How the world sees Greece
 RFI | Hollande arrives in Athens with anti-austerity message ... for Greece, at least RFI French President François Hollande touched down at Athens airport on Tuesday morning with a message to Greece that they should not face “endless austerity”. The trip comes as his Socialist government debates further cuts to reach budget targets. “I ... |
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.english.rfi.fr |
 The Guardian | France blames Islamists as family kidnapped in Cameroon The Guardian The French government has blamed Islamist militants from neighbouring Nigeria for the kidnapping of a family of seven French tourists, including four children, in Cameroon on Tuesday. The family, who lived in Yaoundé, were captured at about 7am in a ... French soldier killed in Mali, 20 rebels dead Seven French Tourists Kidnapped in Cameroon Hollande Visits Greece to Show Support for Recovery Efforts |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.guardian.co.uk |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.nytimes.com |
 The Voice of Russia | Hollande's visit boosts Greek coalition Financial Times Karolos Papoulias, the Greek president, warned of “a social explosion” if further austerity measures were imposed by international lenders. “The Greek people have had as much as they can take,” he told Mr Hollande and Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime ... French president visits Athens as striking Greek journalists pull coverage Greece welcomes Hollande with 'news blackout' François Hollande turns up the warm message of support for Greece |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.ft.com |
Media blackout in Greece ahead of nationwide strike The Hindu There was a media blackout in Greece on Tuesday, 24 hours ahead of a nationwide general strike that is likely to paralyse services and disrupt transportation across the country. Media workers are protesting the series of job cuts in news organisations ... |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.thehindu.com |
Austerity is compounding the impact of a poorly functioning economy, leading to exceptionally weak growth
The contest for the title of sick man of Europe is a close-fought one. Is it Greece, where the 20% fall in output is of Great Depression proportions? Is it Spain, with its broken housing markets, wobbly banks and 50%-plus youth unemployment? Or could it be Italy, which has a smaller economy now than it did in 2001, saw the biggest fall in gross domestic product of any G7 country last year, and has a trend rate of growth barely above zero?
A good case could be made for giving Italy the nod. Ireland and Greece are at least getting the benefits of internal devaluation: the cuts in wages and public spending are reducing labour costs and making their economies more competitive. Spain's trade performance is improving. Italy is getting the worst of all worlds: austerity is compounding the impact of a poorly functioning economy, leading to exceptionally weak growth.
Mario Monti's reform programme was supposed to address some of these failings. In reality the much-touted structural reforms have been a feeble thing. The labour market remains sclerotic and the attempts to cut red tape largely cosmetic. Deficit reduction has been largely achieved through tax increases, which have sucked demand out of the economy. Monti's supporters in Brussels have tried to make out that he is Italy's version of Mrs Thatcher. He is not.
Parliamentary elections are being held in Italy this weekend, and the markets are starting to get nervous about the result. Somewhat improbably, Silvio Berlusconi is on the comeback trail and an inconclusive election result would be seen as negative both for Italy and the eurozone as a whole. A bigger danger is that the election highlights the fact that the creation of the euro has not brought about the expected economic convergence in member states; but rather the opposite.
Italy's woeful performance encapsulates this trend. It is half-hearted about structural reform and cannot devalue its way back to competitiveness. Austerity increases already strong recessionary pressures. Financial tensions in the eurozone have eased since last summer; the economic tensions are as acute as ever.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.guardian.co.uk |
President's visit to Athens after Angel Merkel highlights French ties and EU unity, while Antonis Samaras hails 'historic friend'
They stood behind the same lecterns in the same hall, the press sprawled out before them. Four months and two weeks had elapsed since the German chancellor Angela Merkel, ignoring the din of demonstrators and helicopters roaring overhead, had sought to convey, her eyes flashing this way and that, an essential fact: that she had come to Greece "not as a taskmaster but as a friend to listen and be informed".
On Tuesday, the French president, François Hollande, standing on the same highly polished marble floor, under the ornate roof in the mansion that is the Greek prime minister's office, looked straight ahead. With his hands flapping this way and that, he went a step further.
He had come to Greece to send not only "a message of friendship but a message of support, a message of trust, a message of growth". And he explained his reasons went beyond him being no austerity warmonger.
"Greece needs to be supported by the whole of Europe," pronounced the socialist. "No people in Europe have undergone such a trial, such a test, so we must be at the side of Greece."
The nation is now ensnared in a sixth straight year of recession with unemployment at a European high of 27%.
More than three years after Europe's ongoing debt crisis erupted in the shadow of the Acropolis, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, also wanted to make clear that the country, for so long at the centre of that drama, may not have survived had it not been for Paris.
"France is a historic friend. The French people have always been on the side of the Greeks," he declared before waxing lyrical about the role the nation had played in the country's 1821 war of independence, the return of democracy after the collapse in 1974 of military rule and its accession to the then EEC in 1981. "France has also given us crucial support over the past few months to stay in Europe and is supporting us today to exit the crisis."
If Merkel's visit last October was all about mending fences ahead of German elections in September – even if greeted with banners declaring "out with the Fourth Reich!" – Hollande's six-hour sojourn in the capital, his first since taking office, was a love-in as only the French know how to do.
