I fear for a social explosion: Greeks can't take any more punishment
Helena Smith, who has reported from Athens for more than 20 years, says the country is on the edge of a precipice
Despair has enveloped Greece. This weekend the bankrupt nation, for that is what it is, began negotiating the latest act of a drama that many fear will end in catastrophe – financially, socially and politically.
In an electric atmosphere, with thousands demonstrating outside parliament, MPs began debating the arduous terms of a €130bn (£110bn) rescue package that the interim prime minister, Lucas Papademos, insists is the only way left to avert economic collapse.
"A disorderly default," he said, referring to the 20 March deadline that Greece faces of repaying €14.5bn in maturing debt, "would plunge our country in a disastrous adventure. It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion."
Finally, the world acts to control the arms trade
Talks begin this week on a global covenant to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands
The global arms trade, which produces two bullets for every person on the planet every year and the weapons that kill 1,500 people each day, is facing the first worldwide effort to control it. An unprecedented treaty that would attempt to restrict arms sales is expected to be drawn up at talks in the United Nations this week.
A campaign for such an agreement, begun six years ago by Nobel laureates, faces attempts by the United States and Russia to water the treaty down, but it is likely that a historic deal to control the arms trade will be achieved in some form.
The king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, has called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to listen to his people. Hamad told SPIEGEL in an interview that it was up to the Syrians to decide whether Assad should step down. "The best advice for him is from the Syrian people," he said.
Hamad bin Isa, who put down an uprising in Bahrain a year ago, said he regretted what happened but denied that his country had a unified protest movement.
02/12/2012
SPIEGEL Interview With Gulf Ruler
Bahrain's King Says Assad Should Listen to His People
Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa has called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to listen to his people. Hamad, who put down an uprising in his own country a year ago, told SPIEGEL that he regretted the events but had to intervene to stop the violence and protect women.The king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, has called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to listen to his people. Hamad told SPIEGEL in an interview that it was up to the Syrians to decide whether Assad should step down. "The best advice for him is from the Syrian people," he said.
Dimming of China's 'great red hope' troubles offspring of the old guard
John Garnaut, Beijing
February 13, 2012THE waning of Bo Xilai's political star in Chongqing has left the Communist Party's conservative elders without a potential saviour who can turn around what they see as a deepening internal crisis.
Mr Bo, the Chongqing party boss, announced the sacking of his right-hand man, police chief Wang Lijun, on February 2, leading Mr Wang to later flee the city and spectacularly take refuge in the US consulate in Chengdu.
Days before Mr Wang's escape, 1200 children of high party cadres gathered for their biggest-ever spring festival gathering at Beijing's Heaven and Earth Theatre.
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Most attendees were born at the Communist Party's pre-revolution stronghold of Yan'an.Niger denies it will extradite al-Saadi Gaddafi
NIAMEY, LIBYA -Niger will not extradite al-Saadi Kaddafi even though the son of the slain Libyan leader violated his asylum conditions with "subversive" comments in a television interview, officials said on Saturday.
"Our position remains the same -- we will hand Saadi Gaddafi to a government that has an independent and impartial justice system," government spokesperson Marou Amadou told reporters in Niamey.
Gaddafi, who took refuge in Niger after the fall of Tripoli ended his father Muammar's 42-year rule of Libya, told al-Arabiya television by telephone that he would return to his country and said a nationwide rebellion was brewing against its new rulers.
Risks of Afghan war shift from soldiers to contractors
Most die unheralded and uncounted — and, in some cases, with survivors uncompensated
By ROD NORDLAND
KABUL, Afghanistan — Even dying is being outsourced here.
This is a war where traditional military jobs, from mess hall cooks
to base guards and convoy drivers, have increasingly been shifted to the
private sector. Many American generals and diplomats have private
contractors for their personal bodyguards. And along with the risks have
come the consequences: More civilian contractors working for American
companies than American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year for the
first time during the war. American employers here are under no obligation to publicly report the deaths of their employees and frequently do not. While the military announces the names of all its war dead, private companies routinely notify only family members. Most of the contractors die unheralded and uncounted — and in some cases, leave their survivors uncompensated.
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