With debts of €340bn, Greece is turning to its cultural heritage to attract a better class of visitor and make tourism the engine of the Greek economy You come to Delos by way of its ancient harbour. This, one suspects, is just as Apollo would have wished. For it is here, under the shade of a palm, that they say the god of light was born. Far removed from the merry-go-round that is Athens – or the fears over Greece’s economic plight that have reached fever pitch – the uninhabited isle is afforded a reverence that few others know. But for those braving the wind-swept seas on a Delos-bound ferry from Mykonos last week, there was no escaping the realisation that that crisis has also reached these hallowed parts. With litter bobbing on a film of filth off its beaches, its museum shop flooded and closed, and treasures – including the island’s famous lions – consigned to a building blighted by cracks, cobwebs and rusty scaffolding, the signs were hard to ignore. Lack of staff meant most of the gems had been roped off. “What can I say?” spluttered Fani Iosifidou, one of three employees guarding the site’s myriad, poppy-strewn temples, mosaics and statues. “The culture ministry was meant to dispatch more personnel at the beginning of the season but we’re still waiting. There are simply not enough of us here. If we don’t close off that space,” she said, pointing to the lions, “people go and sit on them. It’s a terrible thing.” The economic crisis that has engulfed Europe’s periphery – peaking with reports, flatly denied by the government, that Athens was poised to exit the eurozone and reinstate the drachma as its currency – is hitting at the heart of the debt-stricken country where it first erupted. A year to the week after receiving rescue loans worth €110bn, the biggest bailout in western history, austerity-plagued Greece is still struggling to stave off economic collapse. Amid frenzied speculation that it will soon have no choice but to restructure a debt load estimated at €340bn and climbing, eurozone finance ministers announced that they would meet to discuss whether Athens needs even more aid – a scenario bound to send further tensions through the EU. But for the Greeks, who have dismissed the suggestion of a euro exit as a “joke”, the answer lies closer to home – in tourism, a sector that accounts for one out of five jobs and 18% of GDP. Even as places like Delos struggle to make the best of their antiquities and museums, there is a growing recognition that economic recovery lies with a sector that for far too long has relied on tour operators and cheap mass travel. And in order to lure visitors, there is a sense for the first time that the nation must tap into its immense cultural wealth – a heritage too often neglected – as well as its natural beauty. “Tourism can be the star of development … a model for economic development,” said the socialist prime minister, George Papandreou, in a keynote speech to industry figures. “The reputation of our country is strengthened when the wealth of our monuments is displayed and when it is associated with myth, history, tradition, Greek produce and Greek
Continue reading …Gunmen and suicide bombers hit at least five targets as insurgents aim to take control of provincial capital The Taliban launched an unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on Kandahar, with commanders claiming they aimed to “take control of the city”. The assault by gunmen and suicide bombers on at least five targets in the southern city began at midday and, according to insurgents who talked to the Observer by phone during the fighting, involved hundreds of attackers. The sustained attack on government buildings wounded at least 24 people and created chaos in the capital of a province Nato has spent the past year trying to secure. The dream of turning the city into a bulwark of security was badly tarnished, with people fleeing to their homes, shuttering shops and leaving the streets empty save for the sound of gunfire and explosions. Haji Pacha, an influential elder from the Alokozai tribe, said Kandahar was “completely empty. There is fighting still going on in at least three districts of the city and all the shops are closed, the people are completely terrified,” he said by telephone. The fighting began with an explosion outside the provincial governor’s compound, followed by gunfire from the upper levels of a five-storey shopping centre. One Taliban commander, who would not give his name but who was directing an attack on the governor’s compound, said that some civil servants, who have been the subject of a ruthless assassination campaign by insurgents, were using civilians as human shields. “They are forcing themselves into cars with civilians to try and escape because they know we don’t target civilians,” he said. The commander, who claimed that he had 40 men attacking the compound, said the plan to attack multiple targets was designed to overwhelm security forces. “We know that if we attack one place all the security people will come and surround us; this way they can’t stop us,” he said. He also claimed that Taliban fighters, many of whom had escaped from the city’s main jail last month, had managed to block major roads leading to the city. The Taliban did not link the ambitious attack to the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying the assault had been planned for weeks. An announcement on the movement’s website said the attack was part of “Operation Badar”, the name the Taliban have given to their spring offensive, and was intended to turn Kandahar city into a “scene of bloody fighting”. It said they had targeted the offices of the governor, the national security directorate, police headquarters and “a local spy agency” – an apparent reference to a US special forces base. In a separate statement, the Taliban commented at length about the death of Bin Laden for the first time. It said that the “martyrdom of Sheikh Osama … will blow a new spirit into the jihad against the occupiers”. Meanwhile, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, said the assault