Frustrated refugee in Germany sets fire to his new home, police say

The Washington Post
By Rick Noack April 11 at 2:42 PM

When a house used to shelter refugees was burned down in an arson attack last week, there seemed to be no doubt about the motives behind it. Someone had sprayed a swastika on one of the house's walls, which made investigators believe that they were dealing with right-wing extremism. Local politicians in the city of Bingen were shocked and immediately set up a pro-refugee march to advocate for tolerance.

That was before a Syrian refugee — an inhabitant of the house — reportedly confessed to the crime.

According to police, the 26-year-old had lived in the house for more than half a year and wanted to express his dissatisfaction with the accommodations, which he described as cramped. He has since been jailed, as investigators search for explanations and evidence.

Turkey, Germany herald progress as migrant flow to Greece slows

Wed Apr 6, 2016 9:19pm EDT Related: WORLD, GERMANY, TURKEY, GREECE

ATHENS/DIKILI, TURKEY | BY LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS AND MEHMET EMIN CALISKAN

Reuters

Turkey and Germany said on Wednesday an agreement between Ankara and the EU meant to stem the flow of migrants to the Greek islands was showing signs of success, but many were still trying to cross the sea and the route remained far from sealed off.

The accord, which came into force on Monday, aims to help end the chaotic arrival of migrants and refugees, most fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, after more than a million reached Europe last year.

Leaked Call Shows Continued Strains Between Greece and Its Creditors

IMF officials’ conversation highlights risk that bailout program could be headed for more drama

The Wall Street Journal

By MARCUS WALKER and  NEKTARIA STAMOULI
Updated April 2, 2016 1:38 p.m. ET


ATHENS—A leaked phone call held by International Monetary Fund officials is exposing strains between Greece and its international creditors, highlighting the risk that the country’s bailout program could be headed for more drama this summer.

A transcript of the March 19 phone call, involving IMF officials in Washington and Athens, was published by the Wikileaks website on Saturday and shows how IMF officials are struggling to persuade Germany and other eurozone countries to give Greece the debt relief and easier fiscal targets that the IMF thinks are needed.

Greece's Path to New IMF Loan Grows Even Rockier Following Leak

 Andrew Mayeda
April 5, 2016 — 12:00 AM EEST
Bloomberg
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may be alienating the International Monetary Fund just when he needs it most.
The IMF has questioned whether the goal of reaching a fiscal surplus of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, agreed to in last year’s euro-area bailout of Greece, is realistic. In the transcript of a conference call published by WikiLeaks on Saturday, the fund’s European Department director, Poul Thomsen, suggests the IMF would accept a revised goal of 1.5 percent. Thomsen has said euro-area countries would have to offer more debt relief if the target is loosened.

Time Is Running Out (Again) for Greece

APRIL 4, 2016 10:14 AM EST
By
Editorial Board
Bloomberg
The Greek economy is still in desperate trouble, and yet another crisis is looming. If it happens, this could set back hopes of recovery across much of Europe. The last emergency won't soon be forgotten -- yet nothing is being done to avoid a rerun.

The latest quarrel between Greece's government and the International Monetary Fund, one of its official creditors, only underlines this continuing dysfunction. The impasse has to be broken. For that to happen, the European Union must take the lead, rethink its current position, and grant Greece debt relief.

Greece's gross domestic product is still falling year over year. About a quarter of the population is out of work. Depositors pulled a further 500 million euros ($570 million) out of the country's banks in February, showing that last year's rescue plan has failed to restore confidence.

IMF Tries To Put Out Fire From Bombshell Greece Leak, But Doesn’t Apologize

Speculation that the IMF would pressure Greece to negotiate is “nonsense,” says a letter rife with thinly veiled criticism.
 04/03/2016 05:33 pm ET | Updated 14 hours ago
The Huffington Post

Daniel Marans
Reporter, Huffington Post

The International Monetary Fund’s managing director told Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday that the IMF remains committed to good faith negotiations, trying to assuage concerns raised by a Saturday leak.

Christine Lagarde dismissed the possibility the IMF would use underhanded tactics to pressure Greece in the letter, which was also posted on the IMF’s website.

The Huffington Post first reported on Saturday that Tsipras had asked Lagarde whether Greece could “trust” the IMF in light of leaked remarks by IMF officials suggesting that a crisis-inducing “event” was necessary to get Greece to comply with IMF austerity requests.

“Of course, any speculation that IMF staff would consider using a credit event as a negotiating tactic is simply nonsense,” Lagarde wrote Sunday.

