Daily Archives: July 17, 2014

Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, right, with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel. Photo: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as part of an effort to convince key leaders ahead of the troika review in September that Greece should be allowed to reduce taxes and increase the payment period for businesses and individuals who owe money to the state.

The two politicians met on the sidelines of a European People’s Party gathering in Brussels and ahead of a European Council dinner. There were no statements after their talks but sources on the Greek side said Samaras presented Merkel with Greece’s recent fiscal statistics and the figures concerning rising tourist arrivals. They also discussed Greece’s return to international bond markets and the growing investment interest from China.

Greek government sources insisted that there was no attempt by Samaras – nor will there be – to convince the country’s lenders to relax structural adjustment targets. Greece still has some 600 actions to carry out by the fall. Instead, Samaras wants to focus on the coalition’s desire to lower taxes and provide debtors with some breathing space. It is expected that after Wednesday’s talks with Merkel, he will promote this line in meetings with other eurozone leaders too.

The two leaders also discussed appointments to key European Union positions. Greece has yet to name its nominee for a position on the European Commission. Ex-Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and former Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis remain favorites for the post, although it is not yet known which portfolio will be awarded to Greece.

Source: ekathimerini

Sources says Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras presented Angela Merkel with Greece’s recent fiscal statistics and the figures concerning rising tourist arrivals.

Greek paramedics transport an injured tourist on a stretcher to an ambulance during a shootout in central Athens. Photo: EPA/ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU.

An Australian man has been injuring during a police shootout with a terrorist fugitive in Athens.

An Australian tourist has been taken to hospital in Greece after being in the firing line of Greek police chasing a terrorist fugitive.

The Australian man was one of four injured in a shootout in central Athens, that included a German tourist, and police officer and the accused fugitive, Nikos Maziotis.

Maziotis has been on the run along with his wife Panagiota Roupa since June 2012 following their release from jail in 2011 after serving the maximum 18 months in pre-trial detention.

Maziotis and Roupa were convicted in absentia last year and sentenced to 25 years for participation in Revolutionary Struggle, a group active between 2003 and 2009 and best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade into the US Embassy and bombing the Athens Stock Exchange.

The shootout happened in the crowded Monastiraki area on Wednesday and was witnessed by hundreds of bystanders.
Maziotis was shot by police and later taken to hospital to treat his injuries.

The Australian man injured was also taken to hospital with a leg wound, while the German tourist refused hospitalisation for his minor wounds.

The Australian was visited in the hospital by three cabinet members – Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni, Health Minister Makis Voridis and Public Order Minister Vassilis Kikilias.

Police Chief Dimitris Tsaknakis said Maziotis fired eight times from a handgun while being pursued and was fired upon and hit once in the shoulder by police.

A group of a few dozen protesters appeared late Wednesday night on the street outside the hospital, chanting slogans and holding a banner in support of Maziotis. They were met by riot police who prevented them from reaching the hospital entrance, and the protesters left shortly afterwards.

Source: news.com.au, ekathimerini

Australia is in a climate coma. The bitter five-year political tussle over carbon pricing has left us numb and weary of the debate.

The repeal of the carbon price in the Senate on Thursday had been coming for many months – many years really. It was probably a fait accompli the moment bipartisanship was abandoned late in 2009 when Tony Abbott became federal Liberal Party leader.

But we should not underestimate the moment’s significance.

A major reform, established in law and largely working, has been rescinded. This is not unheard of in Australian political history. But it is rare.

So with repeal, what has been lost?

Australia no longer has a hard cap on the amount of planet-warming gases that can be released by Australia’s largest companies.

The requirement for industry to take account of the broader social cost of their emissions is gone.

There is no longer an efficient mechanism to meet our domestic emissions reduction goals. Nor one that can also be easily scaled up to meet deeper cuts, the kind science demands to limit global warming to relatively safe levels.

There is no longer an architecture that can endure for decades to tackle a problem that requires a solution to be achieved over that time frame.

And Australia no longer has a long-term emissions reduction target enshrined in law – it was an 80 per cent cut by 2050 until today.

Peel back the edges and the Abbott government’s agenda on climate change is bigger than just ‘‘axing the tax’’, and more destructive.

It attacks clean energy. A self-described climate sceptic has been appointed to review the renewable energy target, with the suspicion it will be watered down. The profit-making Clean Energy Finance Corporation is up for abolition. As is the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

A program forcing big energy users to become more efficient with their power use was closed. International aid commitments to help the poorest countries with climate change are sneered at. Independent agencies advising on climate matters have been shut or are in the gun.

