Greece 48 hours from Fatal Eurozone Rupture as Creditor Powers Poised to Pull the Plug

THE TELEGRAPH: Stunned lenders vow not to extend Greece's bail-out and say they are prepared to suffer the consequences of "bombshell" referendum decision


Greece stands on the brink of a banking collapse and disorderly exit from the euro after its creditor powers lashed out at Athens' plans to hold a referendum by vowing to pull the plug on the country in just three days.

Eurozone finance ministers last night withdrew tentative plans to release €15bn to the debtor country, after Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, said he would put the “humiliating” package of austerity demands to a public vote on July 5. Unless the cash-strapped country can scramble together €1.55bn Tuesday, it will become the first developed country in history to default on its International Monetary Fund loan on June 30. On the same day, it's €240bn rescue programme will also formally expire throwing its banking system into turmoil.

Creditors powers, stunned by Mr Tsipras's audacity to call a public vote, rejected his pleas to extend the programme for a few weeks to allow the vote to be held next Saturday.

The voice of Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, cracked with emotion as he announced that his 18 colleagues had rejected Greece’s demand.

“We must conclude that however regretful, the programme will expire on Tuesday night,” he said. “It will expire.”

A wounded Mr Dijsselbloem added that even in the event of a yes vote by the Greek people, creditors could no longer cooperate with radical Leftist government due to "grave concerns about credibility". Read on and comment » | Matthew Holehouse in Brussels and Mehreen Khan | Saturday, June 27, 2015

Tunisia Attack: Foreign Office Says 15 Britons Killed and Death Toll May Rise

THE GUARDIAN: Prime minister earlier denounced ‘savage’ killings by Islamic State terrorist of at least 39 tourists


Fifteen Britons have died in the Tunisian beach massacre but the toll could rise further, the Foreign Office has said, in what it called “the most significant terrorist attack on the British people” since 7 July 2005.

The number of British holidaymakers confirmed to have been killed by the lone gunman on Friday rose steadily on Saturday.

The prime minister, David Cameron, warned earlier that the UK public needed to be prepared for the total to rise.

A total of 39 people were killed, including one Irish woman, with one Belgian and a German also among the victims.

Planes evacuating holidaymakers began arriving back in the UK on Saturday morning. Speaking in Downing Street, Cameron said a full deployment team of consular staff, police and experts from the Red Cross would arrive in Tunisia on Saturday to help the victims and their families and added that the government was doing all they could to help them. » | Jessica Elgot, Chris Johnston and agencies | Saturday, June 27, 2015


German tourist recounts horror of beach attack

Le scénario barbare de l'attentat de l'Isère

LE FIGARO: Yassin Salhi a décapité son employeur avant de tenter de faire sauter une usine de gaz industriels.

La nouvelle attaque terroriste qui a frappé la France, six mois après les attentats de janvier, vient de franchir une étape supplémentaire dans l'horreur. Elle témoigne d'une mise en scène effroyable et moyenâgeuse, inédite sur le territoire national et qui porte le sceau de la barbarie islamiste. Ce que redoutaient tant les services de renseignements, à savoir une décapitation perpétrée sur notre sol, est survenu vendredi dans l'Isère. » | Par Christophe Cornevin | vendredi 26 juin 2015

Schwarzer Freitag

SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG: Kuwait, Frankreich, Tunesien - die Welt erlebt drei Terroranschläge an einem Tag. Die Botschaft der Täter: Wir sind überall.

Ein Massaker in einer Touristenzone am Strand von Tunesien, ein Attentat auf eine schiitische Moschee in Kuwait und ein Anschlag auf eine Gasfabrik in der französischen Provinz - die Botschaft dieses schwarzen Freitags zu Beginn des Ramadan erscheint klar: Der Terror kann überall zuschlagen. Er kann jeden treffen, auch die schärfsten Sicherheitsmaßnahmen reichen nicht aus, die Bürger zu schützen.

