Tag Archives: Afghanistan

Image mf.gif

Russia isolated on Syria at G8

||

Related

G8 protests call for action on Syria and tax evasion 17/06/2013 18:36 CET
G8 leaders push for transatlantic trade deal but it’s… 18/06/2013 02:07 CET
Egypt: Mursi cuts ties with Syria, calls for no-fly… 16/06/2013 01:45 CET
Qusair battle rages, as US-Russia relations sour over… 31/05/2013 20:04 CET
Assad reveals Syria has received first shipment of… 30/05/2013 09:46 CET

The second and final day of the G8 summit sees the heads of state and government attempting to stride boldly into the Syrian conflict and questions of terrorism, and find solutions.

However the unity on show for the world’s press has a huge crack in it, as Russian President Vladimir Putin finds himself increasingly isolated as the other leaders close ranks and try to get him to tone down his support for Bashar al-Assad.

Russia’s line, that it is better to have the devil you know in Damascus rather than taking a high-risk roll of the dice by backing the opposition and possibly sowing instability, is being drowned out by the rising civilian casualty figures in Syria.

Putin’s discomfort was plain for all to see, and smiles and handshakes cannot detract from the real possibility the leaders may issue a Syria statement as the G7, with Russia abstaining.

More about: , , ,

Copyright © 2013 euronews

||

JavaScript is required in order to view this article’s accompanying video

Read More

Image mf.gif

Signal received, Greek court orders ERT reopening

||

Related

Greece’s state TV to reopen after court ruling 18/06/2013 04:06 CET
Workers at Greek TV station vow to fight on 18/06/2013 04:06 CET
Greek court orders state broadcaster to reopen 17/06/2013 22:30 CET
Greek PM Samaras offers partial re-opening of ERT 15/06/2013 00:55 CET
Greece’s ERT stays on air despite plug pulled 15/06/2013 02:36 CET

Getting ready to go back on air, a Greek court has ruled that state broadcaster ERT must have its signal restored.

Though all sides appear to claim victory the news is bitter-sweet for ERT’s 2,700 employees who found themselves out of a job six days ago. It is not clear how many of them will be re-hired by the new broadcaster NERIT, or even how many will resume work in the interim period.

“It is the government’s responsibility to turn the signal back on. They should have already done that. We question why they haven’t done it yet. We question why they have not said anything about this,” said ERT Union President Panagiotis Kalfagiannis.

The ruling appears to support the Greek prime minister’s plan for a cheaper, streamlined broadcaster to replace ERT eventually.

It has also settled disputes between the Greek coalition partners which threatened to send the country back to the ballot box.

The Greek government has not come out of the controversy unscathed. The coalition will meet again for talks to bridge the gap created by the latest measures taken to please international lenders.

More about: , , ,

Copyright © 2013 euronews

||

JavaScript is required in order to view this article’s accompanying video

Read More

Image mf.gif

US presidents and Berlin

||

Related

Protesters greet Myanmar leader Sein in US 21/05/2013 02:34 CET
Obama renews efforts to shut down Guantanamo 30/04/2013 23:05 CET
US presidents turn out for opening of George W. Bush… 26/04/2013 00:35 CET
Obama: budget sticking resumes 10/04/2013 19:16 CET
Obama seeks budget deal with Republicans 10/04/2013 19:25 CET

Berlin has been getting ready for Obama. The second-term US president will give a speech in the symbolic city on Wednesday.

Barack Obama is still popular with Berliners, but not with the same rapture as in 2008, before his historic first entry into the White House. Then, Obama said: “This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom.”

Berlin has been inspiring American presidents for 50 years.

Kennedy declared US support for democratic West Germany two years after the Eastern Bloc Communists isolated West Berlin by land by building the Wall. His words rang around the world.

Kennedy said: “As a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’”

Michael Haltzel, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, and a former vice-presidential adviser, told euronews correspondent Stefan Grobe: “Absolute jubilation, it was brilliant. I can’t think of another visit by any American president anywhere that had that kind of immediate emotional impact. It was fantastic.”

