Greek party leaders prepare for crucial debt talks

ATHENS: Greek coalition leaders are studying a draft deal on harsh cutbacks needed to secure a €130 billion ($170 billion) bailout that will help the country avoid a looming bankruptcy next month.

The office of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said Wednesday that the heads of the three parties backing his interim coalition government received the draft 50-page austerity document, drawn up with the country’s debt inspectors, earlier in the day.

A meeting of Papademos with the party leaders, originally scheduled for 1100 GMT, was delayed until 1300 GMT to give parties more time to study the draft.

The coalition talks have been postponed over the last three days to make time for exhaustive negotiations with representatives of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, on whose approval the continued flow of Greece’s vital rescue loans depends. Without the bailout, Greece would not have enough money to pay off a big bond redemption payment next month, triggering a default that risks sending shockwaves throughout financial markets and the global economy.

The three organizations, known collectively as the “troika”, have demanded further measures to improve Greece’s competitiveness and economic stability — including new private sector wage and pension cuts, public sector layoffs and cuts in health, pension and defense spending — before they approve the new €130 billion ($170 billion) bailout.

The troika’s proposals have horrified unions, who held a general strike Tuesday. Greeks have already been hit with a spate of salary cuts and drastically increased taxation over the past two years, amid record-high unemployment and a five-year recession.

Labor Minister Giorgos Koutroumanis told Parliament last week that a demanded reduction in the €751 ($985) monthly minimum wage would quicken the Greek economy’s contraction and hit the revenues of struggling pension funds that have already lost €20 billion ($26 billion) since 2009.

But Athens has minimal ground for maneuver. Without the rescue loans, the country will default on its massive debts in March, when it faces a €14.5 billion ($19 billion) bond redemption.

Stocks advanced Wednesday, while the euro was trading near two-month highs, as global markets were hopeful a deal would be struck in Athens. Greek shares were 3 percent up in midday trading.

“We are finally approaching the endgame of the Greek talks,” said Gary Jenkins, managing director at Swordfish Research. “Ultimately it is difficult to see how they can do anything other than agree a deal. After all, the alternative is a disorderly default which could lead to a much deeper economic depression and potential civil unrest.”

Late Tuesday, Greece’s private creditors signaled progress on a separate, linked agreement that would cut the country’s privately held debt load by 50 percent, or some €100 billion ($131 billion). The intention behind the writedown is to ensure that Greece’s long-term debts are sustainable. Banks, pension and hedge funds and other private holders of devalued Greek bonds are expected to swap their current bonds for new ones worth 50 percent less than the original face value, with longer repayment terms and a lower interest rate. They are also expected to get a €30 billion payment as part of the bond swap deal.

Representatives of the Institute of International Finance, which has been leading the talks for private bondholders, had a “constructive meeting” with Papademos, IIF spokesman Frank Vogl said.

Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos will soon brief the rest of the 17-nation eurozone on the proposed deal, Vogl said — a sign the bond-swap deal could be close.

The meeting of eurozone finance ministers could happen as soon as Thursday in Brussels, according to officials, although that will depend on an agreement in Athens on the terms of the second bailout.

If political leaders accept the demanded austerity, Greek officials say a cabinet meeting will approve the deal, likely later Wednesday. Parliament will then have to vote on the deal over the weekend.

Ratification should prove quite simple provided all three coalition partners back the deal, as they control a combined 252 of Parliament’s 300 seats — well enough to carry the vote even if there is a limited backbencher rebellion.

Greece has been kept solvent since May 2010 by payments from a €110 billion ($145 billion) international rescue loan package. When it became clear the money would not be enough, a second bailout was decided last October.

The Greek government has already accepted that it must cut 15,000 state jobs in 2012 to get the new bailout, and reduce 2012 spending by a further €3.3 billion ($4.3 billion) as well as wage costs in the private sector and recapitalize banks without nationalizing them.

But disagreement remains on the extent of those cuts between party officials, who are set to face national elections in late April — after the debt deals have been sealed and implemented.

The majority Socialists, main rival conservatives and the small right-wing LAOS party are also at odds over when the elections should be held.

The Socialists, who handed over power to Papademos in November and are trailing badly in opinion polls, want him to stay through parliament’s four-year term that ends in late 2013. But conservatives, buoyed by their lead in opinion polls, are demanding an April vote according to plan.

LAOS leader George Karatazferis criticized eurozone heavyweights France and Germany on Tuesday, saying they were carrying out an “aggressive humiliation of Greece” with their demands for new austerity measures.