Greece demands IMF explanation over leaked debt transcript

Sun Apr 3, 2016 8:28am EDT Related: GREECE, IMF
ATHENS | BY LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS

Reuters

Greece demanded an explanation from the International Monetary Fund after an apparent leaked transcript suggested the IMF may threaten to pull out of the country's bailout as a tactic to force European lenders to offer more debt relief.

EU/IMF lenders will resume talks on Greece's fiscal and reform progress in Athens on Monday, aiming to conclude a bailout review that will unlock further loans and pave the way for negotiations on long-desired debt restructuring.

The review has been adjourned twice since January due to a rift among the lenders over the estimated size of Greece's fiscal gap by 2018, as well as disagreements with Athens on pension reforms and the management of bad loans.

Greece Grapples With Unrest Ahead of Migrant Transfers to Turkey

First transfers under agreement between EU, Turkey set to take place Monday

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI in Athens and AYLA ALBAYRAK in Izmir, Turkey
April 3, 2016 11:27 a.m. ET


Greece is due to start sending Syrian refugees and other migrants back across the Aegean Sea to Turkey on Monday, putting into practice a controversial deal between the European Union and Turkey aimed at stemming the migration flow into Europe.

Returns are scheduled to take place from the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios and will be carried out by EU border agency Frontex. Government and police officials are bracing themselves for resistance from migrants.

Protests Against Migrants' Presence in Greece and Turkey

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSAPRIL 2, 2016, 12:30 P.M. E.D.T.

The New York Times

IDOMENI, Greece — 'Anti-migrants protesters staged demonstrations in Turkey and Greece against the plan to send back migrants from Greece to Turkey is set to be implemented starting Monday.

At the same time, migrants stranded at a makeshift camp in this small town on Greece's border with Macedonia staged a protest demanding that the border be opened and that they be allowed to continue their journeys to central and northern Europe.

Several dozen people living in the Idomeni camp staged a protest Saturday morning, blocking a local road for about an hour to demand the evacuation of more than 11,000 stranded migrants to "transit centers" across the Greek mainland.

After WikiLeaks Revelation, Greece Asks I.M.F. to Clarify Bailout Plan

By LIZ ALDERMANAPRIL 2, 2016

The New York Times

Greece called on the International Monetary Fund on Saturday to explain whether it was seeking to usher Athens toward bankruptcy ahead of a pivotal referendum in June on Britain’s membership in Europe. Greece’s comments came after I.M.F. officials raised questions in a private discussion published by WikiLeaks about what it would take to get Greece’s creditors to agree to debt relief.

The transcript, which captures what WikiLeaks said was a teleconference conversation in March between Poul Thomsen, the head of the I.M.F.’s European operations, and the I.M.F.’s Greek bailout monitor, underscored a widening rift between the I.M.F. and Greece’s European creditors that could jeopardize Greece’s new 86 billion euro bailout. It also exposed the fraught behind-the-scenes political machinations that have led to a deadlock on how to deal with a country still regarded as Europe’s weakest link.

A Syrian Refugee’s Message to the European Union

We fled war to find safety with our families. Why is the E.U. making our lives more miserable?
By LAILA
MARCH 31, 2016

The New York Times

IDOMENI, Greece — WHEN we first got here we had money to buy a little food. Now it’s gone. We stand in line for hours for a sandwich. My husband told a journalist recently: “People are fed up. Maybe tomorrow they will break down the gate and flood across the border.” The journalist said, “How many weapons do you have?” If we knew how to carry weapons or wanted to carry weapons we would not have fled Syria. We want peace. We are sick of killing.

We fled a war, and now the European Union is making war against us, a psychological war. When we hear rumors that we’ll be let into Europe, we celebrate. These leaders give us new hope, then they extinguish it. Why did you open the door to refugees? Why did you welcome people? If they had stopped it before, we would not have come. We would not have risked death, me and my children, and thousands of others, to make the crossing.

Greece, Turkey take legal short-cuts in race to return migrants

Thu Mar 31, 2016 12:40pm EDT Related: WORLD, UNITED NATIONS, TURKEY, GREECEBRUSSELS/ATHENS | BY GABRIELA BACZYNSKA AND KAROLINA TAGARIS
Reuters
Greece and Turkey are rushing through changes to their asylum rules in a race to implement a EU-Turkey agreement on the return of refugees and migrants from Greek islands to Turkey from next Monday, EU officials and diplomats said.

Both Athens and Ankara must amend their legislation to permit the start of a scheme - denounced by the U.N. refugee agency and rights groups - to send back all migrants who crossed to Greece after March 20.

The policy is meant to end the uncontrolled influx of refugees and other migrants in which more than a million people crossed into Europe last year.

