Daily Archives: November 1, 2015

Βρετανικά δημοσιεύματα συνεχίζουν να φέρνουν τον Ζοσέ Μουρίνιο σε δεινή θέση αναφορικά με το μέλλον του στον πάγκο της Τσέλσι. Σύμφωνα τουλάχιστον με τη Mirror, ο Ρόμαν Αμπράμοβιτς είναι έτοιμος να απολύσει για δεύτερη φορά τον Πορτογάλο προπονητή μετά την έκτη φετινή ήττα των «μπλε», με 3-1 από τη Λίβερπουλ το Σάββατο.

Mάλιστα δεν αποκλείεται αυτό να συμβεί ακόμη και πριν από τον αγώνα της Τετάρτης με τη Ντιναμό Κιέβου για το Champions League.

Ωστόσο ο Ζοσέ Μουρίνιο δήλωσε πως δεν ανησυχεί για τη θέση του και εξακολουθεί να νιώθει τη στήριξη της διοίκησης της Τσέλσι.

Ο Πορτογάλος είχε υπογράψει το καλοκαίρι νέο τετραετές συμβόλαιο έναντι 9,5 εκατ. λιρών το χρόνο και βάσει της συμφωνίας που έχει κάνει, εφόσον απολυθεί θα πρέπει να εισπράξει ως αποζημίωση το ετήσιο συμβόλαιό του.

Πηγή:in.gr

Δεν είναι η πρώτη φορά που ο Κώστας Μανωλάς έχει μπει στο στόχαστρο μεγάλων ομάδων. Σύμφωνα με δημοσίευμα του βρετανικού Τύπου Αρσεναλ και Τότεναμ εξετάζουν την περίπτωση του διεθνή αμυντικού.

Η «Sunday People» αναφέρει πως οι δύο Λονδρέζικες ομάδες επιθυμούν διακαώς την απόκτηση του Μανωλά και αναμένεται να κινηθούν επίσημα για την απόκτησή του. Όπως γράφει χαρακτηριστικά, Αρσεναλ και Τότεναμ τον παρακολουθούν εδώ και καιρό και δεν θα αργήσουν να καταθέσουν πρόταση.

Ο Μανωλάς πάντως δεν θα αποχωρήσει εύκολα από τη Ρόμα, καθώς οι ιθύνοντες της ιταλικής ομάδας υπολογίζουν πολύ στον Ελληνα αμυντικό και δεν επιθυμούν να τον πουλήσουν.

Πηγή:in.gr

Four major Greek banks must find up to 14.4 billion euros ($15.8 billion) to survive potential economic shocks, the European Central Bank said, releasing the results of an in-depth financial health check.

Weakened after years of recession, Greece’s banks took a further battering this year when the government pushed the country to the brink of a euro exit in a standoff with Berlin and Brussels over the terms of Greece’s international bailout.

While less than anticipated under the new aid package — Greece’s third since 2010 — the big four banks now have until Friday to explain how they will plug the capital hole on their balance sheets.

Greece’s Alpha Bank, Eurobank, the National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank were all submitted to a health check by the ECB known as a “comprehensive assessment”.

The health check comprises an asset quality review and a forward-looking stress test aimed at assessing “the specific recapitalisation needs of the individual banks” under Greece’s current economic adjustment programme.

“Overall, the stress test identified a capital shortfall across the four participating banks of 4.4 billion euros, under the baseline scenario, and 14.4 billion euros under the adverse scenario,” the ECB said.

That is less than the 25 billion euros earmarked for the recapitalisation of the four major banks in the 86 billion euro bailout package agreed between Greece and its creditors this summer.

Piraeus was the weakest, with an anticipated shortfall of nearly five billion euros in an adverse scenario.

The banks have until November 6 to submit plans showing how they plan to cover their shortfalls, as part of a recapitalisation process to be completed before the end of the year.

Raising fresh capital would “result in the creation of prudential buffers at the four Greek banks, which will improve the resilience of their balance sheets and their capacity to withstand (a) potential adverse macroeconomic shock,” the ECB added.

Any capital increase would be the third for Greece’s banks since the country got its first international bailout in 2010, and come ahead of new more stringent rules for European banks come into force in January.