Short of leaving his colleague with a French kiss, the president could not have been more lavish in his praise of the Greek leader, a conservative who does not come from the same ideological background but with whom, he remarked, it had been a pleasure to converse in French.
"There is a dual purpose to this trip," said the man from Le Figaro who drew a firm denial from the French leader when he dared to ask if recession-hit France was headed down the Greek route. "And that is to make the point to Angela Merkel that austerity is not the only way [out of this crisis] and to tell people here, that it is he, Hollande, who has ensured that Greece has stayed in the eurozone."
After years of being criticised by its EU partners for failing to implement reforms that have allowed its economy to plunge into freefall, Greece is suddenly being heaped with praise as Paris and Berlin give Athens a vote of confidence in a bid to not only reinforce its international credibility – and attract much-needed investment in so doing – but show that the progress of Europe's problem child is the best proof yet that the continent's crisis is almost over.
Barely two months after creditors at the EU, ECB and IMF agreed to give Athens €54bn (£47bn) in aid, following months of heated argument and debate, the French president said it was now crucial that foreign investors returned to the country. "I will tell our companies that they have to be fully involved in the privatisation process [here]," he said, his face contorting into a wry smile at the mention of Merkel's own relationship with Greece.
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.guardian.co.uk |
Russia's Sintez May Take Foreign Partner in Bid for Greece's Depa Fox Business Russia's Sintez Group could add a foreign partner in its bid for Greek gas firm Depa in the hope of allaying concerns of excessive Russian control over the country's energy market, its chief executive said Tuesday. The sale of Depa is a flagship for ... |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.foxbusiness.com |
 Telegraph.co.uk | French soldier killed in Mali, 20 rebels dead Reuters PARIS/DAKAR | Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:03pm EST. PARIS/DAKAR (Reuters) - A French soldier and more than 20 Islamist rebels were killed during what appeared to be the first clashes in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountain range where militants have taken refuge ... Gunmen kidnap seven more French nationals in Africa Seven kidnapped in Cameroon French soldier dies in clash with radicals in north Mali, France's president says |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.reuters.com |
Greek party condemns Holocaust Remembrance Day The Times of Israel In the Greek Parliament last week, Golden Dawn lawmaker Ioannis Lagos asked the education and interior ministers why state institutions and schools commemorate the remembrance day, which is marked on Jan. 27 each year — the day in 1945 that Soviet ... |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.timesofisrael.com |
 BBC News | Greece asylum: Journey through a broken system BBC News When it comes to seeking asylum, Greece is the gateway to Europe. But the Greek asylum system is a mess. Paul Mason spoke to one man who has spent more than a year on the road - in squats, living rough and for a time in detention - about the experience ... |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.bbc.co.uk |
 Kathimerini | General strike in Greece shows rulers' weakness Socialistworker.co.uk One main demand of the strike is to stop the wage cuts demanded by Greece's international creditors. The government is abolishing or sabotaging all of its collective agreements with wage cuts. Workers also want to defend their union rights. They are ... Troika Says Greece Met 2012 Targets - German Finance Minister How Greece sees China's international role as a client and partner Strikes To Shut Down Greece |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.socialistworker.co.uk |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.france24.com |
PARIS—Seven French tourists were kidnapped in northern Cameroon on Tuesday by what French President Francois Hollande described as a terrorist group.
Hollande, who spoke to reporters while on a visit to Greece, did not identify the terrorist group, but he said it was known to French intelligence.
Read full article >>
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.washingtonpost.com |
Greek Food Festival a Cure for the Winter Blahs DNAinfo Into the midst of all this bleakness, St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church offers a ray of hope: its first-ever Winter Food Festival, March 1 - 3. Nothing quite cuts through the gloom like a gyro stand and vats of Greek wine. Celebrate Greek culinary ... Spring Greek Fest Coming to Lincoln Square |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.dnainfo.com |
 RT | Greek billionaire heiress starts court battle over multi-million dollar art ... RT Aspasia Zamis, the heiress of Greek billionaire Basil Goulandris has begun a legal battle in Switzerland over the $781 million art collection she claims should have been part of her inheritance. She blames a management company of fraud which led to the ... |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT rt.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT online.wsj.com |
 National Post | Shocking incident highlights Greece risk for Eldorado National Post Canadian miner Eldorado Gold Corp. has a number of projects in Greece, and is counting on that country to deliver much of its future production growth. It is also facing some in-country opposition to those plans, which culminated Sunday in a horrifying ... Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold's mine in Greece set afire in arson attack by ... Arsonists attack Hellas gold mine in northern Greece Investigation continues into attack on Vancouver-based company's mine in Greece |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT business.financialpost.com |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT business.time.com |
 Wall Street Journal | France's Hollande Offers Support to Greece Wall Street Journal ATHENS—French President François Hollande sent a message of support to Greece during a low key, one-day visit to Athens Tuesday, welcoming reform efforts being taken by the Greek government and reaffirming the country's place in the euro zone. Greece needs growth to get out of crisis, France's Hollande says Hollande Urges French Investment in Greece While in Athens Greece welcomes Hollande with 'news blackout' |
|
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT online.wsj.com |