Germany owes Greece €270 billion stem from WWI
Greece’s parliament on Wednesday began debate on a resolution to demand the payment of German war crime reparations. The issue has long been disputed by Berlin. “These demands are always active.
They were never set aside by Greece,” parliament chairman Nikos Voutsis said earlier this week. The chamber is expected to approve a resolution calling on the government of Premier Alexis Tsipras “to take all the necessary diplomatic and legal steps to claim and fully satisfy all the demands of the Greek state stemming from World War I and World War II,” AFP reported.
Germany owes WW11 debts to Greece, Poland and others who never signed up to the cozy arrangement arrived at by “super powers” to absolve it. Didn’t do anything for us, mind.
In 1942, Nazi Germany forced the Greek national bank to pay out an interest-free loan to the tune of 476 million Reichsmarks. Germany still owes Greece about €11 billion.
Germany owes WW11 debts to Greece, Poland and others who never signed up to the cozy arrangement arrived at by “super powers” to absolve it. Didn’t do anything for us, mind.
In 1942, Nazi Germany forced the Greek national bank to pay out an interest-free loan to the tune of 476 million Reichsmarks. Germany still owes Greece about €11 billion.
A parliamentary committee last year determined that Germany owes Greece at least €270 billion ($305 billion) for World War I damages and looting, atrocities and a forced loan during the Nazi occupation in World War II. DW tweets
US envoy for N. Korea in Moscow
A long-speculated first summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin appears increasingly likely to take place next week, as the top U.S. nuclear envoy, Stephen Biegun is set to visit Moscow Wednesday.
U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun will travel to Moscow April 17-18 to meet with Russian officials to discuss efforts to advance the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.
US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, was due in Moscow on Wednesday as Russia said it was preparing for possible talks between leaders Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, AFP reported. “Active preparations for a potential meeting are underway,” Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov was quoted as saying. The US State Department said Biegun would be in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday “to meet with Russian officials to discuss efforts to advance the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.”
N Korea tests ‘tactical guided weapon’
Kim Jong-un has supervised the test of a new “tactical guided weapon” just months after the summit in Vietnam failed to achieve any results as the US continues to demand unconditional denuclearization before any sanctions relief.
Kim Jong Un, top leader of the DPRK, supervised the test-fire of a new tactical guidedweapon conducted by the Academy of Defence Science on Wednesday, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.
The North Korean leader personally observed the new weapon test on Wednesday, KCNA said, without providing details, other than saying it has a “peculiar mode of guiding flight” with a “powerful warhead.”
“The completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing combat power,” Kim said.
White House said it was aware of the weapons test report but refused to issue a comment.
Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and supreme commander of the Armed Forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, supervised and guided a test-fire of a new-type tactical guided weapon conducted by the Academy of Defence Science on Wednesday.
Looking round the new-type tactical guided weapon, Kim Jong Un was told by officials concerned of the Academy of Defence Science about the formation of the weapon system and its operation mode.
Saying that the completion of the development of the weapon system serves as an event of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People’s Army, he noted that it is a very good thing that the field of national defence science has waged a dynamic struggle for attaining core research goals set forth by the Party at the 8th Conference of Munitions Industry and thus conducted brisk activities for developing our own style weapon system which embodies four elements.
He mounted an observation post to learn about a plan of the test-fire of the new-type tactical guided weapon and guided the test-fire.
The design indexes of the tactical guided weapon whose advantages are appreciated for the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead were perfectly verified at the test-fire conducted in various modes of firing at different targets.
After watching the power of the new-type tactical guided weapon, he pointed out that our national defence scientists and workers in the field of the munitions industry performed another great work in increasing the country’s defence capabilities, saying with pride that he had always been struck with admiration at them in the period of developing strategic weapon and our scientists, technicians and workers are, indeed, great and there is no weapon impossible to make when they are determined to do.
He set the phased and strategic goals for keeping munitions production going on and putting national defence science and technology on cutting edge level and indicated detailed tasks and ways to attain them.
He was accompanied by Kim Phyong Hae, O Su Yong, Jo Yong Won, Ri Pyong Chol, Kim Jong Sik and other senior officials of the Party Central Committee and commanding officers of the Korean People’s Army including Kim Su Gil, Ri Yong Gil, No Kwang Chol, Pak Jong Chon and Pak Kwang Ju. reports KCNA
Sudan al-Bashir sent to prison
Sudan’s military rulers have transferred ousted president Omar al-Bashir to prison, a family source said Wednesday, as crowds of protesters flocked through Khartoum in vans and buses to join a sit-in at the army complex.
Following the dramatic end to Bashir’s rule of three decades last week, he was moved late Tuesday to Kober prison in the capital, the source said without revealing his name for security reasons.
