Greek deputy PM says lenders 'footdragging' on bailout review

ATHENS Mon Dec 2, 2013 8:01pm IST

(Reuters) - Greece's deputy prime minister accused its lenders of Monday of obstructing bailout talks after inspectors from the EU and IMF postponed a visit over a lack of progress on reforms.

The troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been pushing Greece to accept measures that do nothing to fix the country's finances, said Evangelos Venizelos, also head of the left-wing PASOK party, a junior partner in the coalition government.

"Nothing justifies a new round of friction, foot-dragging and tension with the troika. Nothing," Venizelos said in a speech at a conference.

GREECE - Factors to Watch on December 3

Tue Dec 3, 2013 1:05pm IST

ATHENS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press

reports and events, which may affect Greek financial markets on

Tuesday:

   

    GREEK DEPUTY PM SAYS LENDERS "FOOTDRAGGING" ON BAILOUT

REVIEW

    Greece's deputy prime minister accused its lenders of Monday

of obstructing bailout talks after inspectors from the EU and

IMF postponed a visit over a lack of progress on reforms.

   

Why China is fixated on the Moon

David Shukman

Science editor

BBC

The Moon could be a "beautiful" source of minerals and energy, a top Chinese scientist has told the BBC.

Exotic materials including helium-3 and the potential for solar power could prove invaluable for humankind, he says.

The comments come from Prof Ouyang Ziyuan of the department of lunar and deep space exploration.

His first interview with the foreign media provides insights into China's usually secretive space programme.

Prof Ouyang was speaking ahead of the first Chinese attempt to land an unmanned spacecraft on the lunar surface.

Golden Dawn Rally: Greece's Ultra-Right Party Holds Protest Outside Parliament

Reuters  |  Posted: 11/30/2013 2:20 pm EST

ATHENS, Nov 30 (Reuters) - About 1,000 supporters of Greece's Golden Dawn party gathered outside parliament on Saturday to protest against the pre-trial detention of their leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos on charges of forming a criminal organisation.

Clad in black clothes, carrying torches and Greek flags, the ultra-right party's supporters shouted slogans such as "hands off Golden Dawn, don't jail nationalists" to the sound of Greek folk and marching songs.

The protest took place under the watch of riot police, mobilised to shield it from counter-rallies by rival leftist groups nearby. Events unfolded peacefully after police banned all marches in the area to prevent clashes.

Metro-North Passenger Train Derails in New York, Killing Four

Officials Say 63 Injured in Commuter Train Cars off Tracks Near Spuyten Duyvil Station on Hudson Line

The Wall Street Journal

By TED MANN, ALISON FOX And MARA GAY

Updated Dec. 1, 2013 11:28 a.m. ET

A Metro-North train derailed in New York City Sunday morning, killing four people on board and scattering rail cars near the water's edge, authorities said.

The southbound diesel train on the Hudson line derailed about 100 yards from the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx at about 7:30 a.m., a railroad spokeswoman said. Officials said there were 63 others injured, with 11 in critical condition.

The people’s panopticon

The Economist

It is getting ever easier to record anything, or everything, that you see. This opens fascinating possibilities—and alarming ones

Nov 16th 2013 | SAN FRANCISCO

ABOUT halfway through Dave Eggers’s bestselling dystopian satire on Silicon Valley, “The Circle”, the reader meets Stewart, a bald, silent, stooped 60-year-old who has “been filming, recording, every moment of his life now for five years”. Stewart is the first of the novel’s characters to make all his actions visible to anyone with a computer who cares to look—the first “transparent man”.

Moody's raises Greek rating to 'Caa3'

BY HARRY PAPACHRISTOU

ATHENS Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:54pm EST

(Reuters) - Rating agency Moody's raised Greece's sovereign rating to 'Caa3' from 'C' on Friday, saying it expected the debt-laden nation to meet its 2014 budget targets and that its recession will end next year.

Moody's is the third and last major agency to raise Greece's rating over the past 12 months, after the election victory of a government backing the country's EU/IMF bailout, which rescued Athens from default and averted its possible exit from the euro.

S&P raised Greece's rating in December 2012 to 'B-' from "selective default." Fitch raised it in May 2013 to 'B-' from 'CCC'.