Like the US, China wants a national electricity grid. Unlike the US, China’s just building it.

Vox
http://www.vox.com/2016/3/30/11332900/china-long-distance-transmission
Updated by David Roberts on March 30, 2016, 3:00 p.m. ET

Wind and sunlight are often concentrated in sparsely populated, remote areas. Getting wind and solar power to the population centers where it's needed involves building long-distance power lines. Lots of them.

Earlier this week I wrote about a new long-distance power line in the US and the long, slow path it took to win approval. It was proposed in 2009; construction is expected to begin next year and finish in 2020. Like everything involving electricity in the US, it had to navigate a skein of overlapping jurisdictions, multiple state and local authorities, and federal rules. Every landowner and stakeholder had their say.

So I chuckled when I ran across this Reuters headline yesterday: "China pushes for mandatory integration of renewable power." That's the other way to do it!

Migrant arrivals to Greece rise sharply despite EU-Turkey deal

Wed Mar 30, 2016 4:12pm EDT

ATHENS | BY KAROLINA TAGARIS AND LEFTERIS KARAGIANNOPOULOS

Migrant and refugee arrivals to Greece from Turkey rose sharply on Wednesday, just over a week after the European Union and Turkey struck an agreement intended to cut off the flow and as hundreds marched through central Athens to protest that deal.

The demonstrators included human rights activists, students and migrants from among the thousands stranded in Greece by recent border closures across the Balkans.

Greek authorities recorded 766 new arrivals between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, up from 192 the previous day. Most entered the country via the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos.

Italy reported an even larger jump on Tuesday, when officials there said 1,350 people - mostly from Africa - were rescued from small boats taking a longer migration route across the Mediterranean as the weather warmed up.

Migrants in Greece, Ready to Go Anywhere in Europe, Scramble to Enter E.U. Relocation Program

By LIZ ALDERMANMARCH 26, 2016
Dimitris Bounias contributed reporting.

The New York Times

ATHENS — Under the glare of a naked light bulb, in the tiny one-room apartment where he has taken shelter with three other young Syrian refugees, Ismail Haki clutched the folded white card on which he has pinned all his hopes.

“It’s our only chance,” said Mr. Haki, as he and his companions displayed the cards that showed they have applied for asylum in Europe. “If this works, we don’t know what country we’ll end up in. But at least we’d be in Europe.”

The four men arrived in Greece last month after making a perilous trek from Aleppo, the war-torn Syrian city, to find a hoped-for path to Germany closed. After languishing in a military camp for two weeks, they turned in desperation to a final option and entered a European Union relocation program that might, if they are lucky, place them almost anywhere in Europe but Germany.

A Quandary for Europe: Fighting a War on ISIS Within Its Borders

By STEVEN ERLANGERMARCH 23, 2016
Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

The New York Times

LONDON — When the United States declared war on Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11 attacks, American leaders took the fight to the militant group’s hide-outs in Afghanistan, a faraway and failing state, with an invasion and occupation.

But for Europe’s leaders, who now consider themselves at war with the Islamic State after large-scale terrorist attacks at home, the challenge is more complicated: The enemy’s hide-outs are ghettoized parts of Paris, Brussels and other European cities that amount to mini failed states inside their own borders.

Greece Lags in Implementing Economic Reforms, Says Schäuble

Athens has yet to agree with creditors on what measures should be adopted
The Wall  Street Journal

By ANDREA THOMAS
Updated March 23, 2016 10:40 a.m. ET


BERLIN--German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Wednesday Greece is still lagging behind in implementing economic overhauls promised last summer to its creditors in exchange for bailout money, expressing however optimism that a solution will be found.

Greek creditors—the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund—and Athens have yet to reach an agreement on the reforms that Greece must adopt.

Without such a deal, creditors cannot complete a review of its up-to-€86 billion ($96 billion) bailout program.

Brussels attacks are hurting refugees in Greece

By Nasos Koukakis, special to CNBC.com
18 Hours Ago
CNBC

The terrorist attacks in Brussels is making it more difficult for the Greek government to manage the refugee crisis, as more and more EU countries become reluctant to allow the arrival of refugees into their territories.

On Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to complain about the poor results of NATO's operation in the Aegean Sea, initiated last month to discourage the influx of refugees and immigrants in the Greek islands.

NATO has been tasked to do reconnaissance and surveillance and to collect information and share this information in real time with the Turkish coast guard, the Greek coast guard and with Frontex to help manage the migrant and refugee crisis and cut the lines of illegal trafficking and smugglers.

Belgium Warned of Attacks. It Wasn't Enough.

