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Greece Talks 'Crucial Turning Point For EU'

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 12 Februari 2015 | 23.31

Greece is confident of securing a last minute deal with EU leaders in Brussels over its 240bn euro bailout deal which expires in two weeks.

Earlier talks between Greece and its eurozone creditors broke down without agreement on a way forward as the country seeks to ditch its bailout deal.

But Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose hard-left Syriza party took office in January, was more optimistic this morning as the talks continued to explore the possibility negotiating new terms before Monday.

The bailout talks are the latest stage in a long-running crisis over Greece's huge debts, run up during years of overspending including the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Today Mr Tsipras revealed his austerity-light replacement plan for the bailout which he is optimistic will convince EU member states to agree a new deal.

"I am very confident that all together we can find a mutually viable solution, in order to heal the wounds of austerity and to tackle the humanitarian crisis across the European Union," he said as he arrived for the talks.

But he warned the negotiations posed a "crucial turning point for Europe".

Failure to agree a deal could mean Athens might default on its debt in which case it would almost certainly crash out of the 19-country eurozone. Speaking outside the talks David Cameron said the stalemate needed to be resolved.

"What is required between Greece and the Eurozone is not a stand-off but a solution," he said.

"The British economy is growing and succeeding but we are affected by the situation on the European continent and the longer that the stand-off goes on, the worse that that could potentially be for Britain.

"That underlines the importance of sticking to our long-term plan."

Athens has promised a 10-point plan which will include renewed efforts to tackle tax evasion and corruption but also promote employment.

One condition of its EU-International Monetary Fund rescue was delivering a primary budget surplus of 3% in 2015 before debt repayments.

The new government has argued such targets - achieved through tax hikes and wage cuts - make an economic recovery impossible and it is pushing to halve that figure to 1.5%, a result it delivered in 2014.


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Amanda Knox Engaged To NY Musician - Report

By Sky News US Team

Amanda Knox, the American woman convicted in the murder of Meredith Kercher, is engaged to be married, a report says.

Knox is engaged to Colin Sutherland, a New York musician who has moved to Seattle, according to Jonathan Martin, a columnist for The Seattle Times. No date has been set, he wrote.

Mr Sutherland, reportedly, is an old friend who wrote to Knox while she was in prison in Italy. They are both 27.

Knox has been at the centre of intense media scrutiny - and several legal twists - since Ms Kercher's body was found on 2 November 2007 in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy.

Ms Kercher, 21, was stabbed to death.

Knox and her boyfriend at the time of the murder, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted in 2009, then cleared in 2011.

But last year an appeals court reinstated guilty verdicts at a retrial in Italy, and sentenced Knox to 28 years in jail.

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  1. Gallery: Meredith Kercher Murder: Key Events

    2 November 2007: The body of Meredith Kercher, 21, is found in her Perugia apartment. Investigators say she was killed the night before

Ms Kercher's flatmate, Amanda Knox, is pictured kissing her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in the days after the murder

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Indian PM Calls Halt To Temple Dedication

Supporters of Indian President Narendra Modi have abandoned the idea of opening a temple in his honour after Mr Modi said he was horrified by the idea.

The PM's fans had spent thousands of pounds building the temple in his home state of Gujarat and it was due to open with a dedication to him on Sunday.

The temple in the western city of Rajkot featured a seated statue of Mr Modi under a wind gauge shaped like a lotus, the symbol of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

However, Mr Modi's reaction has made them rethink.

"I was appalled," Mr Modi said. "This is shocking and against India's great traditions. Building such temples is not what our culture teaches us."

Some of those who backed the project now plan to replace the statue of the prime minister with the idol of a Hindu god but others insist he is still worth honouring.

"We love Modi and worship him because he is the finest leader we have ever had," said Paresh Rawal, an edible oil trader who donated the land for the temple.

The PM won power last year in a landslide, and the charismatic 64-year-old had enjoyed an extended honeymoon with voters since his landslide general election victory last year.

