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Whether you’re waiting to catch SkyBus to the airport or you’re only just arriving into the city, make Britomart part of your experience.
If you are waiting to catch a SkyBus to the airport, or you’re only just arriving into the city, make Britomart part of your experience and savour in everything the bustling waterfront precinct has to offer.
ATHENS/BRUSSELS – Germany all but buried negotiations on Saturday to keep Greece from default, saying a surprise decision by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to call a referendum had left nothing to discuss but how to cope with failure.
Euro zone finance ministers met in Brussels for what had been intended as a final negotiation for a deal to rescue Greece from defaulting on a big debt payment on Tuesday, when an international bailout expires.
“We have no basis for further negotiations,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. “Clearly we can never rule out surprises with Greece, so there can always be hope. But none of my colleagues with whom I’ve already spoken see any possibilities for what we can now do.”
“There is pretty much a consensus inside the Eurogroup that we cannot extend the programme as it stands and consequently I would argue that Plan B becomes Plan A.”
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis said he would press for an extension of the bailout to give time to hold the referendum.
“We are going to suggest to them that under these circumstances we should have an extension for a few weeks to ensure that the people are heard,” he told Reuters.
But several of his euro zone counterparts appeared to rule out any such grace period. Germany’s Schaeuble said: “Greece has left the negotiating table and so we are in a situation where on Tuesday the programme ends, because there are no more negotiations.”
Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis called for calm, telling lawmakers: “The game is not over for the country, its people, this parliament.”
Without a clear agreement on bailout cash, Athens is set to default on 1.6 billion euros of debt to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday.
Its stricken banks depend on emergency liquidity from the European Central Bank to stay open, and the banking system faces at the very least a further flood of withdrawals after billions have left in recent weeks.
Government ministers emerging from the cabinet meeting in Athens said they were confident Greeks would vote no. Greek officials said they nevertheless intended to continue negotiating with creditors anyway.
But even European voices previously sympathetic to Greece expressed dismay at the tactic of holding a referendum while telling voters to vote no.
“I think it’s right to ask the people their opinion. But that only works if the head of government lives up to his responsibilities to lead,” said Martin Shulz, the German Social Democrat speaker of the European parliament, who has long urged EU leaders to give Tsipras a fair hearing.
“And that means: to recommend to the people that the accommodating offer made by the lenders and euro partners be accepted.”
As parliament met to approve the referendum, the ruling Syriza party appealed to voters to reject the bailout and said the referendum was part of a wider rejection of austerity policies across the continent.
“The battle we’re fighting is not just for us, it is for dignity and democracy throughout Europe,” its political committee said in a statement.
“Tsipras brought the country to a total deadlock. Between an unacceptable agreement and a euro exit,” his conservative predecessor Antonis Samaras said. The referendum question was effectively a “yes” or “no” to Europe, he said.
The creditors had laid out their terms in a document handed to Greece on Thursday. It said Athens could have 15.5 billion euros in EU and IMF funding in four instalments to see it through to the end of November, including 1.8 billion euros by Tuesday, as soon as the Greek parliament approved the plan.
The total is barely more than what Greece needs to service its debts over the next six months and contains no new money.
The lenders also made a gesture towards Tsipras’s demands for debt relief by offering to reaffirm a 2012 pledge to consider stretching out loan maturities, lowering interest rates and extending an interest payment moratorium on euro zone loans to Greece, a senior EU official said.
But the demands come in return for pension and public sector salary cuts and an increase in taxes on food, restaurants and tourism. That has sparked protests in Greece, where one in four people are out of work. –Reuters
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LONODN – England manager Roy Hodgson has said he is prepared to remain in the job after Euro 2016 but will not be ‘begging’ for a new deal.
Hodgson’s contract expires after the tournament in France and Football Association chairman Greg Dyke indicated last week that the 68-year-old may have to lead the team to the semi-finals to guarantee staying on.
“I’m not begging for the job. I am prepared to carry on,” Hodgson told British media ahead of Monday’s last-16 match against Iceland in Nice. “It is different to wanting it. I’m prepared to carry on if the FA want me to.
“I believe in the team I am working with and believe the team is showing such potential that it will go on to do good things and if the FA want me to continue with me looking after them, I will be happy to do so.”
England reached the last 16 after finishing second to Wales, who have already reached the quarter-finals, in Group B.
They beat Wales 2-1 but draws against Russia and Slovakia left them in what turned out to be a much tougher half of the draw. They have scored three goals from their three games to date.
Hodgson’s decision to make six changes for the final group game against Slovakia, which ended goalless, drew some criticism although FA chief executive Martin Glenn denied that he and Dyke had any problems with Hodgson’s decisions.
“He has our full support, he has been a great manager and I think we are going to do great things in this tournament,” said Glenn.
Asked about the criticism of his tactics, Hodgson indicated that it came from the media rather than from within the England hierarchy.
“The FA will make the decision on what they want to do,” he said. “One hopes they will do it on their thinking and their observations and judgement and analysis on what is happening with the national team and not because some journalist has written something contrary to that.” -Reuters
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LAHORE (92 News) – Police have on Sunday apprehended two suspects from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally spot at Chairing Cross on Sunday.
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