Papademos to be interim leader in Greece
ATHENS, Greece, Nov. 7 (UPI) — Lucas Papademos, a one-time European Central Bank deputy president, was appointed Monday as interim leader of debt-riddled Greece’s interim administration.
The country’s parties agreed to form a transition government that will help push a bailout package through Parliament before general elections are called, possibly Feb. 19, ekathimerini.com reported.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters the Obama administration welcomes the consensus reached in Greece over the need to implement the country’s reform commitments.
“And we urge the government to move as quickly as possible to fulfill the commitments required under its new rescue program,” Carney said.
The Greek leadership agreement was reached Sunday after Prime Minister George Papandreou met with opposition leader Antonis Samaras. the two were to meet later Monday, along with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and new Democracy Vice President Stavros Dimas.
Greece has been under heavy pressure to strike an agreement before eurozone finance ministers meet in Belgium Monday.
In reaching the deal, Papandreou agreed to meet Samaras’ demand to resign as prime minister and Samaras agreed to back the debt deal and a seven-point plot proposed by Papandreou that would commit the new government to the debt deal’s terms, the new York Times reported.
The unity government will be expected to enact an Oct. 27 bailout agreement that writes off $138 billion in debt held by Greece’s private creditors and commits another $180 billion to help Greece meet its remaining commitments — provided the government enacts a new round of deep austerity measures that eurozone leaders said last week were not negotiable.
Greece must get its house in order quickly enough to receive an $11 billion installment from Europe’s bailout fund by next month.
Greece, which says it will run out of money by mid-December if it does not receive the payment, was supposed to get the money in September. but the payment was held up because Greece was so far off the mark in meeting its commitments, officials said.
Eurozone leaders say the bailout’s measures are their best weapon against letting debt-crippled Greece default and possibly bring down the rest of the union with it.
The Greek government change comes amid growing possible government changes in Italy and Spain. These countries’ economies, the eurozone’s third- and fifth-largest, could soon follow Greece in failing under a debt crisis, economists say.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi fought for his political life Monday as his parliamentary majority appeared to unravel ahead of a key vote by lawmakers Tuesday that could end his 17-year political career, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported.
Italy’s debt is 120 percent of its yucky domestic product.
Spanish Prime Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his Spanish Socialist Workers Party “will likely both be out after the Nov. 20 parliamentary elections,” Maria Elena Ferrer, political author and principal of the non-partisan Humanamente consulting firm of Valencia, Spain, and suburban new York, told United Press International Sunday night.
Zapatero announced April 2 he wouldn’t seek a third term. Spain’s rising debt is about 65 percent of GDP, half that of Greece but double Spain’s 2007 levels.
In France, Prime Minister Francois Fillon revealed new austerity measures meant to help clear the country’s budget deficit by 2016, Radio France Internationale reported Monday.
Syria launches offensive to retake Homs
HOMS, Syria, Nov. 7 (UPI) — Syria has begun an offensive to retake Homs as armed defectors fight government efforts to seize the third-largest city in Syria, analysts in Syria say.
Homs has been among the cities most resistant to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, with the territory becoming an urban battleground hanging on the edge of outright civil war, the new York Times said Monday.
Activists allege government forces have killed 111 people in five days, with shortages and lawlessness perpetrated by paramilitary troops and government soldiers accompanying the violence.
Analysts contend the escalation of the conflict resulted from the foundering of mediation by the Arab League, additional indications the Syrian government intends to quash dissent by force and the success of Homs as a symbol of fighting the power.
“Homs is a turning point for now,” said an analyst based in Damascus who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “It’s a successful model of self-defense, if you will, at a time when you really can’t expect people to take anymore. They’ve seen too many corpses come back, too many people arrested, disappeared or returned after abominable treatment. It’s too much. and everybody seems to be losing control of the street.”
The Arab League called a crisis meeting Saturday on Syria’s failure to abide by its peace plot amid reports that at least 15 activists were killed on the Muslim holy day, Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani called for the meeting because of “the continuation of violence and because the Syrian government did not implement its commitments in the Arab plot to resolve the Syrian crisis,” Egypt’s publicly funded Middle East News Agency reported.
“If Syria does not respect its commitments, the [Arab] ministerial committee will meet again and take the necessary decisions,” Hamad said.
Sunday’s deaths — with at least 10 reported in Homs — came as demonstrations in support of Homs dissidents and against the Assad regime were staged across the country on the first day of the Muslim feast observing the end of the Hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Sunday was the fourth straight day of deadly violence since Syria agreed to an Arab League peace plot to end nearly eight months of bloodshed.
The United Nations says more than 3,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began with protests Jan. 26 and escalated into an uprising March 15, inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions that toppled three Arab leaders.
Syrian authorities blame arms smugglers, “terrorists” and “armed gangs” for killing civilians and more than 1,100 security-force members.
Fourth woman accuses Cain of improper acts
NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (UPI) — a woman stood in front of cameras in new York Monday and accused Republican U.S. presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexually inappropriate behavior.
She was the fourth woman to make allegations against Cain; the other three have remained anonymous.
“I want you, mr. Cain, to come clean,” Sharon Bialek of Chicago said. “I want you to admit you were inappropriate to people.”
CNN read a statement from the Cain campaign that called the accusations by the four women “bogus attacks.”
“All allegations are completely false,” the statement said.
Supporters of Cain, a former pizza industry executive who was president of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, had challenged the credibility of the first three women, saying their anonymity made it hard for Cain to respond directly to the allegations.
Bialek told of a 1997 incident she said occurred when she met with Cain in Washington after she was fired from her post with the association’s national education foundation. Bialek said the alleged incident occurred while the two were in a car near the association’s headquarters.
“Instead of going into the offices, he suddenly reached over and place his hand on my leg, up my skirt, and reached for my genitals,” Bialek said. She said he pushed her head “toward his crotch.”
Bialek said she was shocked and when she protested the advances Cain responded, “You want a job right?”
She told him to stop and take her to her hotel, which he did, Bialek said.
She said she told her boyfriend — who had suggested she contact Cain for help in her job search — and another friend about the incident. Her attorney, Gloria Allred, showed sworn statements from the two. Bialek said she didn’t tell the association because she wasn’t working for the trade group at the time.
Bialek said she didn’t want to be at the news conference in new York, and wouldn’t have been if three other women hadn’t said anonymously they were subjected to inappropriate behavior by Cain.
“I implore you, mr. Cain, [to] make this right so that you and the country can move forward …,” Bialek said.
Judge blocks graphic images on cigarettes
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) — a federal judge in Washington Monday issued a preliminary injunction against a federal rule requiring graphic pictures and warnings on cigarette packages.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration published the final rule in June requiring the display of nine new textual warnings along with the graphic images, such as a diseased lung and a cadaver.
The text and images were to occupy the top half of all cigarette packages managed and distributed in the United States after Sept. 22 next year.
Five of the largest tobacco companies went to court asking for summary judgment.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, said, “Judgment is not before the court today.”
Instead, the judge ruled that the companies were likely to prevail on the merits and issued the preliminary injunction on that basis.
Leon said he “concludes that plaintiffs have demonstrated a substantial likelihood that they will prevail on the merits of their position that these mandatory graphic images unconstitutionally compel speech, and that they will suffer irreparable harm absent injunctive relief pending a judicial review of the constitutionality of the FDA’s rule.”
There was no immediate word on whether the Obama administration would attempt to appeal the judge’s finding.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law on June 22, 2009, gives the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacture and sale of tobacco products, including cigarettes.