However, he has come in for criticism in recent times and the party suffered a dramatic election defeat in the capital this week, when it was beaten by a new anti-corruption party.

The Hindu nationalist has also been accused of arrogance - he last month wore a suit with his own name woven into the pinstripe to meet the visiting President Obama.

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  1. Gallery: Victory Celebrations For India's Next PM

    Jubilant supporters gave India's incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi an enthusiastic reception in Delhi.

A victory parade was held for Mr Modi, who led the Bharatiya Janata Party to a landslide victory.

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On The Front Line Of Battle Against Boko Haram

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent

The terror group Boko Haram is "perpetually mutating" according to Cameroon military leaders - and it has a well-organised structure with constantly changing tactics.

Sky News has been given rare access to special forces in Cameroon who are at the forefront of the battle against the extremist militant group.

The group is increasingly conducting its operations over Nigeria's borders and mounting attacks into neighbouring countries like Cameroon.

Our team travelled to the north of the country and its border with Nigeria where the militant group was born.

We joined the Cameroon elite unit, the rapid response battalion or BIR, as it attempted to plug the long, porous border with Nigeria.

The Sky News team was the sole British news organisation to travel with the troops to Amchide, Kolofata and Kerawa - three towns along the border which have all suffered at the hands of Boko Haram.

The army commanders told us the extremist group already had a self-declared caliphate in at least one area of Nigeria - in Gwoza.

"Behind that mountain is Nigeria and a Boko Haram state," said Major Garangsou Clement, commander of Kolofata post.

"There is no Nigerian Government there. It is Boko Haram's caliphate."

The militant group has also developed a new favourite form of attack: roadside bombs or IEDs.

They are much more deadly for the troops and a lot less dangerous for the militants.

We drove past a wrecked army pickup. "IED," one of the soldiers told us.

"Two of our soldiers died there."

In front of Amchide army post there are more charred vehicles: an armoured personnel carrier and a pick-up truck.

The militants almost got to the gate of the post in a large attack last October, before being repelled.

Amchide town appears deserted now.

More troops and heavier weapons have been sent to the border town, but so far the residents do not seem to have been persuaded to return.


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IS Magazine 'Interviews' Hayat Boumeddiene

A magazine run by Islamic State has published what it claims is an interview with the widow of a terrorist who attacked a Paris supermarket last month.

Hayat Boumeddiene is France's most wanted woman after her partner Amedy Coulibaly shot dead a policewoman in Paris and then killed four shoppers the next day at a kosher shop.

Now, Islamic State's French-language magazine, Dar al Islam, has published what it claims is an interview which shows that she is in the militant group's territory in Iraq and Syria.

Speaking of her journey to the Islamic State, she is reported to have said: "I did not encounter any difficulties... it is good to live in the land that is governed by the laws of God."

There has been no independent confirmation of the interview's authenticity but the new issue, entitled 'May Allah Curse France', reportedly shows a picture of the Eiffel Tower.

Seventeen people, including journalists and policemen, were killed in three days of violence in Paris that began with the storming of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on 7 January and ended with the hostage-taking.

Coulibaly was fatally shot with at least 40 bullets as the siege came to a violent end.

Boumeddiene, 26, has apparently told Dar al Islam that Coulibaly had been an Islamic State supporter.

There was confusion at first about whether Boumeddiene had been in the supermarket when police stormed it, and had escaped.

But CCTV footage emerged last month which apparently shows that she arrived at Istanbul airport in Turkey on 2 January - five days before the start of the attacks.

She is seen in the video images at passport control with another passenger.

Turkish officials say Boumeddiene stayed at a hotel in Istanbul with another person before crossing into Syria on 8 January - the day after the Charlie Hebdo newspaper massacre, and the same day her partner shot dead the policewoman.

Boumeddiene's last phone signal was also on 8 January, from the Turkish border town of Akcakale, where she is believed to have crossed over into Islamic State-controlled territory.


