Meltdown in Greece threatens entire union

Next month, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank (ECB) will report on their latest audit of Greece's national accounts. They will decide if Athens is establishing fiscal discipline and initiating the agreed process of raising money by privatising state assets.They will also have probed whether there is any hope of eliminating Greece's endemic tax evasion, official corruption and fraud.Greece is in a mess of its own making. It cooked the budgetary books when it was angling to join the eurozone 10 years ago, and has been profligate ever since. Low interest rates set by the ECB allowed cheap and progressive...

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UNESCO deplores murder of young journalist in Russia’s volatile Dagestan

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Thursday deplored the killing of a young journalist in Dagestan, in the volatile Russian North Caucasus region.UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova condemned the murder of Yakhya Magomedov, the editor of an Avar-language version of As-Salam magazine which is also published in Russian and six Caucasian languages. The publication covers Islamic beliefs and practices."The news of Yakhya Magomedov’s killing is troubling," said Bokova. "The death of a journalist in violent and unexplained circumstances is always a setback for freedom of expression and freedom of the press."According...

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You can avoid this nightmare becoming reality. In Igualada, vote Plataforma per Catalunya

IT'S a blunt campaign message - a video shows three attractive young women in miniskirts skipping with a rope in the Spanish city of Igualada, to the accompaniment of a traditional Catalan folk song. Suddenly, the image changes to "Igualada 2015" and shows three women dressed in burkas skipping to the rhythm of an Arab song."You can avoid this nightmare becoming reality. In Igualada, vote Plataforma per Catalunya," the video concludes.Plataforma per Catalunya is a far-right party created nine years ago by former supporters of General Francisco Franco in the north-eastern industrial province of Catalonia, and running in Sunday's regional elections...

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France's broadcasting watchdog called Tuesday on the country's television channels to be extremely cautious in showing footage of International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs

France's broadcasting watchdog called Tuesday on the country's television channels to be extremely cautious in showing footage of International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs, a practice that contravenes French law.In the days since New York City police said Mr. Strauss-Kahn had been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a cleaning woman in his room at the Sofitel Hotel near Times Square, images of the International Monetary Fund chief have flooded airwaves and the pages of newspapers and magazines in France.The footage has transfixed the nation, not least because French law prohibits cameras inside...

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'They ripped off my clothes and took pictures on their cell phones as they groped and beat me': Reporter Lara Logan reveals terrifying new details of sex attack in Egypt

Lara Logan was groped all over her body and had her clothes ripped off by a baying mob in Egypt who went on to 'rape her with their hands'.The 39-year-old CBS foreign correspondent revealed terrifying new details of the 40 minute-long February attack in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday's 60 Minutes show. She told how she became separated from members of her crew after someone in the frenzied 200-strong crowd shouted 'Let's take her pants off.'&nb...

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Brooklyn Community Uses Facebook To Track Down Double Murder Suspect

mother and daughter nurses Tatyana and Larisa Prikhodko were murdered in a Sheepshead Bay apartment, and frustrations are mounting.The suspected killer Nikolai Rakossi boarded a one way flight to his Russian homeland a day after the murders, and with no extradition treaty with Russia, it's unlikely he'll ever face a New York jury.But people in the Brooklyn community are refusing to let the double homicide case die, and are turning to Facebook to track down the elusive Russian army veteran.The Facebook page called "R.I.P. Larisa Prikhodko & Her Mother" has garnered more than 3,000 likes.The wall is filled with postings that express everything...

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Russian police on Monday opened a criminal case into the violent beating of a local journalist in northern Moscow

Russian police on Monday opened a criminal case into the violent beating of a local journalist in northern Moscow, RIA Novosti reported.Dmitry Andryushchenko, a journalist working for Russian business radio station Kommersant FM, was beaten by a group of men late Saturday following a heated argument with one of the attackers.According to the journalist, a drunken man got into an argument with him. The man smashed his car and Andryushchenko called the police. However, before help arrived, the attacker summoned some friends and beat the reporter.The radio reported sustained a mild brain concussion and multiple bruises. He refused to be hospitalized....

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US forces were stationed just a few hundred yards from Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in October 2008

US forces were stationed just a few hundred yards from Osama Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in October 2008, according to reports within the WikiLeaks embassy cables.The revelation that US forces were so close to the world's most wanted man in 2008 comes after material from the Guantánamo files suggested the US may have received the intelligence that led them to Bin Laden as early as 2008.The US soldiers were due to perform a routine posting "training the trainers" of Pakistan's 70,000-strong federal military unit, the Frontier Corps.Abbottabad is home to the Pakistan Military Academy, the country's version of Sandhurst in Britain, and trains...

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One person has been killed and at least 14 injured as a tornado hurtled through New Zealand's most heavily populated city, Auckland.

Police and witnesses described cars and trees whirling around and buildings left without roofs."There were kids in a car which turned upside down and they had to get help," said eyewitness Hamish Blair, whose golf supplies store was in the hardest-hit area."I saw cars flying off the ground about 30m (100ft) in the air," he said.The tornado struck at the northern suburb of Albany in the middle of the afternoon, damaging a shopping centre, a large hardware store and a supermarket before moving south with a 5km trail of destruction.Prime Minister John Key said: "It's been a very powerful and quite devastating tornado that's caused a significant...

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new report released Tuesday on the World Press Freedom Day continues to paint a somber picture of the riskiness of being a journalist in South Asia

“In most countries in the region the past year has been less lethal for journalists than earlier years. But the deteriorating situation in Pakistan is of urgent concern, as are widespread forms of official and unofficial suppression of media reporting,” said Jacqueline Park, director for Asia-Pacific region at the International Federation of Journalists, the publisher of the report, in a statement. “The killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1 and the recent popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa may also present fresh challenges to journalists and media professionals in South Asia.”The report, “Free Speech in Peril: Press Freedom in...

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Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has been killed by US forces in Pakistan, President Barack Obama has said.

Bin Laden was killed in a ground operation outside Islamabad based on US intelligence, the first lead for which emerged last August.Mr Obama said after "a firefight", US forces took possession of his body.Bin Laden was accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.He was top of the US' "most wanted" list.Mr Obama said it was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's...

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