On Friday, the Greek government submitted draft legislation to parliament paving the way for the recapitalisation process to begin on Monday.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos on Saturday praised the results of the stress tests and said he was “optimistic” over the process.

An ECB official said in a conference call: “Private investors’ contributions are expected to play a significant role in the capital-raising process by means of taking common shares.”

But if the private sector response is not sufficient, “the banks will enter into resolution,” the Greek finance ministry said earlier.

Analysts say Piraeus is the most exposed to bad loans because it has been a top lender to small and medium-sized Greek businesses that have particularly suffered under years of recession.

The bank on Saturday said it took bad loan provisions of 2.121 billion euros in the January-to-September period, down from 3.197 billion euros in the same period last year.

It reported a net loss of 635 million euros in the period, down 61 percent from last year.

The National Bank of Greece, meanwhile, reported a net loss of 1.614 billion euros for the second quarter, with provisions for bad loans in Greece soaring to 2.3 billion euros from 323 million in the first quarter.

Eurobank noted in a press release that it was ranked “as the Greek bank with the lowest, and fully manageable, capital needs under the… adverse scenario (reflecting) the soundness of the strategy we have been consistently implementing.”

source:au.finance.yahoo.com

Muslim children should not be forced to sing the Australian anthem and “de-radicalisation” is an agenda of forced assimilation, hundreds of Islamic men, women and children were told this morning.

More than 500 people flocked to a forum in south-western Sydney addressing the “criminalisation” of the Islamic community in Australia.

Organised by the controversial group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) – the organisation that former prime minister Tony Abbott wanted banned – the conference includes eight speakers.

Among them is Ismail al-Wahwah, the Sydney-based leader of HuT, who was filmed in two sermons last year describing Jews as the “hidden evil” and calling for a “jihad against the Jews”.

The conference hall, at The Bellevue function centre in Bankstown, was packed out.

It began on Sunday morning with a recitation from the Koran and the screening of a short video depicting the fictional path of a young Muslim from skipping an Anzac Day ceremony to their home being raided by police.

The first speaker, Uthman Badar, asked why Muslim children should be “forced” to sing the Australian anthem, which presents a “disputed view of history”.

Deradicalisation, the HuT spokesman said, was an “agenda of forced assimilation … justified by exaggerated fears of a security threat”.

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It was a “myth” that terrorism was a Muslim phenomenon, Mr Badar said.

Inside a glossy, 36-page booklet, distributed at the forum, one section tutors the community in how to respond when ASIO comes knocking.

Titled Don’t be Spooked: How to Deal with Spies, it cautions against befriending people with unexplained pasts.

“They appear out of the abyss, with pasts that either cannot be explained or do not make sense,” the article reads.

“Keep your guard up in such cases.”

It also warns against interacting with unknown people online – these, too, could be spooks.

And it reminds Muslims that they are under no obligation to meet anyone from ASIO unless they have a warrant.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to hide! Why the need to meet with an agency that treats the entire community as possessors of knowledge of criminal activities or similar?” it states.

“Even if the spooks turn up on your door step (again, not an uncommon occurrence), politely decline their request to talk and insist on your legal right not to.”

source:theherald.com.au

The cold case of the woman dubbed ‘Angel’ has haunted University of Wollongong facial anthropologist Dr Susan Hayes.

So when police this week publicly identified the woman whose skeletal remains were discovered in Belanglo State Forest in 2010 as Karlie Jade Pearce-Stevenson, Dr Hayes felt a sense of peace.
Now Karlie – and her daughter Khandalyce whose remains were mysteriously found near a suitcase in South Australia just three months ago – could finally return home to Alice Springs.

Dr Hayes – currently on an archaelogical dig on a remote Indonesian island – said the identification would also allow her to analyse her unique facial approximation technique.

‘’From what I saw (of Karlie’s photo) I think there are some aspects that worked well and others that could have been done differently,’’ she said.
‘’… But although the identification of ‘Angel’ is going to be very helpful at an academic level, the most helpful thing is that Karlie and her little daughter will finally get to go home.’’
A year to the day after Karlie’s remains were found, Dr Hayes had stood in the Glebe morgue with the young woman’s skull in her hands.

