Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros
Monday, November 11, 2013
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Greek coalition survives no-confidence vote
Leader of leftwing opposition Syriza party accuses government of being under foreign control
Greece's conservative-socialist coalition government has survived a no-confidence motion, following a heated three-day parliamentary debate.
The motion, tabled by the radical leftwing opposition Syriza party, fell well short of the 151 votes needed to pass, with 124 lawmakers voting in favour and 153 against.
"Thousands of people are looking in the rubbish for food," the Syriza leader, Alexis Tsipras, said, as the motion was debated in parliament.
Syriza was supported by the Communist party, the rightwing populist Independent Greeks and the extreme right Golden Dawn. Democratic Left, a coalition partner for a year until June, voted "present". One socialist lawmaker voted in favour of the motion and was promptly expelled from her party's parliamentary group.
Although the motion of no confidence had limited chances of passing, Syriza used the debate to lambast the government over its policies, claiming it was taxing the poor to protect the rich.
"You chose the wrong moment to play parliamentary theatrics, in a time when the government is in crucial negotiations with the troika," the prime minister, Antonis Samaras, told the Syriza leader in parliament. A delegation from the troika of Greece's creditors, including the European commission and the International Monetary Fund, is in Athens assessing the economic climate before distributing a further €5.9bn (£4.9bn) in loans.
The no-confidence motion was tabled on Thursday, a few hours after Greek riot police ended a nearly five-month protest by sacked workers broadcasting from what was once the headquarters of the defunct ERT state broadcaster, removing a few dozen people occupying the complex.
The government, under pressure from Greece's international creditors to reform the public sector, decided to close ERT in June – a move heavily criticised by most opposition parties and the Democratic Left, which used the issue as an occasion to leave the coalition. The government has since set up a new, leaner broadcaster, with one channel in place of the previous three.
Greece has been surviving on international rescue loans from the IMF and other European countries since 2010. Successive governments have passed rounds of deep spending cuts and tax rises to secure €240bn in bailout loans. Greece has predicted it will emerge from its six-year recession next year.
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BC-AS--Asian News Digest, AS
PHILIPPINES-TYPHOON
TACLOBAN, Philippines — Rescuers faced blocked roads and damaged airports as they raced to deliver desperately needed tents, food and medicines to the typhoon-devastated eastern Philippines where thousands are believed dead. Three days after the Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the region, the full scale of the disaster — the biggest faced by the Philippines — was only now becoming apparent. By Jim Gomez. SENT: 1,200 words, photos, video. UPCOMING: 1,200 words by 0630gmt
— PHILIPPINES-TYPHOON ALLEY — Geographically doomed and hobbled by poverty, Philippines buffeted by regular storms. SENT: 235 words, photos.
— OBAMA-TYPHOON — Obama 'deeply saddened' by typhoon devastation in Philippines, promises further aid. SENT: 100 words.
— PHILIPPINES-TYPHOON-PHOTO GALLERY — AP PHOTOS: High death toll feared in typhoon amid massive destruction. SENT: 145 words, 45 photos. UPCOMING: Fresh photos will be rotated in throughout the cycle.
— PHILIPPINES-VITAL STATISTICS-GLANCE — The Philippines at a glance. SENT: 500 words.
PHILIPPINES-TYPHOON BABY
TACLOBAN, Philippines — Cheers broke out in the typhoon-devastated airport of the eastern Tacloban City when 21-year old Emily Ortega gave birth to a baby girl, assisted by a military doctor. It was a rare piece of good news for a seaside city where officials fear at least 10,000 were killed, and where tens of thousands of residents saw their homes flattened by ferocious winds and a massive storm surge from Typhoon Haiyan. SENT: 350 words.
THAILAND-POLITICS
BANGKOK — Thailand's Senate convened a highly charged session to determine the fate of an amnesty bill that could pave the way for the return of self-exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. Nearly 7,000 police officers are deployed around the Parliament and the prime minister's office where thousands of protesters continued to rally against the bill. SENT: 140 words. UPCOMING: 400 words.
INDIA-SRI LANKA-COMMONWEALTH
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's prime minister is under mounting pressure to join his Indian and Canadian counterparts in boycotting a British Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka this week over concerns about the island nation's human rights record. India announced Sunday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the second leader after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to boycott the Nov. 15-17 meeting. By Rod Mcguirk and Ashok Sharma. SENT: 500 words.
NEPAL-STRIKE
KATMANDU, Nepal — An opposition-called general strike against next week's general elections shut down schools, markets and industries across Nepal. Supporters of the alliance of 33 opposition parties have attacked vehicles that defied their strike call and torched at least half dozen buses and trucks, said police spokesman Ganesh Chetri. By Binaj Gurubacharya. SENT: 300 words.
BUSINESS AND FINANCE:
JAPAN-OFFSHORE WIND FARM
ONAHAMA PORT, Japan — Japan has switched on the first turbine at a wind farm 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the coast of Fukushima, feeding electricity to the grid tethered to the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant onshore. By Elaine Kurtenbach. SENT: 680 words.
FEATURES:
CHINA-ACTIVIST ENTREPRENEURS
BEIJING — As Chinese career trajectories go, wealthy businesswoman Wang Ying's has taken an unusual turn. She has quit her job as head of a private equity fund — to become a full-time political critic. As China's ruling party holds a major economic reform planning meeting this week, it faces rising expectations from private entrepreneurs who feel a simmering anger at being treated as just a resource to provide wealth and tax revenue and want a voice in how society is run. By Gillian Wong. UPCOMING: 1,130 words, photos by 0800 GMT.