And the pretence that we may still seek to achieve anything more than a five per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 on 2000 levels (Australia has long had on the table an option to move to an up to 15 or 25 per cent cut) is largely gone. A government review of targets, both short and longer term, is due next year, but nobody is holding their breath.

To replace all this we are given direct action – a still not fully–formed incentives scheme with limited scope. It is not even second-best to carbon pricing. Hard regulation to cut emissions from transport, power plants and industry would be more effective.

The Coalition’s approach to climate change is political management. It seeks to avoid embarrassment on the domestic and world stage by doing the bare minimum and fiddling at the margins.

But what is the long-term plan? Even if direct action can get us to the 2020 goal (and many believe that it can’t) what comes next?

The science demands that emissions cuts do not stop in six years. To make the deeper cuts required we will need wholesale reform to the way our energy is produced. How we move ourselves around. How we make things.

Nothing in the Coalition’s cannon prepares us for this. The fact that some of its excesses have had to be corrected in part by Clive Palmer – a grandiose populist of William Randolph Hearst proportions – is an indictment.

Carbon pricing could endure. Alone it was not a panacea, but it was an effective central pillar to a long-term emissions reduction strategy. This is the view of the OECD, World Bank, the United Nations and many institutions like them.

On carbon pricing, Australia had got itself ahead of the curve, as it has so often on major economic reform. Doing that has always been to our advantage. We restructured ahead of others, lessened the associated pain and got on with embracing modernity.

In the two years since Australia’s carbon price came into effect, seven pilot schemes have been launched in China and perhaps the best scheme in the world started in California. Next year South Korea – our fourth largest-trading partner – begins its own national trading scheme.

Instead we have become the first country to roll back a carbon price.

This repeal is fighting against the future. That is a battle that is rarely won.

source: theage.com.au

Μία νέα πτυχή στο μυστήριο με το εξαφανισμένο Boeing 777 των μαλαισιανών αερογραμμών που εξαφανίστηκε από τα ραντάρ την 8η Μαρτίου, θέτουν στο τραπέζι των ερευνών οι ρωσικές μυστικές υπηρεσίες.

Σύμφωνα με πηγή της FSB (πρώην KGB), που επικαλείται η μαλαισιανή εφημερίδα Daily Star, το μοιραίο αεροσκάφος με τους 239 επιβαίνοντες δεν κατέπεσε στον Ινδικό Ωκεανό.
Αντιθέτως, λέγεται πως αεροπειρατές το οδήγησαν στο Αφγανιστάν, όπου το προσγείωσαν, με τους επιβάτες να είναι όλοι ζωντανοί και να «ζουν σε καλύβες, χωρισμένοι σε επτά ομάδες χωρίς σχεδόν καθόλου φαγητό».

Μάλιστα, όπως αναφέρει το δημοσίευμα 20 εκ των επιβατών, ασιατικής καταγωγής, έχουν μεταφερθεί στο Πακιστάν.

Αν το σενάριο αυτό ευσταθεί θα δώσει ελπίδα στις οικογένειες των αγνοουμένων που επί 34 ημέρες περιμένουν με αγωνία να μάθουν συγκεκριμένα στοιχεία από τις τοπικές αρχές για την τύχη των αγαπημένων τους.

Όλα αυτά τη στιγμή που νέα στοιχεία προκύπτουν σχετικά με την προσπάθεια του συγκυβερνήτη της πτήσης MH370 να πραγματοποιήσει τηλεφωνική κλήση ενώ το αεροσκάφος πετούσε πάνω από την περιοχή Πένανγκ της Μαλαισίας.
Όπως αναφέρει η τοπική εφημερίδα New Straits Times, ο συγκυβερνήτης Φαρίκ Αμντούλ Χαμίντ, επιχείρησε να πραγματοποιήσει κλήση από το κινητό τηλέφωνό του την ώρα που το αεροσκάφος πετούσε πάνω από την περιοχή Πένανγκ της Μαλαισίας.
Παρόλα αυτά, σύμφωνα με το δημοσίευμα η προσπάθειά του σταμάτησε απότομα καθώς το Boeing 777 απομακρύνθηκε από τους πύργους τηλεπικοινωνιών.
Μάλιστα, όπως διευκρινίζεται στο δημοσίευμα το αεροσκάφος πετούσε σε χαμηλό υψόμετρο εκείνη την ώρα και για αυτό το λόγο το κινητό τηλέφωνο του Φαρίκ Αμντούλ Χαμίντ είχε σήμα.

Ωστόσο, δεν έχει γίνει ακόμα γνωστό με ποιον προσπαθούσε να επικοινωνήσει, καθώς οι τοπικές αρχές, όπως τονίζει η τοπική εφημερίδα, απέφυγαν να αποκαλύψουν σχετικές πληροφορίες.