Noch ist unklar, ob die Taten orchestriert sind und ein Fanal zum Auftakt des muslimischen Fastenmonats setzen sollten. Wahrscheinlich ist, dass sich verschiedene Gruppen und Einzeltäter von den Hassbotschaften animiert fühlten, die im Internet kursieren. Das Ziel der Extremisten, die sich meist auf die Terrororganisationen Islamischer Staat oder al-Qaida berufen, geht weit über einzelne Staaten hinaus. Ganze Großregionen, darunter Europa, sollen in eine Eskalation der Gewalt getrieben werden. » | Von Stefan Ulrich | Freitag, 26. Juni 2015

President Obama Sings Amazing Grace

President Obama sings Amazing Grace. Watch the complete funeral for South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney here

Univision Dumps Donald Trump Over Mexico Remarks

Donald Trump with Miss Connecticut Erin Brady in 2013

BBC AMERICA: US television network Univision says it is cutting ties with businessman Donald Trump and ending coverage of the Miss USA beauty pageant, which he co-owns.

The network, one of the largest US Spanish-language broadcasters, said it follows the hotel tycoon's disparaging remarks made about Mexicans.

Mr Trump said Mexicans brought drugs and crime to the US, during his announcement last week to seek the Republican presidential nomination.

He is now threatening a lawsuit.

In his speech last week, Mr Trump said of Mexico: "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some I assume are good people, but I speak to border guards and they tell us what we are getting."

In announcing the breakup, Univision said that his words were "insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants" and said it would not air the Miss USA pageant on 12 July. The company also said it would be severing all business ties with the celebrity businessman. » | Thursday, June 25, 2015

Tunisia Beach Attack: 80 'Propagandist' Mosques to Be Closed

BBC AMERICA: Tunisia will shut down about 80 mosques accused of inciting violence, Prime Minister Habib Essid has said, after a beach attack that left 39 people dead.

The mosques, which operate outside state control, are spreading "venom" and will close within a week, he said.

On Friday a gunman opened fire on tourists in the resort town of Sousse.

Tunisians, Britons, Germans, Belgians, French and at least one Irish citizen were among those killed in the attack, claimed by Islamic State (IS).

The gunman was shot dead by police. Officials say he was a student not previously known to authorities.

This was the second major attack on tourists in Tunisia since March, when militants killed 22 people, mainly foreigners, at a museum in the capital. (+ BBC videos) » | Friday, June 26, 2015

Queen Visits Site of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

THE GUARDIAN: Chief rabbi says monarch’s first visit to site of a former concentration camp, in Germany, is ‘tremendously significant’


The Queen is visiting the site of the Bergen-Belsen prisoner of war and concentration camps on Friday, the final day of her state visit to Germany.

The chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who will join the Queen for part of her tour of the site, said the trip would be seen by Jewish communities around the globe as “tremendously significant”.

The camps were liberated by British troops 70 years ago, and the site is now a memorial to those who died at the hands of the Nazis.

It will be the Queen’s first trip to a former concentration camp and a personal reflective visit for the monarch, with a minimum of ceremony. » | Press Association | Friday, June 26, 2015

The DELUDED Mr Cameron: Terror Attacks: ‘We Have to Deal with This Poisonous, Radical Narrative’

Tunisia Attack on Sousse Beach 'Kills 28'

BBC AMERICA: At least 28 people, mostly foreigners, have been killed in an attack on a beach near two tourist hotels in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse, according to the interior ministry.

Officials say one gunman has been shot dead and another is being pursued.

Interior Ministry officials said Tunisians, Britons, Germans and Belgians are among the dead.

In March militants killed 22 people, mainly foreign tourists, in an attack on a museum in the capital Tunis.

Officials say six people have been injured in the attack. » | Friday, June 25, 2015

US Supreme Court Rules Gay Marriage Is Legal Nationwide

Jordan Monaghan told his mum: "Your son can have a husband now."