PAKISTAN-LIFE ON THE LINE
DHAMALA, Pakistan — Clashes between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India are always unnerving, but for Tanveer Ahmed, the latest border flare-up is personal: It's harming his marriage prospects. Families from other towns refuse to let their daughters move to his village, just a few hundred meters (yards) from the barbed wire and watchtowers. Cross-border exchanges of gunfire and mortar shelling are a constant threat to the people of this region, and to their Indian counterparts on the other side. By Rebecca Santana. SENT: 765 words, photos.
JFK-OSWALD Q&A
Within hours of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Americans learned the name Lee Harvey Oswald. Certain images of him — posing with a rifle, recoiling from Jack Ruby's gun — have been ingrained in the nation's memory. Yet to this day, he remains an enigma. Here are some of the questions — starting with, Did Oswald kill Kennedy? Did he act alone? — and attempts to answer them. By National Writer David Crary. SENT: 900 words, photos.
US AND INTERNATIONAL
SYRIA
BEIRUT — The main Western-backed Syrian opposition group says it intends to join peace talks with the Syrian government, if conditions are met. After a vote early Monday in Istanbul, the Syrian National Coalition agreed to attend a proposed peace conference with President Bashar Assad's government. The U.S. and Russia are trying to convene the talks in Geneva by the end of this year. By Desmond Butler and Diaa Hadid. SENT: 660 words, photo.
RUSSIA-SPACE LANDING
MOSCOW — A Russian space capsule carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts returned to Earth on Monday from the International Space Station in a flawless landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan. By Jim Heintz. SENT: 260 words, photo.
GREECE-FINANCIAL CRISIS
ATHENS, Greece — Greece's coalition government survived a no-confidence motion tabled by the main opposition party early Monday, and the prime minister ended three days of debate by saying the debt-ridden country should be ready to borrow mainly from the financial markets by the end of next year. By Demetris Nellas. SENT: 570 words, photos.
FRANCE-IRAN-NUCLEAR
PARIS — France's unexpected decision to block a preliminary deal that its allies were trying to reach with Iran regarding its nuclear program appears to have been motivated by several factors: its tough stand regarding nuclear weapons, its skepticism about Tehran's trustworthiness, and its longstanding tradition of speaking its mind on the world stage. By Jamey Keaten. SENT: 835 words, photos.
— IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS — With a first round of nuclear negotiations with world powers ending without agreement, the administration of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani is emphasizing that the talks are a work in progress. SENT: 700 words, photos.
—UNITED STATES-IRAN — Wary of Iran's nuclear intentions, senators are predicting a bipartisan push for fresh penalties and increased leverage against Tehran despite administration opposition. SENT: 600 words, photos.
GAZA-HAMAS SPOKESWOMAN
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Hamas government of the Gaza Strip has for the first time appointed a woman to represent it to the world. The hiring of Isra Almodallal as a spokeswoman for the territory's conservative Islamist rulers is part of a long-running push by the group, which has at times sought to curb women's freedoms, to present a newer, friendlier face both to its own citizens and internationally. By Ibrahim Barzak. SENT: 800 words, photos.
CLIMATE CHANGE
WARSAW, POLAND — Climate envoys from rich countries, emerging economies and low-lying nations at risk of being swamped by rising seas will meet in Poland for the next two weeks to lay the groundwork for a new global warming pact. Though no major decisions are expected at the conference starting Monday in Warsaw's National Stadium, the level of progress could be an indicator of the world's chances of reaching a deal in 2015. That's the new watershed year in the U.N.-led process after a 2009 summit in Copenhagen ended in discord. By Karl Ritter and Monika Scislowska. SENT: 850 words, photos.
ENTERTAINMENT
GAMES-NEXT NEXT GENERATION
LOS ANGELES — The next generation of gaming is nearly here, but what about the generation after that one? Sony and Microsoft are launching their new super-powered consoles in the coming weeks. However, gamemakers were already contemplating what innovations — from wearable ontrollers to illuminated living rooms — might follow the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at last week's GDC Next. By Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang. SENT: 400 words, photos.
ALSO GETTING ATTENTION
— FALLING SATELLITE — Scientists expect European satellite to crash into ocean, polar regions. SENT: 130 words.
— SPAIN-SEX SLAVES — Spanish police arrest 25, free 5 women, while breaking up Nigerian sex slave ring. SENT: 235 words.
— PAKISTAN-MALALA BOOK BAN — Pakistani private schools ban teenage activist Malala's book, calling her a tool of the West. SENT: 570 words, photo.
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News Topics: Assassinations, General news, Typhoons, Summits, Typhoon Haiyan 2013, Nuclear power plant accidents, Natural disasters, Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Government and politics, Emergency management, National governments, Wind power, Natural hazards, Forced labor, Bills, Alternative and sustainable energy, Wind power generation, Peace process, Space industry, Tropical cyclones, Accidents and disasters, Storms, Weather, International relations, Events, Industrial accidents, Accidents, Radiation accidents, Energy and the environment, Environment, Environment and nature, Crime, Legislation, Legislature, Renewable power generation, Electric power generation, Electric utilities, Utilities, Industries, Business, Energy industry, Alternative energy industry, Diplomacy, Aerospace and defense industry, Industrial products and servicesPeople, Places and Companies: Manmohan Singh, Stephen Harper, Lee Harvey Oswald, Bashar Assad, Hassan Rouhani, India, Syria, Canada, Philippines, Japan, Pakistan, Iran, Nepal, Bangkok, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Poland, South Asia, France, Tehran, Warsaw, Greece, Russia, Gaza Strip, Asia, Middle East, North America, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Eastern Europe, Europe, Western Europe, Palestinian territories
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