NEWS,07.04.2012

Hundreds attend funeral of Greek pensioner

Hundreds of people shouting defiance have attended the funeral of retired pharmacist Dimitris Chrisoula, who shot himself in central Athens this week saying government austerity cuts had left him in penury. "Forward the people, heads high, the only answer is resistance" they shouted, applauding as the coffin arrived at Athens' main cemetery, television pictures showed.Chrisoula's daughter said in a farewell speech that his act had been "deeply political," while a message from composer Mikis Theodorakis, an icon of defiance against the junta that ruled Greece in the 1970s, was also read out.Unusually for Greece, the ceremony had no religious component and the remains were to be taken to neighbouring Bulgaria for cremation, a practice forbidden by the powerful Greek Orthodox Church.Chrisoula shot himself in Athens' central Syntagma Square on Wednesday, leaving a note saying his pension had been wiped out and that "I find no other solution for a dignified end before I start sifting through garbage to feed myself".His death prompted new protests and clashes with police over the government's measures aimed at resolving Greece's massive debt crisis.Athens has been forced to cut state spending drastically, and has slashed civil servant salaries and pensions by up to 40 percent to secure bailout loan payments from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.Hundreds of thousands of Greeks have lost their jobs in the past year, and unemployment currently tops one million, a quarter of the workforce.Greek protesters marching in memory of a man who killed himself over financial woes have attacked a policeman. The policeman was left bloodied and his bulletproof vest was stolen.The demonstrators marched after a memorial service for Dimitris Christoulas, 77, a retired pharmacist who shot himself on Wednesday in the Greek capital's Syntagma Square. He left a note blaming politicians for his money problems and calling on "young people" to kill their elected leaders.His death has further galvanised Greeks angry over their leaders' implementation of tough austerity measures that are aimed at bringing the country out of its fiscal crisis but which have caused hardships for many ordinary citizens. Greece's economy is now also heavily dependent on international loans.Hundreds attended the memorial service for Mr Christoulas, singing and chanting slogans. Afterward, about two hundred people, escorted by bikers, marched through central Athens, ending their march at Syntagma.There, some of the demonstrators spotted two policemen who had just finished their patrol. About a dozen protesters quickly put on balaclavas to hide their faces and pursued the policemen.One managed to escape. The second was dragged down some steps, shoved to the ground and punched and kicked for about three minutes.The attackers took his bulletproof vest, as well as a bag containing a belt, a uniform and handcuffs. The attackers placed some of the items on the spot where Mr Christoulas shot himself, adding them to a makeshift memorial.The policeman, his face covered in blood, managed to make his way to a police van that had arrived on the scene. A police official said the policeman was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The official did not give his name in line with agency rules.According to a text of Mr Christoulas' note published by local media, the man said the government had made it impossible for him to survive on the pension he had paid into for 35 years. "I find no other solution than a dignified end before I start searching through the trash for food," read the note.Mr Christoulas' daughter, Emy, told media that her father, who had taken part in several protests at Syntagma Square, had intended to send a political message with his suicide. He had incurred no debts, she said."Father, you could not grasp it when they took away our democracy, our freedom, our integrity, " Emy Christoulas said at her father's memorial service."You could not grasp it when they surrounded us with a harsh social and economic apartheid."Mr Christoulas' body will be cremated at a later date, in Bulgaria, because Greece lacks cremation facilities.

NEWS,10.03.2012.

Sarkozy says will bow out if French don't pick him

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday he would fight with everything he has to win a second term but will bow out of politics if he loses an April-May election.Riot police using teargas were sent in to clear a crowd of 200 mostly young protestors in a town ahead of a campaign rally he was due to hold in the central French town of Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert just a few weeks from election day.Sarkozy, who is badly lagging Socialist challenger Francois Hollande in opinion polls six weeks before the first round of voting, said Hollande's lack of ministerial or international experience was a problem at a time of economic turmoil.I worry when I look at the Socialist candidate's programme ... and I worry about this dearth of experience in such a troubled period. But if the French people do not put their faith in me, do you really think I would carry on in politics? The answer is no," Sarkozy told .Hollande widened his lead slightly this week, advancing 2 points to 30 percent support for the April 22 first round, while Sarkozy gained only 1 point to 28 percent.The survey, by pollster CSA, saw Hollande beating Sarkozy by 56 percent to 44 percent in a May 6 runoff."I will fight with all my strength to win your confidence, to protect and lead you and build a strong France, but if that is not your choice I will bow out, that's the way it is, and I will have had a great life in politics," he said.His wife, former model-turned singer Carla Bruni, said Sarkozy had devoted himself entirely to his job and would continue to do so if he won a second term, but if he lost he would have little choice but to change direction."What do you expect him to do after being president of the Republic? Do you want him to go back to being a minister or a mayor?" she told French talkshow "C a Vous", adding that she worried about his health and his long working hours.Sarkozy said on a three-hour televised debate on Tuesday that he was not discouraged by his weak poll scores and that one of his characteristics is that he never gives up.But French media are reporting that his campaign team is starting to worry that Sarkozy's efforts to overcome a widespread dislike of his personal style and anger over three years of economic gloom are not working.A week after protestors pelted his escort with eggs in the southwest of France, Sarkozy's impending arrival in Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert triggered a protest by some 200 youths waving banners with slogans such as "no to the president" or "Sarkozy, you're the security problem".A reporter saw riot police move in to clear the crowd and prevent them nearing the rally location.Campaign spokeswoman Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet - who was lambasted as out of touch after she was unable to tell a radio presenter the price of a Paris metro ticket - lamented this week that the race had descended into distracting polemic.Sarkozy launched his campaign in mid-February, several weeks after Hollande, and has opted for a strategy of unveiling his ideas - such as a new minimum tax on company profits, making the unemployed sign up to training to get their benefits and holding policy referendums - week by week. After a strong start that saw him trim the gap with Hollande by a few points, he suffered setbacks in his second week, including being jostled by left-wing militants while out on the campaign trail, and has now lost his initial bounce. Meanwhile Hollande has consolidated his lead position after announcing a surprise 75 percent tax rate on annual income above 1 million euros, a move nearly two in three voters support. On Thursday's radio show, Sarkozy proposed a new household fund for women abandoned by fathers of their children, a new renovation programme for city suburbs and said he would cut the number of lawmakers by 10 to 15 percent to trim public spending.Socialist politician Bernard Cazeneuve said the raft of measures smacked of a last-minute panic, and mocked Sarkozy for diverting attention with talk of life after the presidency.