Haltzel contrasted Kennedy’s oratory with Reagan’s speech shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union more than 20 years later, when he demanded his counterpart in Moscow prove he was sincere about perestroika.

In 1987, Reagan said: “Mister Gorbachov, open this gate.”

Haltzel said: “I think this was a very important speech and I think a welcome speech. And I don’t think the reaction that President Reagan got in Berlin at that time is remotely comparable to the reaction John Kennedy got in ’63, but it was a different time.”

Clinton and Chancellor Kohl strolled through the Brandenburg Gate in 1994 once Germany’s eastern and western halves had again become one country, after the Iron Curtain no longer divided Europe.

Clinton said: “Nothing will stop us; all things are possible: nichts wird uns aufhalten, alles is möglich, Berlin ist frei! Berlin is free!”

Haltzel said: “It was the right thing to say at the time. It was a few years after German reunification. I think he was praising normality – which is always a good thing. But I don’t think it compares either with the ’63 speech by Kennedy or the ’87 speech by Reagan.”

More about: , , , , ,

Copyright © 2013 euronews

||

JavaScript is required in order to view this article’s accompanying video

Read More

‘The Americans have been Dishonest Negotiators’ says Afghan Militants’ Representative

The Political Chief of Hizb-e-Islami, one of the three main factions fighting Nato in Afghanistan, tells the Real News that his group has withdrawn from peace talks Read More

Image mf.gif

No let up as ‘record floods’ sweep Germany and Poland

||

Related

Central Europe record floods force thousands to… 10/06/2013 12:32 CET
Record-breaking river levels start to fall in Hungary 10/06/2013 18:36 CET
Germany floods: dyke collapses near Magdeburg 09/06/2013 14:56 CET
Budapest battles the rising waters of the Danube 09/06/2013 21:46 CET
Flooding sweeps north in Europe 05/06/2013 04:07 CET

Flooding has continued to cause misery in Germany after a dam broke in the Fischbeck area in the north east on Monday.

Over the weekend, around 23,000 people had to leave nearby Magdeburg, as water levels in the Elbe rose to a record of 7.48 metres, around 5 metres above normal.

Volunteers in the city worked hard to save an important electric substation.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, continued her tour of flood-hit regions, visiting Wittenberge on Monday. The Chancellor praised the hard work of those dealing with the floods: “The people have been very impressive, both those who are volunteers, and also those who organise it professionally.”

She added: “On behalf of the federal government, I can tell you that we have chosen to give immediate and unbureaucratic help. That is the first step, but we know of course, that the damage will amount to several billions (of euros).”

A broken dam built to contain the swollen Elbe river during floods is pictured in front of the village of Fischbeck in the federal state of Saxony Anhalt, June 10, 2013. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

A helicopter of the German armed forces Bundeswehr drops sandbags next to a broken dam built to contain the swollen Elbe river during floods near the village of Fischbeck, in the federal state of Saxony Anhalt, June 10, 2013. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

A partially submerged billboard on a tramstop is seen on the flooded embankments of the Danube River in Budapest June 10, 2013. The Hungarian capital escaped damage from the swollen river Danube, which peaked at record high levels in Budapest overnight and started receding slowly on Monday morning. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh

A thin film of mud covers a BMW convertible after the floods of the nearby Danube river subsided at a car dealership in Fischerdorf, a suburb of the eastern Bavarian city of Deggendorf June 10, 2013. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and there have been at least a dozen deaths as a result of floods that have hit Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic over the past week. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

A wooden pallet and burning wood got stuck between two cars after the floods of the nearby Danube river subsided at a car dealership in Fischerdorf, a suburb of the eastern Bavarian city of Deggendorf June 10, 2013. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and there have been at least a dozen deaths as a result of floods that have hit Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic over the past week. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

A ticket booth for cruise ships is seen submerged in water along the banks of the flooding Danube River in Budapest June 10, 2013. The Hungarian capital escaped damage from the swollen river Danube, which peaked at record high levels in Budapest overnight and started receding slowly on Monday morning. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh

Houses are pictured surrounded by floodwaters from the Danube river in Szentendre, 20km (12.4 miles) north of Budapest, June 10, 2013. The Hungarian capital escaped damage from the swollen river Danube, which peaked at record high levels in Budapest overnight and started receding slowly on Monday morning. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

In Poland, Sunday’s storms almost paralysed the city of Warsaw with around 30 litres of water falling per square meter in a three hour period.