Sudan’s former president, Omar al-Bashir has been sent to Kobar Maximum Prison, days after he was ousted in a military coup. The 75-year-old is reportedly being held in solitary confinement and surrounded by tight security.
Sudan’s former president, Omar al-Bashir has been sent to Kobar Maximum Prison, days after he was ousted in a military coup. The 75-year-old is reportedly being held in solitary confinement and surrounded by tight security.
Witnesses near the prison in north Khartoum said there was a heavy deployment of soldiers and members of a paramilitary group outside.
The 75-year-old’s whereabouts have been unknown since a military takeover on Thursday when the country’s new rulers said he was being held “in a secure place”.
Late on Wednesday, the military council announced it had detained two of Bashir’s five brothers — Abdallah Hassan al-Bashir and Al-Abbas Hassan al-Bashir.
It said the council had also decided to integrate the Popular Defence Force into the army.
The PDF is a type of reserve unit frequently used to support units of the regular army.
Amnesty International called for Bashir to be “immediately handed over to the International Criminal Court” in The Hague where he faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in Darfur. He denies the charges.
“His case must not be hurriedly tried in Sudan’s notoriously dysfunctional legal system. Justice must be served,” said Amnesty’s Joan Nyanyuki.
Bashir’s detention has failed to pacify protesters, who launched anti-government demonstrations in December and have for days been camped out in front of Khartoum’s army headquarters.
Scores of doctors in white robes marched from Khartoum’s main hospital towards the sit-in, carrying banners and chanting: “freedom, peace, justice.”
Journalists held a separate rally, along with university students and scores of women from a Facebook group who call themselves “the Information Network of the Revolution”.
The women — who include doctors, lawyers and teachers — are renowned for monitoring security agents who target protesters and publishing their information online in order to hold them to account.
Alan Garcia died in a hospital in Lima
Peru’s former president Alan Garcia died in a hospital in Lima on Wednesday, hours after shooting himself in the head to avoid arrest in connection with a bribery probe, authorities said on Wednesday.
Vizcarra’s government ordered flags to be flown at half mast. “I’m dismayed by the death of former president Alan Garcia,” Vizcarra said on Twitter. “I send my condolences to his family and loved ones.”
Garcia, who had six adult children, was 69.
A skilled orator elected president twice, first as a firebrand leftist, and, then, as a champion of foreign investment and free trade, Garcia had been dogged by allegations of corruption in recent years that he had repeatedly denied.
Garcia was one of nine people a judge had ordered to be arrested on Wednesday for alleged involvement in bribes distributed by Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company that triggered Latin America’s biggest graft scandal when it admitted in 2016 that it had paid kickbacks to politicians across the region to secure lucrative contracts.
While three former presidents in Peru have also been ordered to jail in connection with Odebrecht, Garcia had blamed his legal troubles on political persecution, accusing President Martin Vizcarra without evidence of trying to silence him.
“Others might sell out, not me,” Garcia said in some of his last broadcast comments on Tuesday, repeating a phrase he has used frequently as his political foes became ensnared in the Odebrecht investigation.
Members of his once-powerful Apra party announced his death to crowds gathered outside of hospital Casimiro Ulloa, where he suffered three cardiac arrests and underwent emergency surgery.
“Apra never dies!” his supporters chanted to news cameras as police in riot gear stood by.
Netanyahu formally named next Israeli PM
Israel’s president on Wednesday nominated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to head the next government, after he won the backing of a majority of members of parliament following an April 9 election.
In office for the past decade, Netanyahu won a fifth term despite an announcement by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in February that he intends to charge the prime minister in three corruption cases. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing.
“At a time of great turmoil in our region, we have managed not only to maintain the state’s security and stability, we have even managed to turn Israel into a rising world power,” Netanyahu said at the nomination ceremony after President Reuven Rivlin gave him the mandate to form a new government.
Netanyahu has 28 days, with a two-week extension if needed, to complete the task. If, as seems likely, he succeeds, he will become in July Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
Netanyahu has said he intends to build a coalition with five far-right, right-wing and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties that would give the government, led by his Likud party, 65 seats. No party has ever won an outright majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Makran Coastal Highway, Terrorist shot dead 14 passengers
At least 14 people were martyred by terrorists on Makran coastal highway near Ormara early this morning.
According to levies sources, the terrorists shot them after off-loading them from passenger bus.
The personnel of Levies force have cordoned off the area and started investigation of the incident.
Prime Minister has sought report into the incident. He has directed the authorities concerned to make every possible effort to identify and bring the perpetrators of the barbaric act to justice.
The Prime Minister also expressed his sympathies with the families of the victims.
Chief Minister Balochistan Jam Kamal has also strongly condemned the terrorist incident.
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Germany owes Greece €270 billion stem from WWI Greece’s parliament on Wednesday began debate on a resolution to demand the payment of G...
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