EU-IMF postpone visit to Athens in dispute over reforms

BY JOHN O'DONNELL, LUKE BAKER AND HARRY PAPACHRISTOU

(Reuters) - Inspectors from the EU and IMF have postponed a planned visit to Greece, officials told Reuters on Friday, a move that marks a new low in relations between the parties and could delay aid payments to Athens.

The Greek government said it still expects differences with the troika to be bridged.

The decision to postpone the visit may be an attempt by the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund - together known as the 'troika' - to try to bring Athens to heel as frustration grows over Greece's failure to complete the reforms it has promised in return for aid.

It is a potential embarrassment for the Greek government, which wants to be able to show it is hitting its targets and bouncing back before it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union for six months from the start of next year.

Why did China impose an ‘air defense zone’ that was so likely to fail?

BY MAX FISHER

November 29 at 12:12 pm

The Washington Post

China has one of the largest and most consequential militaries in the world, but how Beijing thinks about its military and makes military decisions is largely a mystery to the outside world. The People's Liberation Army is technically attached to the Chinese Communist Party, rather than to the Chinese government, and scholars often describe it as a "black box" because it is so difficult to understand from the outside.

This week's decision by China to impose a special "air defense identification zone" over international waters was one such mystery. China announced that any foreign flights into the special zone would have to alert Beijing first and file a formal flight plan. The outcome was entirely predictable: The United States immediately violated China's requirement by flying two unarmed B-52 bombers into the "zone," basically a way of announcing that the U.S. would ignore China's requirement. Japan and South Korea also sent in flights. China's "air defense zone" not only failed, it backfired, embarrassing China while further uniting Japan, South Korea and the U.S. against Chinese military assertiveness.

Britain's Cameron 'turns page' on Dalai Lama row with China visit

BY ANDREW OSBORN

LONDON Sat Nov 30, 2013 7:27am EST

(Reuters) - Britain has put a diplomatic rift with China over the Dalai Lama behind it and Prime Minister David Cameron has no plans to meet Tibet's spiritual leader again, a senior source in his office said ahead of a visit by the British leader to Beijing.

Instead, Cameron will use a three-day visit to China next week, his first since the Dalai Lama rift, to focus on deepening trade ties with the world's second largest economy, taking with him a delegation of around 100 business people.

"This visit is forward looking. We have turned a page on that issue," said the source when asked whether Cameron would raise the issue of Tibet during his trip. "It's about shifting UK relations up a gear and looking to the future."

Euro Strengthens for a Third Month on Inflation Jump; Real Drops

By Andrea Wong - Nov 30, 2013 12:18 AM GMT+0200

Bloomberg

The euro gained for a third straight month versus the yen after the currency region’s consumer-price index rose more this month than forecast, fueling bets the European Central Bank will refrain from further stimulus.

The dollar advanced for the first month since August before a report next week forecast to show the U.S. job market maintained gains. Canada’s dollar slid before the central bank meets. The yen fell for a fourth month versus the dollar as Japanese consumer prices climbed the most in 15 years. Japan’s currency had its worst month against the euro since April as inflation in the currency bloc rose from a four-year low in October.

U.S. airlines advised to give China flight plans over new defense zone

BY LESLEY WROUGHTON AND TIM KELLY

WASHINGTON/TOKYO Sat Nov 30, 2013 5:11am EST

(Reuters) - The United States advised its commercial airlines to notify Chinese authorities of flight plans when travelling through an air defense zone that Beijing established a week ago over the East China Sea, ratcheting up regional tensions.

The United States said it expected U.S. carriers to operate in line with so-called notices to airmen issued by foreign countries, adding, however, that the decision did "not indicate U.S. government acceptance of China's requirements.

The Bitcoin bubble

The Economist

Nov 30th 2013

It looks overvalued. But even if this digital currency crashes, others will follow

BITCOIN is booming. Investors are piling into the digital currency, which is not issued by a central bank but is conjured into being by cryptographic software running on a network of volunteers’ computers. This week the price of a Bitcoin soared to above $1,000, from less than $15 in January.