1268 MAR 22, 2016 9:17 AM EDT
By Josh Rogin
Bloomberg
Only days ago in Brussels, as Western leaders celebrated the arrest of a key terrorist suspect, Belgian officials warned that there were dozens more jihadists at large in the city and that more attacks were being planned. They couldn’t have known how right they were.

I traveled to Brussels on March 16, to attend the German Marshall Fund's Brussels Forum, a meeting of U.S. and European officials, foreign policy experts and journalists, where the fight against terrorism was at the top of the agenda. Two U.S. senators and several Obama administration officials who attended had just passed through the main terminal of the Brussels airport. On Tuesday morning, it was hit by what Belgian authorities described as a suicide attack. At least 26 were killed and many more wounded at the airport, and in a parallel attack on the city's subway system.

Stocks fall, gold and govt bonds rise after Brussels explosions

Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:54am EDT
LONDON | BY JAMIE MCGEEVER

Reuters

European stocks fell and investors rushed for the safety of gold and government bonds on Tuesday, after two explosions at Brussels airport killed several people and blasts at metro stations in the Belgian capital.

Travel sector stocks including airlines and hotels fell the most, pulling the broader indices down from multi-week highs as reports on the scale of the carnage in the de facto capital of the European Union unfolded.

Belgian media reported that at least 11 people had been killed and that one of the blasts at the airport was a suicide bomber. This came four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in November militant attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

"The initial reaction in financial markets has been airline stocks all lower, and safe-haven capital flow with gold, German government bonds and the Japanese yen in demand," said Brenda Kelly, head analyst at London Capital Group.

"The news has certainly overshadowed much of the euro zone economic data this morning," she said.

At 0915 GMT the FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading shares was down 1 percent at 1,326 points .FTEU3. Germany's DAX was also down 1 percent and Belgian stocks were down 0.8 percent .BEL20. These indices had earlier been down twice as much.

The STOXX Europe 600 Travel & Leisure index .SXTP was the top sectoral faller, down 2.2 percent. Shares in major European airlines like easyJet (EZJ.L) and Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) were down as much as 4 percent (LHAG.DE), and hotel company Accor (ACCP.PA) also fell 4 percent.

Gold rose 1 percent to $1,255 an ounce XAU=, and the yield on benchmark German government bonds fell to a two-week low of 0.18 percent EU10YT=RR. U.S. Treasury yields fell 2 basis points across the curve US2YT=RR US10YT=RR.

In currency markets the Japanese yen, often considered a something of a safe-haven asset, rose across the board, notably against the euro. The euro was last down 0.6 percent at 125.10 yen EURJPY= and the dollar was down 0.3 percent at 111.60 yen JPY=.

The single currency fell a third of a percent against the dollar to $1.1205 EUR=.

BLASTS OVERSHADOW DATA

For financial markets, the events in Brussels came in a week where liquidity was starting to dry up ahead of the Easter holiday and investors were beginning to think about cashing in on a steep rally in stocks over the last few weeks.

"Coming up to the Easter holiday, people are going to be very reluctant to put more money into these (stock) markets. If anything, they will be more likely to take money out," said Michael Hewson, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in London.

"Anything like the events we're seeing in Brussels this morning is going to weigh on risk sentiment and risk appetite," he said.

U.S. stock futures pointed to a fall of around a third of one percent on Wall Street ESc1.

Investors paid little attention to the economic data released on Tuesday which showed a slight pick up in German business morale and euro zone business activity in March

Earlier, Asian stocks seesawed as hawkish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials clouded the monetary policy outlook less than a week after Fed Chair Janet Yellen had set out a more cautious path to interest rate increases this year.

The dollar got a mild boost from the suggestion that interest rate hikes could be on the way sooner rather than later.

Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 added 1.9 percent, closing at a one-week high, after markets in Tokyo reopened after a public holiday on Monday. A weaker yen, before the Brussels-related rebound, gave a tailwind to local shares.

Elsewhere, sterling was one of the biggest losers among the major currencies after ratings agency Moody's said Britain's credit rating will be put under pressure by a marked slowdown in fiscal consolidation unveiled in last week's budget.

The warning came amid concerns about Prime Minister David Cameron's ability to keep Britain in the European Union after leading 'Out' campaigner Iain Duncan Smith resigned from the cabinet late on Friday.

Sterling was last down 0.6 percent at $1.4281 GBP=, more than two cents off Friday's one-month high of $1.4514.

It was a rare day of stability in oil markets, with U.S. crude futures unchanged at $41.53 a barrel CLc1 and Brent crude LCOc1 also flat on the day at $41.60.

(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Tom Heneghan)