for me to be a leader of an organization in this case," Beyza Metin told the court, according to the private Dogan news agency.
"There is no violence in the activities of Taksim Solidarity," she said.
Erdogan has repeatedly condemned the protesters as "terrorists" who sought to undermine the state and warned that the government will take a tough line against street unrest.
The acquittals come two days ahead of the May 1 labor day holiday which in Turkey is traditionally marked by protests which in the past have often led to festivities with police.
This year will be the first May 1 marked since the government pushed controversial legislation through parliament giving the security forces greater powers to crack down on protests.
#2
Low profile holster. Beats the 7 second rule by 5 seconds. What's not to like? Best to be wary of the woman you tick off--she might win the final argument. I'm not sure how comfortable the holster might be.
The schizophrenic Brazilian man killed by an Indonesian firing squad alongside Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran did not realise he was about to be put to death moments before he was gunned down.
"Am I being executed?" Rodrigo Gularte, asked the Irish priest appointed as his spiritual advisor as he was transported to the execution field...
Gularte, 42, was arrested in 2004 trying to smuggle six kilograms of cocaine into Indonesia in surfboards.
He was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was 16 years old. He talked to animals and was afraid of electromagnetic waves from satellites watching him above his prison on Nusakambangan island.
Father Burrows also described to RTE the scene on the execution field as all eight condemned men were tied to crosses.
Medical records obtained by his legal team reveal (Gularte) was first diagnosed with cerebral dysrhythmia when he was 10 years old.
His legal team had 22 documents relating to his mental illness and were baffled that this was not brought up by his previous lawyers during Gularte's trial.
They had attempted to argue that Gularte should be hospitalised, not executed.
In 2014 the Brazilian Embassy requested Gularte be transferred to a mental institution but Indonesian authorities never responded.
#1
they were tied to crosses. The Islamist Bali bomber was let out after serving just 5 years of a 10 year sentence. Sharia has been implemented in Aceh. The MUI has just passed a fatwa calling for the beating and murder of homosexuals.
Look sharp to Indonesia because Islamist fascism is rising
#4
I won't get too indignant about the execution of drug dealers. It's not like they didn't know the risk, as Indonesia (and Singapore, and Malaysia) makes it clear at every port of entry.
But anon1 has a point: the Bali bomber got off with a light sentence, whereas the drug mule was executed. Something's not right in that picture, and I know at least one of things that isn't right.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2015 8:23 Comments ||
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#5
Doesn't bother me.
There are multiple reasons to have a death penalty. One of them is to remove from society those who utterly reject its most fundamental rules - or are unable to abide them for any reason. This is an example of a healthy society protecting itself, not a punishment per se which would require that the executed person understand what's going on.
The looting and street violence that roiled Baltimore this week shows why it is a big mistake to shut down the city's recreation centers, many residents say, fearing the closures make it more likely that young people get in trouble with the law.
The rampage by mostly youthful crowds on Monday, sparked by the death of a 25-year-old black man who was injured while in police custody, was a painful reminder that young people badly needed after-school programs and recreation centers, they said.
"In many areas of the city there are no viable recreational activities for young people. That's where we find ourselves at this point," said Douglas Miles, a Baptist bishop and a former co-chairman of Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, an advocacy group.
Since 2012, Baltimore has unloaded 14 of 55 centers in an overhaul of its recreation programs, a move forced in part by the city's strained finances and long-term decline of its population. Four were closed, and 10 were transferred to private organizations or to the school system.
Across the street from the shuttered Parkview Recreation Center and just blocks from where Gray was arrested on April 12, residents said the closure of the facility gave neighborhood youth few choices when school was out.
When I was younger, I used to wonder if I'm crazy---or the rest of the World are. Then I gave up wondering, and just tried to stick with my own kind.
#1
....fearing the closures make it more likely that young people get in trouble with the law.
So, what you're saying is that they, the youths, are predisposed to destructive criminal behavior and must be diverted like a dog with games of 'fetch'? Why isn't this predisposition found in youths of other communities that already lack recreation centers?
#5
And shutting down the crowds at Orioles games likely cut paychecks for lower class blacks/whites working concessions and security.
We didn't have great afterschool programs when I was growing up. That's why we rioted and burned down our businesses and residences. Oh...wait. We didn't
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/30/2015 8:52 Comments ||
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#6
Let it burn, let it burn
Gotta give room to destroy
Let it burn, let it burn
Turn my back and slam the LEO
And here I stand
And here I'll say
Let it burn, let it burn
You just didn't hear me right anyways
Posted by: Black Charlie Bonaparte8627 ||
04/30/2015 9:43 Comments ||
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#8
IMO that a great number of these protesters bring a screwed up life and a lot of ancillary issues to the protests. What they are protesting is the screwed up life and has little to do with whatever happened or didn't happen.
#9
First I had heard Thug as racist - as I grew up with rappers touting thug life as romantic - was The Thug Cycle incident. Looking it up, that was January-ish 2014.
Great synopsis here:
BTW - so not safe for work or kids or grandma, etc.
#10
Etymology experts have traced the word thug to the Hindi word meaning a cheat or a swindler. Colonial accounts speak of groups of Thugs who practiced Thuggee and would rob and kill travelers. Some accounts describe these Thugs as belonging to a religious cult that worshipped the goddess of death and destruction and killed in order to please her.
#11
Glenmore, I believe that description is the one that was generally used at least since the Victorians. I certainly remember it from my youth in the 50's & 60's especially related to Sherlock Holmes.
#13
Procopius2k, Foster City, a very white upper middle class San Francisco suburb had huge problems with the teenagers back in the 70s until they built parks and a recreation area.
#14
I've been watching the riots in Ferguson, Baltimore, and NYC. Other places as well. The murders of the LOE officers in NYC who were sitting in their car was a terrible thing.
I've noticed the black violence in American cities is not so much different than the Islamic thug violence in the mideast. Both thug factions demean and devalue life.
#15
The Thuggees worshipped Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction and renewal. See here. The British Empire disapproved, and Took Steps. There weren't any Thuggees after that.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CA.REUTERS] Euro zone officials sought to wring policy concessions from Greece on Wednesday to unlock urgently needed aid after Athens said it would present a list of reforms for legislation to show it is serious about implementing its promises.
The looting and street violence that roiled Baltimore this week shows why it is a big mistake to shut down the city's recreation centers, many residents say, fearing the closures make it more likely that young people get in trouble with the law.