Η τελευταία του επικοινωνία, πάντως, πραγματοποιήθηκε μέσω WhatsApp στις 11.30 (τοπική ώρα) στις 7 Μαρτίου, λίγες ώρες πριν επιβιβαστεί στο αεροσκάφος των μαλαισιανών αερογραμμών και ξεκινήσει το ταξίδι προς το… άγνωστο.
«Ελέγχθηκε το ιστορικό στις κλήσεις του Φαρίκ και διαπιστώθηκε ότι ο τελευταίος άνθρωπος με τον οποίο συνομίλησε ήταν ένας από τους τηλεφωνικούς αριθμούς που καλούσε συχνά. Η κλήση αυτή πραγματοποιήθηκε περίπου δύο ώρες πριν απογειωθεί το αεροσκάφος από το αεροδρόμιο της Κουάλα Λουμπούρ», αναφέρει το κείμενο της εφημερίδας.

Σύμφωνα με συγγενικό του πρόσωπο, μάλιστα, ο άνθρωπος με τον οποίο θα ήθελε να μιλήσει εκείνη τη στιγμή, αν είχε αντιληφθεί ότι κάτι κακό συνέβαινε στο αεροσκάφος, ήταν η μητέρα του, με την οποία είχε πολύ στενή σχέση.
Πάντως, ο υπουργός Μεταφορών, Χισαμουντίν Χουσείν, δήλωσε πως δε μπορεί να επιβεβαιώσει τις νεότερες πληροφορίες, καθώς δεν υπάρχουν στοιχεία, ενώ τόνισε πως αν πράγματι ο πιλότος είχε επιχειρήσει να τηλεφωνήσει, θα είχε γίνει γνωστό νωρίτερα.

Και ενώ το θρίλερ συνεχίζεται, ο πρωθυπουργός της Αυστραλίας, Τόνι Άμποτ, δηλώνει πεπεισμένος ότι τα σήματα που έχουν λάβει τα αεροσκάφη που επιχειρούν στις έρευνες του εξαφανισμένου αεροσκάφους, προέρχονται από τα «μαύρα κουτιά» του Boeing 777.

«Έχουμε περιορίσει πολύ την περιοχή των ερευνών και είμαστε πεπεισμένοι ότι τα σήματα προέρχονται από τα μαύρα κουτιά», δήλωσε ο πρωθυπουργός της Αυστραλίας κατά τη διάρκεια επίσκεψής του στο Πεκίνο.

Πηγή gr.celebrity.yahoo.com

Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned the Labor Party and the Greens to pass tough budget measures through the Senate or the government will find other ways to push through savings.

But the opposition says if the government wants to “sneakily” avoid the Parliament it will have a case to answer with voters.

As the government prepares to front an extended Senate sitting to pass the mining and carbon tax repeals, Mr Hockey said he was prepared for “a marathon” negotiation to win the new Senate’s approval for unpopular budget measures, such as a new GP fee.

He said Labor and the Greens risked dealing themselves out of any political influence if they did not approach talks with an open mind.

“I say to Labor and the Greens, if your instinct is to say no immediately and to stick with that, you are dealing yourself out of having an influence on public policy,” Mr Hockey told ABC radio on Wednesday.

“Because if the immediate reaction is no with no opportunity to open discussion … then there are other alternatives that we can take.”

Mr Hockey said there were already budget measures that the government did not need legislation for.

He said if the government could not clinch the votes it needed on the Senate floor for proposals that would be presented as separate legislation, it would have no choice but to find alternatives.

Mr Hockey added that the warning was not “retribution” against an increasingly unpredictable Senate, and the government remained open to discussions.

”If the Senate chooses to block savings initiatives then we need to look at other savings initiatives that may not require legislation,” Mr Hockey said.

”I would ask the Greens and the Labor Party, who between them hold 35 votes on the floor of the Senate, to understand that there are alternatives through government.”

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the opposition was happy to negotiate with the government, but the Treasurer’s approach was all ”bluff and bluster”.

”If the Treasurer thinks he can sneakily get his changes through by somehow avoiding the Parliament well he should explain to the Australian people what he’s planning instead of the normal bluff and bluster we’re get from this guy,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

”What we’re seeing is pretty much a Prime Minister and a Treasurer who just think, well, we’ll arrogantly say what’s going to happen and we’ll just say that it will pass the Senate and saying it will pass the Senate means it will pass the Senate.

”Well that’s not how parliaments work.”

source: smh.com.au