BBC AMERICA: The US Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is a legal right across the United States.

It means the 14 states with bans on same-sex marriage will no longer be able to enforce them.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the plaintiffs asked "for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."

The ruling brings to an end more than a decade of bitter legal battles.

Same-sex couples in several affected states including Georgia, Michigan, Ohio and Texas rushed to wed on Friday.

However officials in some states including Mississippi and Louisiana said marriages had to wait until procedural issues were addressed.

President Barack Obama said the ruling was a "victory for America".

"When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free " he said. » | Friday, June 25, 2015

The world reacts to gay marriage ruling »

France Attack: Man Decapitated at Factory Near Lyon

BBC AMERICA: A man has been found decapitated at a gas factory near Lyon in France after an attack that police suspect was carried out by one of his employees.

The body was found after a car rammed into the factory causing an explosion that put France on its highest alert amid fears of a terror attack.

Within hours a man was arrested who officials said had been investigated over possible ties to radical Islam.

His boss, the owner of a delivery firm, was the man found beheaded, police say.

The delivery company had made regular trips to the factory, which is owned by the US-based company Air Products, Dauphine Libere newspaper reports.

Few details of the killing have been released, but the businessman's head was reportedly found on a post at the factory, in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, some 40km (25 miles) from Lyon.

Mr Hollande said the decapitated body had "inscriptions" on it. The French interior minister said: "A flag with Arabic writing on it was found at the scene." » | Friday, June 26, 2015

Thousands Packed into North Korea Stadium Call for Bloody Revenge on US on Korean War Anniversary

THE TELEGRAPH: Pyongyang holds 'Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the US' and issues an English-language statement condemning the 'fatty monster US imperialists'

North Korea marked the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on Thursday with a 100,000-strong rally in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Stadium, and a statement condemning the "fatty monster US imperialists".

The "Pyongyang Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the US," was a carefully orchestrated display of angry speeches, fist-pumping and calls for blood revenge.

The rally was just one event in what it officially known as "Struggle Against US Imperialism Month", during which North Koreans visit war museums and attend gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States.

North Korea also issued a statement on Thursday urging the world to join its struggle to "dismember the gangster US imperialists".

"We appeal to the world to turn out in the worldwide anti-US struggle to dismember the gangster US imperialists", said the statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). » | Andrew Marszal, and agencies | Thursday, June 25, 2015

Shock Poll: 51% of U.S. Muslims Want Sharia; 25% Okay with Violence against Americans

BREITBART.COM: The Center for Security Policy released a poll Tuesday that should give all Americans pause. The results show that a startling number of American Muslims, our fellow citizens, agree that violence is a legitimate response to those who insult Islam. A full majority of 51% “agreed that “Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to shariah.” » | John Nolte | Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Queen and Philip Lunch with German Branch of Family Once Tainted by Nazi Past

DAILY EXPRESS: THE Queen and Prince Philip had a family reunion in Germany today with the descendants of relatives once banned from their wedding because of Nazi connections.

They met different branches of Philip’s side of the family at a lunch in Frankfurt and again at a reception at the British Embassy in Berlin tonight.

There was a time when such a meeting would have had to be far more discreet – all but one of Philip’s German relatives, his mother Princess Alice, were excluded from the couple’s 1947 wedding because of sensitivities over his sister’s Nazi connections.

Three of his four sisters joined Hitler’s party and married princes who were prominent Nazis, although other relatives were persecuted after being accused of opposing the party.

But there was no sense of any awkwardness today, as the 89-year-old monarch and her husband, 94, chatted to guests in Frankfurt’s city hall, Philip using his fluent German.

There were three groups of Philip’s relatives seated at tables: the Battenbergs, the von Badens and the Hesses. » | Richard Palmer, Royal Correspondent | Thursday, June 25, 2015

Isis Targets Vulnerable Bosnia for Recruitment and Attack

A still from a new Isis recruitment video aimed at Bosnian youth.

