The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Oklahoma State University women's basketball coach dies in crash
- Tunisia coalition reaches deal on top posts - sources
- EU, IMF to press Greek parties on reform promises
| Oklahoma State University women's basketball coach dies in crash Posted: 18 Nov 2011 07:32 PM PST (Reuters) - Oklahoma State University's women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna died Thursday night in a plane crash in Arkansas, the university said in a statement on its website on Friday. The pilot and one other person who was not affiliated with the university also were killed, the school said.
The coaches were on a recruiting trip when the plane crashed in Perry County, Arkansas. "The Oklahoma State family is devastated by this tragedy," said OSU President Burns Hargis. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of Kurt Budke, Miranda Serna and the other victims." (Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Tunisia coalition reaches deal on top posts - sources Posted: 18 Nov 2011 07:32 PM PST TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's Islamist Ennahda party and its two coalition partners have reached agreement in principle to share out the top three government posts between them, senior sources from two coalition parties told Reuters on Friday. Under the deal, the most powerful post, of prime minister, will go to Hamadi Jbeli, secretary-general of the Islamist Ennahda party which won last month's election, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. Moncef Marzouki, leader of the secularist Congress for the Republic, a junior coalition partner, is to be named Tunisian president, and Mustafa Ben Jaafar, leader of third coalition partner Ettakatol, will be speaker of the constitutional assembly, the sources said. The three parties have "an agreement in principle but it is not official yet," said one of the sources. The other source said an announcement would be made in the next few days. Tunisia became the birth-place of the "Arab Spring" uprisings earlier this year after vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself in an act of protest that swelled into a revolution and ousted the president. In its first democratic election last month, Tunisia handed victory to the moderate Ennahda party, the first time Islamists had won power in the Arab world since the Hamas faction won an election in the Palestinian Territories in 2006. Tunisia's sometimes bumpy transition to democracy is being watched closely by Egypt and Libya, where "Arab Spring" revolts pushed out entrenched leaders and where once-outlawed Islamists are also challenging for power. Last month's election was for an assembly which will sit for a year to draft a new constitution. Once that is done, it will be dissolved and new elections will be called for a legislature and possibly a president, depending on what new system of government the assembly chooses. There is no formal role for Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi. Some observers say he may have his eye on the president's job when new elections come around. Ennahda emerged from last month's election as the biggest party but short of a majority in the assembly, forcing it to form a coalition. Ennahda coming to power has worried many Tunisian secularists who believe their liberal lifestyles are under threat. Ghannouchi has offered assurances that he will not impose a Muslim moral code, that he will respect women's rights and not ban the sale of alcohol or try to stop women wearing bikinis on the country's Mediterranean beaches. Some secularists said Ennahda's hidden agenda had been unmasked this week when footage emerged of Jbeli at a meeting with supporters invoking an Islamic state. But Ennahda said their opponents were deliberately distorting Jbeli's words. (Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Matthew Jones) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| EU, IMF to press Greek parties on reform promises Posted: 18 Nov 2011 07:32 PM PST ATHENS (Reuters) - International lenders will press
Greece's fractious political parties Saturday to give written guarantees that they will back austerity measures under a bailout deal aimed at saving the country from financial ruin. The leader of conservative New Democracy -- one of three parties in the new national unity government of technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos -- has stirred dismay in the EU by refusing to sign any pledge, saying his word is enough. New Democracy chief Antonis Samaras has said his support for the interim coalition is conditional and temporary, and has begun jockeying for position before an election tentatively slated for February 19 in which he wants to win a big majority. Representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- the "troika" which monitors Greek compliance with its rescue deals -- were expected to meet Samaras in Athens Saturday. They will also hold talks with the other coalition parties, the Socialist PASOK and the small far-right LAOS, to measure their commitment to implementing a wave of spending cuts and tax increases needed to unlock more loans. Underscoring the pressure on Athens, Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said Friday the parties had "to make a clear and unequivocal choice in writing" by signing a pledge. "Are they with us or not? We don't have the luxury of patience any longer," he said. EU leaders, weary of Greece's failure to deliver on fiscal targets, fear its politicians will try to wriggle out of their commitments as the early election looms, especially if Athens gets an 8 billion euro instalment under an old bailout deal. The new bailout, approved last month, is worth an additional 130 billion euros (111 billion pounds) and is meant to keep the country of 11 million people financed until 2014. DEEPENING CRISIS Greece's debt troubles over the past two years have turned into a major European crisis that threatens the survival of the euro and the stability of the global economy. As Greek politicians bickered this week, borrowing costs for much larger euro zone countries such as Italy and Spain were in the danger zone while even France's rose. Support for both PASOK and New Democracy, which have dominated Greek politics for decades, has eroded over the past week, opinion polls show. However, more than two thirds of voters back Papademos, a former central banker who is the sole technocrat in a coalition otherwise made up of party politicians. New Democracy repeated an oft-made call Friday to scrap the austerity measures prescribed under the bailout -- known as the "Memorandum" in Greece -- in favour of pro-growth policies. "The Memorandum needs to be renegotiated. A recipe that doesn't work needs to be changed," it said in a statement. It is not clear whether the EU and IMF will demand more financial pain from Greeks. Papademos's cabinet submitted a draft 2012 budget to parliament Friday that foresees no new austerity measures next year, provided that reforms are enacted. The draft, expected to be approved in the next few weeks, predicts a fifth year of recession but says a plan to convince Greece's private creditors to take a 50 percent loss on bond holdings could cut the budget deficit by more than a third. The document forecasts that Greece's 220 billion euro economy will shrink 2.8 percent in 2012 after a 5.5 percent contraction this year. Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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