A disorderly bankruptcy by Greece would likely lead to its exit from the eurozone, a situation that European officials have insisted is impossible because it would hurt other weak countries like Portugal, Ireland and Italy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also argued strongly against the prospect.

“The euro is not just an economic project, it is also a political project — and I am not going to participate in pushing Greece out of the euro,” she said late Tuesday. “It would have incalculable consequences.” AGENCIES

Hrithik Roshan to be the brand ambassador of iball?

Hrithik Roshan is someone who has been time and again described as the Greek God of Bollywood with his good looks, hot physique and exceptional talent. Right from his debut film till where he has reached now, hard work and sincerity has been his mantra.

And as per News Trends’s reliable sources, it is this mantra that has made him to be the brand ambassador of iball, the market leaders in computers accessories. With Krissh 2 and Agneepath under his belt, it really looks like the timing of this deal just couldn’t have been better!

Greek-operated vessel hijacked off Somalia

NAIROBI: Pirates hijacked the Greek-operated cargo ship MV Lugela off Somalia shortly after it transited through the Gulf of Aden, the European Union’s anti-piracy task force and a maritime official said on Monday.

“She has been taken by pirates. She was expected off the Somali coast in the early hours of this morning,” Andrew Mwangura, head of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told Reuters.

EU NAVFOR said the Panama-flagged vessel sent a distress alert to its Greek operator early on Saturday and had not been heard from since.

“The vessel was in the Somali basin, approximately 900 nautical miles east of Eyl, Somalia. A short while later, the vessel altered course to sail towards the Somali coast,” EU NAVFOR said on its website.

The MV Lugela, which has a dead weight of 4,281 tonnes, had a crew of 12 Ukrainians on board and was sailing

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NICOSIA: Latin pop star Jennifer Lopez has cancelled a performance in Turkish-held north Cyprus after whipping up a storm of angry protest from thousands of displaced Greek Cypriots.

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Jennifer Lopez cancels Cyprus gig after outcry

OPEC: 2010 demand picture uncertain

CAIRO: OPEC says Europe’s debt crisis and an oversupply of crude in the market are weighing heavily on crude demand in the second half of the year.

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OPEC: 2010 demand picture uncertain

Police: Mosque vandalized in northern Israel

JERUSALEM: Police say vandals defaced a mosque in northern Israel, a day after Israeli troops demolished unauthorized construction in a West Bank settlement.

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Police: Mosque vandalized in northern Israel

Short people at higher risk of heart problems

LONDON: Short people have a 50 percent higher risk of having a heart problem or dying from one, when compared to tall people, a new study says, though weight, blood pressure and smoking habits remain more important factors.

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Short people at higher risk of heart problems

Merkel, Sarkozy demand urgent market reform

BERLIN: The leaders of Germany and France on Wednesday called on Europe to redouble efforts to regulate financial markets and crack down on speculative trading by possibly banning naked short selling across the EU.

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Merkel, Sarkozy demand urgent market reform

Greece: on track to meet deficit targetsmeet

ATHENS: The Greek finance minister says his country is on track to meet its targets of reducing the deficit this year, and that any talk of the country defaulting on its debt is ridiculous.

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Greece: on track to meet deficit targetsmeet

judd apatow

Get Him to the Greek is an enjoyable addition to Judd Apatow’s expanding canon of bromances. In this version, record company lackey Aaron Green (Jonah Hill) is tasked with getting rock superstar Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) halfway around the world for a concert in three days. Of course, Snow is afflicted with rock star ADD, which means he can never pass up an opportunity to party. Green seesaws between enabling the debauchery and badgering Snow to keep moving. This being an Apatow production, their road is paved with sex, drugs, and bathroom humor.

Though it sounds like a road trip movie, it never feels like it travels at all. Instead, Snow and Green are dropped into a series of set pieces in hotels, bars, and clubs—in London, New York, Vegas, and Los Angeles—but really, they could be anywhere. The trip itself is too easy by half: there’s always another plane or car waiting for them when they need to move to the next destination. Luckily, this does not detract from the real fun of the movie, which is watching Brand and the shockingly good Sean Combs riff their way through this bare-bones story. The movie should belong to Hill, but he mostly plays straight man to his costars. Green is so inconsistently written that it’s distracting at times. His actions, starting with an inexplicable belief that his girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) has broken up with him, seem designed primarily to keep the plot moving.

Tags: aaron-green, aldous-snow, debauchery, elisabeth-moss, Entertainment, from-the-real, girlfriend, greek, green, keep-the-plot, like-it-travels, seesaws-between, shockingly

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