Firefighters had to free people from eight trapped cars. Four underground stations on the city’s subway were flooded, leaving train services suspended for almost two hours.

More rain is forecast throughout Poland.

More about: , , , ,

Copyright © 2013 euronews

||

JavaScript is required in order to view this article’s accompanying video

Read More

Image mf.gif

Bosnians demand government restores infant ID papers

||

Anti-government protests in Bosnia have stretched into a second week, with hundreds of people marching through Sarajevo’s streets to parliament on Monday.

Angry young parents besieged parliament, demanding lawmakers pass a law on national ID numbers, which citizens need to obtain passports and other documents.

The old law lapsed in February, leaving all babies born in the country since then without personal documents.

“This could mean the beginning of changes. We are not going to
make or change laws in the street, but this could be the start of 
talks about implementing the laws and not just offering us some
temporary solutions,” said student Denis Hadzic, from Cazin.

“Twenty years after the war, Bosnia hasn’t moved one step forward, 
but every day it goes further backwards,” said student Enesa Smajic who is from Travnik.

The protest began to express general dissatisfaction with the government, but the identity papers issue is an emotive one as some parents need to take their children abroad for vital medical treatment, and having no papers makes everything more complicated.

More about: ,

Copyright © 2013 euronews

||

JavaScript is required in order to view this article’s accompanying video

Read More

Image mf.gif

Remembering Scottish writer Iain Banks

||

Related

‘Wilt’ author Tom Sharpe dies aged 85 06/06/2013 20:54 CET
Venice Art Biennial opens doors for 2013 02/06/2013 11:26 CET
Donkey Lola’s braying too loud for Brussels neighbours 01/06/2013 09:20 CET
Stars are again out in force in Cannes 23/05/2013 00:05 CET
Seventh day of Cannes Film Festival 22/05/2013 00:34 CET

Famous for his unique writing skills, and an ability to move smoothly from reality to science fiction, Iain Banks has now stepped beyond the limits of science fiction and crossed over to eternity.

Aged just 59 and one the world’s most well-known authors, Scottish-born Banks died of cancer on June 9 2013, less than two weeks before the publication of his final novel, which is being seen as a kind of a personal requiem.

Last April, Banks revealed that he had been diagnosed with late-stage cancer of the gall bladder. In his last novel, titled ‘The Quarry’ due to be released on June 20 in UK and on June 25 in the US, the prolific writer describes the final weeks of a middle-age man fighting against cancer.

Banks’ sense of humour and his gently mocking writing style earned him a special place in world literary history.

His novels that became readers’ favorites included ‘The Wasp Factory’ (1984), ‘The Crow Road’ (1992) and ‘Feersum Endjinn’ (1994), which was voted one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century.

Who was Banks

Born on February 161954, he wrote mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, using the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies.

He began to write full-time after the publication and success of ‘The Wasp Factory ‘. Before that he had worked as an analyst for IBM, as a technician for British Steel and as a costing clerk for a London firm of lawyers.

He had more than 20 novels published with several books being adapted for the theatre, radio and television. In 2008, The Times included Banks in their list of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945’.

He met his first wife, Annie in London, before his first novel was published in early 1980s. They married in Hawaii in 1992. In early 2007, they announced their separation.

For the six last years, Banks had lived with Adele Hartley. They were married on March 29 2013 after the author asked her to “become his widow”.

After his death, Banks’s publisher called the author “an irreplaceable part of the literary world”.

More about: , , ,

Copyright © 2013 euronews

|| Read More