China to send "jade rabbit" buggy to the moon next month

BEIJING Tue Nov 26, 2013 12:20am EST

Nov 26 (Reuters) - China will land its first probe on the moon in early December which will deploy a buggy to explore its surface, an official said on Tuesday, marking a major milestone in the country's space ambitions.

China has already photographed the surface of the moon to prepare for the landing, said a spokesman for the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.

In 2007, China launched its first moon orbiter, the Chang'e One orbiter, named after a lunar goddess, which took images of the surface and analysed the distribution of elements.

U.S. Sends B-52s on Mission to Challenge Chinese Claims

By JULIAN E. BARNES in Washington and JEREMY PAGE in Beijing

Updated Nov. 27, 2013 5:00 a.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. moved forcefully to try to counter China's bid for influence over increasingly jittery Asian neighbors by sending a pair of B-52 bombers over disputed islands in the East China Sea, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The B-52s took off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and flew more than 1,500 miles northwest, crossing into what China has declared as its new air-defense identification zone, at about 7 p.m. ET Monday. The U.S. deliberately violated rules set by China by refusing to inform Beijing about the flight, officials said.

China had warned of military action against aircraft entering the zone without notification, but didn't respond to the B-52s, which weren't armed and were part of a long-planned military exercise. A U.S. official said there was no attempt by the Chinese military to contact the B-52s. "The flight was without incident," a U.S. official said.

Among American workers, poll finds unprecedented anxiety about jobs, economy

By Jim Tankersley and Scott Clement,

Tuesday, November 26, 2:03 AM E-mail the writers

The Washington Post

CHESTER, Pa. — The alarm rang on John Stewart’s phone at 1:10 a.m. Up at 1:30, he caught one bus north into Philadelphia a little after 2 and another bus, south toward the airport, half an hour after that. He made it into work around 3:25 for a shift that started at 4, for a job that pays $5.25 an hour, which he cannot afford to lose.

China sends carrier to South China Sea for training amid maritime disputes

BEIJING Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:33am EST

(Reuters) - China sent its sole aircraft carrier on a training mission into the South China Sea on Tuesday amid maritime disputes with some neighbors and tension over its plan to set up an airspace defense zone in waters disputed with Japan.

The Liaoning, bought used from Ukraine and refurbished in China, has conducted more than 100 exercises and experiments since it was commissioned last year but this is the first time it has been sent to the South China Sea.

China at a crossroads

Robert J. Samuelson

Opinion Writer

The Washington Post

It has been only a few years since China was widely regarded as an unstoppable economic colossus. For three decades, its economy grew about 10 percent annually; China seemed to be gliding through the global economic storm. Well, maybe not. Many economists — Chinese and foreign — think China’s economic model is unworkable. Without a new model, they say, China will someday face a collapse of growth or worse. The outcome has huge implications for China’s internal stability and its global economic footprint. The precedent of Japan, a highflier laid low, suggests that rapid growth can’t be taken for granted.

ECB's Noyer: Rates must remain low, could go lower if needed

(Reuters) - European Central Bank Governing Council member Christian Noyer said on Monday that interest rates have to remain low for an extended period and might go even lower if needed as officials try to ensure the euro zone does not fall into deflation.

Central bankers have to invent policies to achieve price stability if conventional monetary policy stops working, Noyer said, suggesting the ECB will keep its options open after a surprise slowdown in inflation.

"We see risks that low inflation will remain for some time," Noyer said at a conference in Tokyo.

"Light at the end of the tunnel" for Greece?

Deutsche Welle

Greece is on the right track, said Chancellor Merkel after meeting with Greek Prime Minister Samaras in Berlin. Samaras used the occasion to hold the EU, ECB and IMF Troika to past promises of relief.

Things are going forward in highly indebted Greece, at least that's the way Germany's chancellor saw it. "The prime minister was able to present a series of impressive facts to me, and Greece has made significant progress," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at the Chancellery in Berlin. "A lot has been accomplished there in the last few years."

The extent of the praise is surprising given Germany's recent disagreement with European partners regarding Greece's next tranche from its second aid package. The Troika, comprised of the EU, ECB and IMF, has been seeking Greek clarification of a 1.5 billion euro ($2 billion) gap in the country's 2014 budget plans. EU countries had also criticized Greece for its lack of progress with regard to reforms.