"We don't care what he does if he loses, what we want to know is what he'll do if he's elected," he told.Sarkozy, whose main focus is on structural reform and tighter immigration rules, is expected to give his first real campaign overview at a big campaign rally on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Villepinte.

 

NEWS,02.03.2012.

Sufficient oil in world to crimp Iranian supply FOR US

Global oil producers appear to have enough spare capacity to make up for Iranian exports curtailed by tough new sanctions, according to US Energy Secretary Steven Chu.Chu said it was important that sanctions be used to crimp Iranian oil sales to ensure Tehran does not develop nuclear weapons, despite the release of an Energy Information Administration report this week that showed supplies are tight.” There is spare capacity and we believe - we'll see - but I think there is sufficient spare capacity," Chu told reporters on Capitol Hill, noting that the administration will do whatever it can to help stabilise oil prices, including looking at tapping strategic reserves.” It would be very destabilising; I think everybody would agree, if Iran developed nuclear weapons. We're trying to convince Iran in its best interests not to go in that direction," he said.The final determination on whether there is enough spare capacity is up to President Barack Obama, who will announce it to Congress by the end of the month.Chu's confidence in supplies speaks to the "tough balancing act" faced by the Obama administration as it implements the sanctions, said Suzanne Maloney, a former

State Department adviser and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The administration must show it intends to crack down as a deterrent to countries that buy Iranian oil and "unnerve Tehran's confidence in its ability to ride out these pressures," Maloney said. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and denies it is trying to build nuclear weapons.Obama must also fend off any ideas in an election year that he is anything but tough on Iran, said David Pumphrey, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.”‘ We think we are capable, in effect, of seeing this through' - that's how I would read the messaging," said Pumphrey, a former Energy Department official. In a report that is part of the new sanctions law, the Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent arm of the US Energy Department, found that Saudi Arabia has been pumping more oil.Saudi Arabia, which has the world's biggest spare oil capacity, has produced an average of 9.7 million barrels per day over the last two months, up 600,000 bpd from the same period last year, the EIA said. But the EIA also said the cushion provided by that spare capacity was modest by historical standards: 2.5 million barrels per day, compared with an average of 3.7 million bpd a year ago. That cushion is about equal to total shipments from Iran, the world's third-largest oil exporter. Relying on the spare capacity "will require everything to work almost flat out, and hoping that additional capacity can come online smoothly," said Sarah Emerson at Energy Security Analysis Inc in Boston."I think we need to expect some hiccups along the way.” US sanctions on foreign banks that handle Iranian oil payments begin to take effect in June. But Obama, under a law he signed late last year, can offer exemptions to countries that show they have "significantly" cut their purchases from Iran."We still don't have a definition of significant yet. It's a bit of 'the eye of the beholder,'" Pumphrey said.There is strong political pressure from Congress to push ahead. Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent, said the EIA report was a "green light" to implement aggressively the energy sanctions.” With sufficient spare capacity among global oil producers, there is no excuse for countries and companies around the world not to curtail their purchases of Iranian crude, and thus deny the Iranian regime the financial lifeblood it needs for its illicit nuclear activities," Lieberman said in a statement.Obama faces mounting political fire for high gasoline prices, which are due in part to tensions in the Middle East.Chu told lawmakers at a hearing on Thursday that the administration is doing what it can to ease the sting of high prices on consumers and businesses. Some Democrats have urged the administration to release oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserves, but Chu declined to comment on how or whether the new analysis from the EIA would affect that decision.” The president will use whatever tools he has to do what we have to do. We have the SPR option on the table," Chu told reporters. US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said Obama does not seem to support a release as a way to curb rising gasoline prices. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said the reserves, stored in huge salt caverns, should be saved for real supply emergencies rather than to try to ease prices.” I understand that tightness in world oil markets and the pressing need for sanctions on Iran leave you in a difficult position," said Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee.” It is critical that we fully enforce our sanctions regime and preserve our strategic stockpiles until we really need them," she wrote to Obama.