THE GUARDIAN: High youth unemployment, ethnic tensions and political paralysis help jihadis lure young people to Syria and open up new terror front in heart of Europe

Islamic State has expanded its efforts to recruit fighters in Bosnia and incite terrorist attacks there, taking advantage of the world’s highest youth unemployment rate and chronic political paralysis.

The initiative, though small in scale, is causing alarm in western capitals, where diplomats fear that the mix of economic malaise and ethnic tensions represents fertile terrain for extremism, and that Europe could come to regret the failure to confront Bosnia’s profound structural problems in the two decades since the war.

Isis produced a new recruitment video this month, targeting the Balkans region and Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular. The 20-minute film, entitled Honour is in Jihad, features several Bosnian Isis fighters exhorting their fellow countrymen to join the battle in Syria or carry out opportunistic attacks on perceived enemies of Islam at home.

“If you can, put explosives under the cars, in their houses, all over them. If you can, take poison and put it in their drink or food. Make them die, make them die of poisoning, kill them wherever you are. In Bosnia, in Serbia, in Sandzak [a region in south-west Serbia]. You can do it,” one of the Bosnians, identified by a pseudonym, Salahuddin al-Bosni, implores the audience in Bosnian. » | Julian Borger in Sarajevo | Thursday, June 25, 2015

Obamacare Subsidies Upheld in US Supreme Court Ruling

BBC AMERICA: The US Supreme Court has upheld a key portion of President Barack Obama's healthcare law in a 6-3 decision.

The court ruled the law as a whole made subsidies available for people in all 50 states, not just those who bought insurance through a state exchange.

The high court case was the second major challenge to the healthcare law- often known as Obamacare - since its passage.

The decision is major victory for the Obama administration.

"Congress passed the Affordable Care act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion.

If the law was overturned, 6.4 million Americans would have been at risk of losing aid.

The 2010 law, often known as Obamacare, set up a federally run insurance exchange where Americans who were not covered by employers or other governmental could buy health insurance. » | Thursday, June 25, 2015

Bobby Jindal Becomes 13th Republican to Run for US Presidency

The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, has become the 13th Republican to throw his hat into the ring and join the presidential race. Jindal criticised the establishment in Washington, saying, 'It's time for the folks in Washington to admit the truth. You can't grow the economy and the government at the same time.' He pitched himself as a Republican candidate with a difference, saying 'the Republican party in Washington DC has been beaten into submission. It is increasingly afraid to speak the truth. It is time to say what everybody is already thinking. The emperors in Washington, they are not wearing any clothes.' Jindal is the first person of Indian-American heritage ever to run for the presidency

Obama: "Shame on You" to White House Heckler

President Obama is heckled at a White House event honoring the LGBT community with Obama saying, "Shame on you," as he called for heckler to be removed. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

Read the Telegraph article here | David Millward, US Correspondent | Thursday, June 15, 2015

St. Petersburg Lawmaker Wants Romanov Family to Return to Russia

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

THE MOSCOW TIMES: A lawmaker in the Leningrad region outside the city of St. Petersburg has appealed to the descendants of the Romanov royal family to return to Russia, saying their presence would help unify the country and restore its might, media reports said.

In letters to Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova in Spain and Prince Dmitry Romanovich Romanov in Denmark, both of whom claim to be the head of the house of Romanov, regional lawmaker Vladimir Petrov argued that the “return of the descendants of the last Russian autocrat to their historical homeland would help smooth out the political contradictions inside the country, which have been left over from the moment of the [Bolshevik] October revolution, and would become a symbol of restoring the spiritual might of Russia's people,” Izvestia reported Tuesday.

“At the present time, a difficult process is under way in restoring Russia's might and of returning its international influence,” Petrov said in the letter, Izvestia reported. “I am certain that during such an important historical moment, members of the Romanov imperial house cannot remain aside from the processes that are going on in Russia.” » | Anna Dolgov | Wednesday, June 24, 2015

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