on the city was “not serious at all”, and that the situation was under control. “Everyone knows that these types of attacks, with suicide bombers and a few people hiding and shooting, are difficult to stop and can happen anywhere,” he said, adding that the attack had done nothing to undermine the security gains in the city and province in recent months. “The Taliban are desperate. They cannot do anything else but try to create news,” he said. Afghanistan Taliban Jon Boone guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Gunmen and suicide bombers hit at least five targets as insurgents aim to take control of provincial capital The Taliban launched an unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on Kandahar, with commanders claiming they aimed to “take control of the city”. The assault by gunmen and suicide bombers on at least five targets in the southern city began at midday and, according to insurgents who talked to the Observer by phone during the fighting, involved hundreds of attackers. The sustained attack on government buildings wounded at least 24 people and created chaos in the capital of a province Nato has spent the past year trying to secure. The dream of turning the city into a bulwark of security was badly tarnished, with people fleeing to their homes, shuttering shops and leaving the streets empty save for the sound of gunfire and explosions. Haji Pacha, an influential elder from the Alokozai tribe, said Kandahar was “completely empty. There is fighting still going on in at least three districts of the city and all the shops are closed, the people are completely terrified,” he said by telephone. The fighting began with an explosion outside the provincial governor’s compound, followed by gunfire from the upper levels of a five-storey shopping centre. One Taliban commander, who would not give his name but who was directing an attack on the governor’s compound, said that some civil servants, who have been the subject of a ruthless assassination campaign by insurgents, were using civilians as human shields. “They are forcing themselves into cars with civilians to try and escape because they know we don’t target civilians,” he said. The commander, who claimed that he had 40 men attacking the compound, said the plan to attack multiple targets was designed to overwhelm security forces. “We know that if we attack one place all the security people will come and surround us; this way they can’t stop us,” he said. He also claimed that Taliban fighters, many of whom had escaped from the city’s main jail last month, had managed to block major roads leading to the city. The Taliban did not link the ambitious attack to the killing of Osama bin Laden, saying the assault had been planned for weeks. An announcement on the movement’s website said the attack was part of “Operation Badar”, the name the Taliban have given to their spring offensive, and was intended to turn Kandahar city into a “scene of bloody fighting”. It said they had targeted the offices of the governor, the national security directorate, police headquarters and “a local spy agency” – an apparent reference to a US special forces base. In a separate statement, the Taliban commented at length about the death of Bin Laden for the first time. It said that the “martyrdom of Sheikh Osama … will blow a new spirit into the jihad against the occupiers”. Meanwhile, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, said the assault on the city was “not serious at all”, and that the situation was under control. “Everyone knows that these types of attacks, with suicide bombers and a few people hiding and shooting, are difficult to stop and can happen anywhere,” he said, adding that the attack had done nothing to undermine the security gains in the city and province in recent months. “The Taliban are desperate. They cannot do anything else but try to create news,” he said. Afghanistan Taliban Jon Boone guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jon Huntsman is officially back from China and today used his first public appearance to address Republican tongues wagging about the fact that the most recent boss on his resume is one Barack Obama. “Serve [America], if asked,” Huntsman told the University of South Carolina’s Class of 2011. “I was,…
Continue reading …Clips from the al-Qaida leader’s ‘home videos’ show him obsessively watching himself on TV news programmes Home videos of Osama bin Laden seized from the Pakistani compound where he was killed have been released by the Pentagon last night. One tape shows him preparing a video message addressed to the United States while in another Bin Laden, looking like an elderly grandfather with a cap on his head and blanket around his shoulders, holds a TV remote control in his hide-out and watches himself on television. The videos offer the world a tiny glimpse of Bin Laden’s life on the run. The most extraordinary video shows the elderly terrorist in a very different way to normal glimpses of al-Qaida’s dead leader. Gone is the gun-toting rebel or the scholarly sheikh dictating messages to
Continue reading …A mundane phone call led to the downfall of the world’s most elusive terrorist: “I’m back with the people I was with before,” Osama bin Laden’s courier told a friend as US ears perked up. Bob Woodward fleshes out the takedown in today’s Washington Post; among the details: When US…
Continue reading …To be the best at what you do, 12-hour work days are key, right? Not even close, according to a new study that observed the practice habits of a group of violin students to determine what the “excellent” players were doing differently than the merely “good” ones. After charting their…
Continue reading …In his relentless pursuit of Father of the Year honors, Charlie Sheen is giving his 2-year-old twins vocabulary lessons. “I am teaching them words, because they’re speaking now,” Sheen tells TMZ. But not just any old words: “I’m teaching them the word ‘rehab’ so they always know where their mom…
Continue reading …