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Oz Terror Plan To Stab Blondes In The Kidneys

Two men charged with planning a terror attack in Australia planned to stab their victims in the kidneys and neck, according to Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The men, linked to the Islamic State, were seen on video saying what they intended to do, Mr Abbott revealed, accusing a 24-year-old and a 25-year-old of "monstrous extremism".

The planned attack was foiled on Wednesday when a tip-off led to police raiding a home in a Sydney suburb and arresting the two men.

Mr Abbott said he had been shown the video and gave a detailed account of its contents which seemed to involve a plot to stab or behead Australian citizens.

"... Kneeling before the death cult flag with a knife in his hand and a machete before him one of those arrested said this: 'I swear to almighty Allah, we will carry out the first implementation for the soldiers of the caliphate in Australia'," the PM told MPs.

"He went on to say... 'I swear to almighty Allah, blond people, there is no room for blame between you and us. We only are... stabbing the kidneys and striking the necks'."

Australia is a strong supporter of US and allied policy towards the so-called Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq and has tightened up laws on foreign fighters and given security forces greater powers.

It believes at least 70 of its citizens are fighting with IS, supported by some 100 Australia-based "facilitators".

Two hostages were killed in Sydney last December when police stormed a cafe to end a 17-hour siege.

Gunman Man Haron Monis was also killed. He had claimed affinity with IS but there had been no evidence of actual links between him and the terror cult.


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US News 'Legend' Bob Simon Dies In Car Crash

By Sky News US Team

Veteran CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, who covered major conflicts and survived captivity in Iraq, has died in a car crash in New York, aged 73.

Simon was a long-time member of the network's 60 Minutes on-air team.

He was killed when the 2010 Lincoln Town car in which he was a passenger slammed into a Mercedes Benz and then hit metal lane barriers on Manhattan's West Side, police said.

Simon suffered injuries to his head and torso and was pronounced dead on arrival at Saint Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, police said.

The award-winning newsman's career spanned five decades. He covered the Vietnam War and spent years doing foreign reporting for CBS News, particularly from the Middle East.

At the start of the Gulf War in January 1991, Simon was part of a CBS News team who spent 40 days in Iraqi prisons after being captured by Iraqi forces near the Saudi-Kuwaiti border.

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, his eyes red, announced the death in a special report.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who does occasional stories for 60 Minutes, was near tears talking about Simon's death.

"I dreamed of being, and still hope to be, a quarter of the writer that Bob Simon is and has been," he said. "Bob Simon was a legend, in my opinion."

Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes, said in a statement: "It is such a tragedy made worse because we lost him in a car accident, a man who has escaped more difficult situations than almost any journalist in modern times.

"Bob was a reporter's reporter."

Simon earned 27 Emmy awards for reporting during his career, and won electronic journalism's highest honour, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, for the piece Shame Of Srebrenica, a 60 Minutes II report on genocide during the Bosnian War.

His Emmy awards included domestic stories as well as reporting from Vietnam, Lebanon, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, India and China.

He was also honoured for Curveball, an investigation into an Iraqi defector whose testimony eventually led America to war.

Simon was preparing a report on the Ebola virus and the search for a cure for this Sunday's 60 Minutes broadcast.


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Egypt Grants Bail For Al Jazeera Journalists

Al Jazeera journalists Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed have been freed on bail by an Egyptian court after spending more than a year behind bars.

A judge in Cairo ordered that the pair should be released at the start of their retrial on charges of spreading lies.

Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian national Baher Mohamed had spent more than 400 days in jail. 

Mr Fahmy's fiancee cheered "long live justice" as the decision to grant bail was announced.

The men's colleague, Peter Greste, was released last week and returned to his native Australia.

He was freed under a decree that authorised the country's leader to approve the deportation of foreign prisoners.

Mr Greste took to Twitter to congratulate his colleagues when their release was announced, writing: "This is a huge step forward. Not time to declare it over, but at least you get to go home!"

The three were arrested in 2013 followed the ousting of Egypt's Islamist president and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi by the military.

The men were accused by the new government of acting as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood, which had been designated as a terrorist organisation.

Their case provoked an international outcry and widespread calls for their freedom.

