Cypriot parliament approves bills for bailout |
Nine bills, including one on restructuring ailing banks, endorsed as part of ongoing efforts to stave off bankruptcy.
Last Modified: 23 Mar 2013 05:57
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Cypriot legislators have approved three key bills that aim to raise enough money to qualify the country for a broader bailout package and help it stave off an impending collapse of its financial system.
A total of nine bills were approved on Friday, including a key one on restructuring the country's ailing banks, which lost billions on bad Greek debt.
Another bill is on restricting financial transactions in times of crisis and a third would set up a 'solidarity fund' into which investments and contributions will flow.
More bills to meet the total target of $7.5bn Cyprus needs to secure an international $13bn bailout will be brought for a vote over the weekend.
They include a crucial one that would impose a tax of less than 1 percent on all bank deposits, said Averof Neophytou, deputy head of the governing DISY party.
EUROZONE CRISIS
Germany painted as villain in euro crisis
Germany pays the largest amount in eurozone bailouts, but is often criticized in crisis countries due to its alleged tough attitude. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the primary target for criticism.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely growing weary of the photo collages splayed across front pages of European newspapers.
Those images usually include protest posters showing the German chancellor in a SS uniform or donning a Hitler moustache. Since the start of the eurozone crisis, opponents of austerity measures have relied on Nazi comparisons to get their message across.
Sprawling, brawling cities of Africa stake a claim on the future
A new book explores the notion that the city of the “third” world is going to be the prototypical city of the future.
A book with the all-encompassing title Afropolis (Jacana Media) sets itself up for the usual criticism: it promises what it could never deliver. What is included is often largelyrepresentative, but what has been left out is compelling enough and seems to cry out for consideration.
Afropolis contains panoramic shots of the visual arts and histories, the literatures, sociopolitics and urban-scapes of five African cities: Cairo and Lagos — the biggest in terms of population — and Kinshasa, Nairobi and Johannesburg.
23 March 2013 Last updated at 00:14 GMT
Pakistan stage set for Musharraf comeback
Pakistan's former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf is finally coming home in time to stand in elections, due in May.
He left the country in late 2008 and has since been living in self-imposed exile in London.
With arrest warrants issued against him in at least two murder cases, and given his rather dismal electoral prospects, many ask why he is returning at all?
He has now been granted protective bail for up to two weeks, making his return more certain.
This is seen as his only chance to come back to Pakistan; he wants to vindicate himself, and if he reverses his decision now as he has done a couple of times before, he will have to wait five years before another opportunity presents itself.
Middle East
Obama stirs the Middle East cauldron
By Victor Kotsev
It is still not clear how exactly the bargaining between United States President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the other regional and international protagonists is turning out. It is beyond doubt, however, that Obama's visit to Israel, Palestine and Jordan is intended to stir a cauldron red-hot with intrigue and tensions.
There are several urgent items on Obama's agenda: the Iranian nuclear crisis, the Syrian civil war, and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Egypt is also in turmoil, with many experts
predicting a financial - and perhaps also a social - collapse within the next months. The entire region is in a state of chaos.
Criminal justice system's 'dark secret': Teenagers in solitary confinement
By Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News, and Deirdre Cohen and Sarah Koch, Rock Center
James Stewart, a 17-year-old from Denver who committed suicide while in solitary confinement, had never been to jail before August of 2008. That was when, under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, Stewart had gotten into a head-on car collision, killing a 32-year-old man.
Because of the severity of his crime, Stewart was charged with vehicular homicide – and charged as an adult. His family couldn’t make bail, so Stewart was placed in the Denver County Jail while he awaited his sentence.
There was just one problem: Since he was a minor, Stewart was ordered to be put in protective custody, separate from the adult prisoners— and the best protection the jail had to offer was solitary confinement.
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