The Labour leader says disaffected Lib Dems should stand with him to oppose Tory policies Ed Miliband today opens the door to future co-operation with the Liberal Democrats as he calls on disaffected ministers in Nick Clegg’s party to quit the cabinet and join Labour in a fight against rightwing Tory policies. The Labour leader, whose party now faces an uphill struggle to secure a Commons majority following the collapse of its vote in Scotland, says he will “work with any Liberal Democrats” against the Conservatives and their plans on the NHS, education and the economy. Following the Lib Dems’ disastrous showing in Thursday’s council elections and the AV referendum – and amid increasing Lib Dem anger with David Cameron over campaign tactics – Miliband says it is “late, but not too late” for Clegg’s ministers to jump ship. “Do they want Tory policies or progressive ones?” he asked. “If they are in favour of new politics they should start by keeping their promises and reflecting the will of those who put them into parliament. If they are not in favour of these Tory policies they should stand up for what they believe or leave the cabinet. They can come and work with us. My door is always open.” While Miliband insists that his objective is still a majority Labour government and his immediate focus is on working with the Lib Dems against Tory policies, his overtures suggest that the party is prepared to plan for the possibility of a Lab-Lib deal after the next election. Sympathising with the Lib Dems over how the Tory-backed no campaign behaved during the referendum campaign Miliband said: “The campaign on AV was a showcase for old politics at its very worst. Lib Dems have to work out which side they are on. Do they want to be on the Conservative side, backing the Conservative-led government, or on the progressive side? It really is time for them to make up their minds.” Sources close to Clegg stressed that the Lib Dems’ central objective was now to stop the Tories winning an outright majority at the next election – and for them to have an option to team up with Labour. As the Lib Dems tried to come to terms with losing nine councils and 695 council seats, as well as burying hope of electoral reform for a generation, there were bitter recriminations over the no campaign’s targeting of Clegg. Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable, who is known to feel closer to Labour than the Tories, said he would continue to support the coalition, but added: “Some of us never had many illusions about the Conservatives, but they have emerged as ruthless, calculating and thoroughly tribal.” Former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown went further: “We are bloody but unbowed. We have been here before and have always confounded the prophets of doom. But what makes this particularly hard to bear is the widespread, and in my view justified, feeling in the party that the Tories were either allowed to – or encouraged to – join a national vilification of our party leader and seem to have benefited from that.” Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott said it was time chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander rethought the political consequences of his role as number two to chancellor George Osborne. “He doesn’t need to be a royal bodyguard, throwing himself in front of every bullet heading for Osborne.” On Monday Labour will seek to expose Lib Dem discomfort within the coalition by calling on its MPs to support an opposition motion opposing the government’s NHS reforms, which are strongly opposed by Lib Dem activists. Then on Wednesday it will ask the Lib Dems to support a series of Labour amendments to Michael Gove’s education bill, including one insisting that all teachers in schools be fully qualified. Neal Lawson, chair of the centre-left thinktank Compass, said it was right for Miliband to be thinking of working with the Lib Dems. “The worry is that if Labour is flatlining when the Tories are cutting services, its support will collapse when they cut taxes before the next election. Ed Miliband knows he can’t win a two versus one election against the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. And the best he can hope for right now is a progressive coalition government with a Liberal Democrat party that has dumped Nick Clegg. He needs to prepare the ground for such a campaign and coalition now.” Writing in today’s Observer , Lib Dem president Tim Farron, seen by some as a potential successor to Clegg, calls on his party to fight its corner more assertively while keeping faith in the coalition. Yesterday the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Tavish Scott, resigned. He said: “Thursday’s Scottish general election result was disastrous and I must and do take responsibility.”Last night a senior source in the campaign for the alternative vote admitted they knew “very early on” that there was no chance of winning the referendum and that Clegg had become part of the problem: “Every time Clegg spoke about AV our polling numbers went into free-fall. We knew from very early on, before the new year, that we couldn’t win, our message wasn’t getting through and the Liberal Democrats in the whole were worse than useless. Clegg was toxic and everything [Chris] Huhne did in criticising the Tories just put the attention on the political spat – made it a Clegg versus Cameron affair. Utterly unwinnable. “We even brought in an advertising man to save us. He came up with the idea of constructing a giant pin-striped bottom to take around the country for people to throw things at as a way of illustrating that AV makes MPs work harder. It was desperate stuff. Ed Miliband AV referendum Nick Clegg Labour Liberal Democrats Conservatives Paddy Ashdown Vince Cable Toby Helm Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Gabrielle Giffords is getting some extra recovery time before her husband’s final space flight: NASA yesterday announced that the shuttle Endeavour would launch no sooner than May 16, reports Space.com. NASA managers made the call after meeting to take stock of repairs to a broken power unit, which had…
Continue reading …