Human rights groups and several media outlets condemned the men's detention as being politically-motivated, saying the three were just doing their job.

Mr Fahmy and Mr Mohamed's case has been adjourned until 23 February.


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Ceasefire In Eastern Ukraine From Sunday

A ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has been agreed after all-night talks in Belarus involving the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.

It will come into effect on Sunday,15 February, and will be followed by the withdrawal of heavy weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"We have managed to agree on the main things," he told reporters after the talks, which began on Wednesday evening and lasted 16 hours.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said: "The main thing which has been achieved is that from Saturday into Sunday there should be declared without any conditions at all, a general ceasefire."

The truce was signed by the so-called "contact group" comprising pro-Russian separatist leaders, Russian and Ukrainian envoys and European mediators.

A previous truce signed last September collapsed soon after.

The key points of the latest agreement are:

:: A general ceasefire to start on Sunday

:: Heavy weapons to be pulled back from a division line determined by both sides

:: Ukraine to take control of the border with Russia 

:: The provision of special status for the rebel regions

:: Measures for addressing the humanitarian crisis affecting thousands of civilians caught up in the fighting

Mr Putin said there was still disagreement over Debaltseve, a key transport hub and the centre of fierce fighting.

He understood rebels had surrounded up to 8,000 Ukrainian troops and expected them to lay down arms ahead of the ceasefire, but Mr Poroshenko disputed this.

The ceasefire deal was welcomed by French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who led the discussions.

Mr Hollande said Mrs Merkel, Mr Poroshenko and himself would ask the European Union to back the agreement at a summit later on Thursday.

Mrs Merkel said it offered a "glimmer of hope" that the conflict, which has claimed over 5,300 lives since April, would come to an end.

However, she added that "concrete steps must of course be taken and there will still be big hurdles ahead".

Her concerns were echoed by Mr Hollande who said the next few hours will be "decisive" as he arrived for the EU summit in Brussels.  

Ukraine received an extra boost when the International Monetary Fund confirmed a $17.5bn aid package for the country, conditional on sweeping economic reforms.

Russia also benefited from the ceasefire agreement. Its main stock market rose 6% on the news amid hopes it would lead to an easing of western sanctions.

Before the deal was announced reports suggested little progress had been made at the summit, in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

Sky's Stuart Ramsay, in Minsk, said: "This has been quite a remarkable night where it looked like they weren't even going to come at one point.

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  1. Gallery: Ukraine Crisis: Fighting Increases (February 11)

    Local residents look at the remains of a rocket shell on a street in the town of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine

Seven civilians have been killed and 26 wounded in rocket strikes on the town of Kramatorsk

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Turkey's Erdogan Plans A Mosque In Cuba

The Turkish president has asked Cuba if he can build a mosque on the Caribbean island.

Tayyip Erdogan believes that the Americas were discovered by Muslims and he wants to build a mosque similar to one in Turkey that lies on the European shore of the Bosphorus.

At a conference in Istanbul last November, he told a gathering of Muslim leaders from Latin America that Muslims had reached the Americas in the 12th Century - before the European explorer Christopher Columbus did so in 1492.

Mr Erdogan made his latest request after talks with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana.

"I presented all the information, project work and visuals regarding the Ortakoy mosque," he said.

'We will do this ourselves. We don't want a partner. If you find it appropriate we want to do this," Mr Erdogan was quoted as saying on his official website.

He told journalists that the Cuban government had agreed a similar proposal with Saudi Arabia some time ago and, in light of that, his planned mosque could be built elsewhere in Cuba.

It is not known how Cuba responded to the request.

Cuba has a population of 11 million people, most of whom are Roman Catholic - there are only a few thousand Muslims.

Mr Erdogan's belief is based on a reference in Columbus' diary of his voyages to a "mosque-like formation" at the top of a mountain but most scholars say the reference was to a natural mountain feature rather than an actual mosque.

Mostly-Muslim Turkey has only slight trade ties with Cuba.

The largest mosque in Latin America is the King Fahd Islamic Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina.


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