Dr Susan Hayes with the replica skull she uses to teach facial anthropology. Pictures: GRAHAM TIDY

Unable to discover her identify through traditional methods, police had turned to Dr Hayes to give a face to the woman they had dubbed ‘Angel’ – due to the word ‘Angelic’ found on her T-shirt.

Dr Hayes painstakingly built up the layers of flesh, muscle and then skin using computer imaging techniques and CT scans. It was a technique she had used many times – but this time it was different.
‘’All cases stand out, and all skulls are unique. But Karlie is more special than most because she died such a short time ago,’’ she said.
‘’Most of my research is with people who have only very distant relatives living today – or absolutely none at all.’’
This has included working with historical remains from a few hundred years ago, to putting a face to an 18,000 year old ancient species of hominid discovered in 2003 known as the ‘Hobbit’.

‘’Working with Karlie in 2011 meant many things to me, both personally and professionally, and she still does,’’ Dr Hayes said.
‘’When the NSW police requested my assistance this meant that my research findings would actually have the potential to be of help to Australian people.

‘’Working with Karlie also meant that I would be putting my research right on the line … it is only with forensic cases that I can see how effective my methods actually are.

‘’Working with historical, archaeological and palaeontological remains … I have no way of knowing how accurate the results are.’’

source:illawarramercury.com.au

Koala numbers in south-west Victoria are soaring, with conservationists saying local gum trees are housing more than 100,000 of the furry marsupials.

The Portland Field Naturalist Club estimates the district could be home to at least a quarter of Australia’s koalas, and possibly more, but it depends which statistics on koala numbers are used.

The latest Federal Government statistics put Australia’s koala population at just over 400,000, but the Australian Koala Foundation say the figure is much lower, at between 40,000 and 85,000.

In the Portland and Mount Eccles regions of south-west Victoria, the koalas are literally eating themselves out of house and home, destroying the natural landscape of the gum trees.

Conservationists believe the region is on track to a situation similar to that in Victoria’s Otways region, where increasing koala numbers have caused the animals to starve and led authorities to sterilise them.

They argue if stakeholders act now, they could avoid a koala welfare situation.

Doug Phillips, a conservationist with the Portland Field Naturalist Club, describes the situation as a potential ecological disaster.

“We have a massive over population, with what appears to be no natural breeding control,” Mr Phillips said.

“They [the koalas] are browsing woodlands that have been severely depleted historically.”

Resident’s perspective

Artist Brett Jarrett knows the plight of gum trees all too well.

His family moved back to Portland four years ago for serenity, but instead, Mr Jarrett spends his time shielding trees on his property from hungry koalas.

His property has two dedicated hectares of gum tree woodlands, which previously flourished with bird life and bugs.

It’s now bare and dying from koalas over-grazing and Mr Jarrett is rapidly witnessing the ecological demise around his home.

Initially he said it was joyful photographing the koalas on his property for his paintings.

“Then all of a sudden I realised I don’t have to search too hard,” he said.

He said it was concerning watching trees die.

Trees which you think are okay “just start dying, even with leaves on them,” he said.

“If you have a healthy living tree it supports so much.”

Instead of Mr Jarrett’s trees being home to reptiles, lizards and native birds, he said they now only support a few bugs.

“Other than that, that’s it, the tree serves no purpose whatsoever, to any other living thing.”

Mr Jarrett estimates his two hectares of woodlands is home to about fifteen koalas, while according to the local conservation group, the sustainable level of koalas is one per hectare.

In one tree alone, Mr Jarrett has three koalas.

“They’re not just coming for a social get-together, it’s because they’re looking for a tree that has good food on it and they’ll fight over it to claim the tree.”

Wildlife rescuer from the Mosswood wildlife rescue centre, Tracey Wilson, said the situation was close to a disaster and similar to what was happening in the Otways region.

“I think it’s a lot closer perhaps than what some people think,” Ms Wilson said.

The Portland Field Naturalist Club believes a multifaceted approach is needed to tackle the issue.

“It could include a combination of fertility control and translocation, but importantly the reinstatement of permanent habitat,” Mr Phillips said.

The conservation group have organised a meeting in coming weeks to discuss appropriate action.

source:abc.net.au